Provide hands-on learning to underserved students

THE TECH CHALLENGE 2015 – “SEISMIC ENGINEERING IN ACTION!”

A signature program of The Tech Museum of Innovation, The Tech Challenge is an annual team design challenge for students in grades 4-12 that introduces and reinforces the science and engineering design process with a hands-on project geared to solving a real-world problem. Designed to inspire the next generation of Silicon Valley innovators, The Tech Challenge provides months of team learning in science, engineering, and math, culminating in the Event Days scheduled for April 25-26, 2015. Team efforts are celebrated in an awards ceremony, recognizing everything from Best Overall Solution to Sportsmanship.

The Tech Challenge aligns with the Next Generation Science Standards and Common Core. It reinforces 21^st century skills of creativity, problem solving, design, teamwork, leadership, presentation, risk-taking, perseverance, and learning from failure. This program makes a great experience for classrooms, home schools, after-school programs, extra-credit projects, clubs, or friends!

Open to students in grades 4-12.

• 3 grade levels: Elementary: 4-6; Middle School: 7-8; High School: 9-12.
• Participants collaborate in teams of 2 to 6 people.
• Registration fees are only $50 for the entire team.
• Fees waived for Title I schools/after-school programs.
• Solutions can be created with common, low-cost materials.
• There are no pre-qualifying conditions to enter.
• Special needs students are encouraged.

The 2015 Tech Challenge scenario involves designing a structure to withstand an earthquake, especially appropriate learning for California youngsters. Our design committee is fine-tuning the rig that students will test their devices on and determining the parameters of the challenge. Details will be finalized by this fall and registration will open. We are all looking forward to a creative fall and spring as young innovators from throughout the Bay Area spend months designing (and often re-designing!) their devices.

We have attached a few pictures of our design committee in action as they created initial rig designs. Stay tuned for further updates!

The Tech Museum of Innovation recently had a very exciting weekend. The Tech Challenge, our signature design-challenge program that engages young people in solving a real-world problem, culminated with two action-packed demonstration days at The Tech.

Every year, The Tech develops a scenario that challenges 5^th – 12^th graders to design a device to solve a problem. The Tech Challenge aligns with the Next Generation Science Standards and Common Core. It reinforces 21^st century skills of creativity, problem solving, design, teamwork, leadership, presentation, risk-taking, perseverance, and learning from failure. This program makes a great experience for classrooms, home schools, after-school programs, extra-credit projects, clubs, or friends!

Students start forming their teams and designing their devices in the fall and continue for months, right up until The Tech Challenge weekend in April when hundreds of teams come to The Tech to test their work in front of judges and their peers. Team efforts are celebrated in an awards ceremony, recognizing everything from Best Overall Solution to Most Spectacular Failure.

The Tech Challenge is designed to be accessible to all young people who desire to participate. This happens because registration fees are only $50 for the entire team, fees are waived for Title I schools/after-school programs (your donations make this possible!), and solutions can be created with common, low-cost materials.

The 2014 Scenario was this:

In California we spend 19% of our total energy consumption moving and processing water. This scarce resource travels long distances to get to your tap and even climbs almost 2,000 feet over the Tehachapi Mountains to get to Los Angeles using enough energy each year to power the entire city for about two months. Imagine if you were able to do this with a clean renewable energy source.

The Challenge: harness the wind to move water to the people who need it! Teams needed to move water from a pool into a receiving vessel using the power of wind.

We thank all of our individual supporters who have come through GlobalGiving and we thank all of our corporate and foundation sponsors, without whom this program would not be possible. For a list of sponsors, please follow this link: http://thetechchallenge.thetech.org/about-us/sponsors-partners.

We have attached some pictures from the 2014 Tech Challenge.