We are excited to announce that The Tech Challenge is GROWING! We have 550 teams registered for the 2013 Tech Challenge (our 26th year!) and expect the number of participating students to double last year’s to approximately 2,800. The overwhelming interest and response from students, teachers, and advisers has led to the decision to change the program to culminate in two Tech Challenge Event Days – Saturday, April 20th for grades 5-6 and 9-12 and Sunday, April 21st for grades 7-8.
Visit The Tech Challenge website at: http://thetechchallenge.thetech.org/
And view the video from 2012 at: http://thetechchallenge.thetech.org/challenge
Participants are surveyed each year to track their learning and attitude toward science. Our 2012 survey revealed that 85% or more participants felt that The Tech Challenge helped them:
• Learn new things about science and engineering (86%)
• Work better with others (88%)
• See how they can solve real-world problems with science (85%)
• See that they can turn their ideas into a reality (88%)
• Compare different solutions and choose the best one (91%)
• Listen to and use other people's ideas (89%)
• Come up with creative solutions to problems (91%)
• Respond better to setbacks (85%)
• Have fun with science (89%)
The Tech Challenge reinforces scientific concepts students are learning in school and helps develop 21st Century skills of creativity, problem solving, design, teamwork, leadership, risk taking, perseverance, and learning from failure. This try-fail-learn-try-again approach to innovation is quintessential Silicon Valley.
We thank all of our donors for their support of this important program – you have helped make it possible for us to expand the program to meet its increasing demand from our young innovators! Please see the testimonials below:
From Jordon Toy, UC-Berkeley student: “The Tech Challenge made me think. It made me do some research, tinker, and experiment to try to overcome The Challenge. … The Tech Challenge encouraged me to pursue an engineering career. I am currently majoring in civil engineering at UC Berkeley, and I do attribute The Tech Challenge as an influence in my decision to do so.”
From Daniel Pare, 22: “Without The Tech and The Tech Challenge, it is unlikely I would be the engineer that I am today.”
From Francesca LeBaron, 23: “The Tech deserves credit for exposing women to science and technology so early in our lives. I know that it has certainly made a difference in mine.”
Links:
The Tech Challenge 2013: Asteroids Rock
Event date: Saturday, April 20, 2013 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.
A signature program of The Tech Museum of Innovation, the Tech Challenge is an annual design challenge for grades 5-12 that introduces and reinforces the engineering design process with a hands-on project geared to solve a real-world problem. The challenge provides students with months of team leaning in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math). The program culminates in The Tech Challenge Event Day. Team efforts are celebrated in an awards ceremony, recognizing everything from Best Overall Solution to Most Spectacular Failure.
The Tech Museum provide a great deal of support for students leading up to Event Day. We provide info Clinics, Team Workshops, Advisers Trainings, and Test Trials to help create positive experiences for advisers, parents, and team members.
Challenge Scenario for The Tech Challenge 2013: Earth has depleted its mineral supplies; help find new deposits on asteroids. Safely deploy scientific instruments from a landed spacecraft to three specific areas on the asteroid with various terrains - from soft soil to jagged rock.
Last year, The Tech Challenge 2012 had more participants than ever:
Links:
The goal of Tech Challenge is to engage young people in hands-on STEM learning. More particularly, we seek to inspire groups that are traditionally underrepresented in science and technology, including girls and low-income area youth. In 2012, we made a concerted effort to attract more students from both demographics.
The Tech Challenge is one of the most engaging programs offered at The Tech Museum. It is a team competition for students in grades 5 - 12 that builds on design challenge methodology. The program offers young people the opportunity to create a solution to a current, real-life technological problem. It is an inquiry-based, mulch-disciplinary approach to learning -- a powerful teaching method that draws on the engineering design process and requires the application of science and mathematics. The Tech Challenge stresses important concepts such as innovative thinking, brainstorming, cooperation, team building, as well as trial and error through testing, retesting and prototyping. Teams work on “the challenge” for up to 7 months. Each challenge has numerous constraints and multiple solutions. Participants must embrace a creative, entrepreneurial approach to navigate the design process.
The Tech Challenge 2012 “Shake, Rattle, and Rescue” was held on April 21 at The Tech Museum. The challenge called on participants to design and build a solution device to reach and rescue stranded people after an earthquake severely damages a suspension bridge.
The Tech Challenge (TTC12) Program Results:
• 5,000+ visitors to the all-day event.
• 1,483 students in grades 5-12 participated (29.3% increase from TTC11)
• # of Title I (low-income) teams: 129 (7.5% increase from TTC11).
• 712 girls participated (32.6% increase from TTC11).
• Expanded community outreach.
• Hosted 20,000+ visitors to the museum’s Suspension Bridge display (i.e., The Tech Challenge demonstration rig), with over 9,000 guests participating in hands-on modeling and investigation of marine science.
X% of participants said this year's Tech Challenge helped them to:
86% Learn new things about science and engineering
88% Work better with others
79% Feel more comfortable with science
81% Want to do more science activities
85% See how you can solve real-world problems with science
91% Compare different solutions and choose the best one
88% See that you can turn your ideas into reality
89% Listen to and use other people's ideas
91% Come up with more creative solutions to problems
79% See how science connects to your own life
73% See yourself as a scientifically-minded person
81% Express your ideas more clearly
85% Respond better to setbacks
89% Have fun with science
Write-in survey responses; what participants shared they learned through their experience with The Tech Challenge 2012:
I learned to have a long-term goal and process so that each meeting can be effective. Not everything always works, so you have to leave and plan ahead of time for the failures and revisions.
-6th grader from Harker Middle School
I learned that we can really do things that can happen in the real world. There are also so many different ways to solve a real-life problem. Lastly, you can both have a lot of fun and have lots of struggles but in the end you succeed.
-7th grader from Lawson Middle School
I learned that what we can imagine and a little hard work, it can be a reality.
-7th grader from Rancho middle school
We created a video of The Tech Challenge, which features interviews with students during the day of the 2012 competition and will be an integral component of our marketing efforts for the 2013 Tech Challenge to inspire students to participate. The video is viewable on The Tech Challenge web site at: http://youtu.be/dnASF-7Vico
Links:
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