By Cathy Jensen | Development Associate
The 26th Tech Challenge brought young science, math, and engineering innovators together for a two-day competition at The Tech Museum of Innovation in April. Every year, The Tech develops a scenario that challenges 5th – 12th graders to design a device to solve a problem. The goal of the program is to inspire innovation, instruct young people how learn how to learn from failure and try another method when they face failure, teach how to keep an engineering journal, prepare participants to do a brief presentation, and to learn about teamwork.
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
The 2013 scenario was this:
An unmanned spacecraft has been launched from Earth and has successfully landed on an asteroid. The craft has three packages of instruments that need to be deployed to three different locations on the asteroid. These instruments will evaluate the chemical composition of the asteroid and determine if there are enough valuable materials to justify future mining operations on the asteroid. The instruments are sensitive and need to be protected from significant impacts.
Specifically, the challenge for The Tech Challenge 2013 teams was to design a device to safely deploy these scientific instruments (eggs) from the landed spacecraft to three specific areas on the asteroid. The challenge also included designing proper packaging to protect them from being damaged (egg breakage). Success was achieved when teams landed one undamaged instrument package on each of the three landing areas and to do this in three minutes or less. Awards were given in the following categories:
best devices, costume, safety, spirit, sportsmanship, and most spectacular failure.
Some quotes from participants this year:
“I learned a lot about problem solving and teamwork. It was very interesting to watch our project succeed and fail.” 8th grader from South Valley Middle School
“The Tech Challenge opened my mind to the different opportunities and how fun science can be. This also helped me to learn how to more easily collaborate with other members.” 8th grader from Rancho Milpitas Middle School
“I learned about science and engineering and how we solve problems.” 7th grader at Third Street Community Center
View videos and pictures from The Tech Challenge
http://thetechchallenge.thetech.org/media-room/photos-and-videos
We look forward to sharing news about our 27th Tech Challenge that will take place in the Spring of 2014 – Windfest – young people will be challenged to design a device to create power from wind!
Links:
By Cathy Jensen | Development Associate
By Linda Antonopoulos | Director of Corporate Relations
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