SCIENCE, ENGINEERING and MATH COMPETITIONS
Do you think you have what it takes to construct, design, invent? Don’t wait until college to get hands-on experience. Show your stuff now through competitions offered nationally and internationally.
FIRST LEGO League (FLL)
The FIRST Lego League (FLL) is an international program for children created in a partnership between FIRST and the LEGO Company. Each September, FLL announces the annual Challenge, which engages the teams in hands-on robotics design and authentic scientific research. After eight intense weeks, the FIRST Lego League season culminates at high-energy, sports-like tournaments. In the past, more than 43,000 children from 14 countries participated in the FLL program. www.usfirst.org/community/fll/
FIRST High School Robotics Competition
The FIRST Robotics Competition is an exciting, multinational competition that teams professionals and young people to solve an engineering design problem in an intense and competitive way. The program is a life-changing, career-molding experience and a lot of fun. The competition has reached close to 25,000 high-school-aged young people on close to 1,000 teams in 30 competitions. www.usfirst.org
National Science Bowl
The National Science Bowl® is a highly visible educational event and academic competition among teams of high school students who attend science seminars and compete in a verbal forum to solve technical problems and answer questions in all branches of science and math. The regional and national events encourage student involvement in math and science activities, improve awareness of career options in science and technology, and provide an avenue of enrichment and reward for academic science achievement. www.scied.science.doe.gov/nsb
MATHCOUNTS
MATHCOUNTS is a national math coaching and competition program that promotes middle school mathematics achievement through grass roots involvement in every U.S. state and territory. MATHCOUNTS promotes student interest in mathematics by making math achievement as challenging, exciting and prestigious as a school sport. At the beginning of each school year, the MATHCOUNTS foundation provides a complimentary copy of its School Handbook to middle schools across the country. Teachers and volunteers use these problems and activities to coach student “Mathletes” (6th, 7th and 8th graders) as part of in-class instruction or as an extracurricular activity. www.mathcounts.org
Odyssey of the Mind
Odyssey of the Mind is world-wide educational program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students from kindergarten to college. Team members apply their creativity to solve problems. www.odysseyofthemind.com
Future City Competition
The National Engineers Week Future City Competition asks middle school students from around the nation to create – first on computer and then in large, three-dimensional models – their visions of the city of tomorrow. The competition provides a fun and exciting program for seventh and eighth grade students which combines “hands-on” application and a stimulating challenge to present their vision of a city of the future. www.futurecity.org
InvenTeams
Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams is a non-competitive initiative that awards grants up to $10,000 each to teams of high school students, teachers, and mentors to identify a problem and invent a solution for it. Designed to excite, empower, and encourage students through hands-on problem solving, InvenTeams aims to inspire a new generation of inventors. http://web.mit.edu/inventeams/
Team America Rocketry Challenge
Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) and the National Association of Rocketry (NAR), in partnership with NASA, the Department of Defense, and the 38 AIA member companies, are proud to sponsor the 2007 Team America Rocketry Challenge, a national model rocket competition for U.S. middle school and high school students. A grand prize pool of more than $60,000 in cash and savings bonds will be shared by the winning teams. www.nar.org/TAchallenge.html
Winston Science
Winston Science is a 20-day series of events designed to help motivate students in the sciences. Hosted by the Dallas Mavericks and The Winston School, students have the opportunity to take part in 66 events, hear outstanding presentations, and work with scientists from across the country. www.winstonscience.org/wsci/
National Science Decathlon
National Science Decathlon is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization of teachers, parents and community volunteers dedicated to promoting science education by organizing competitive, hands-on, science-based tournaments throughout the United States. Each Science Decathlon tournament is made up of 10 Team Events and up to four Pilot Events which sport names like Bridge Breaking, Water Rocketry and Ick! Division A events are for 9th -12th grade high school students. Division B events are for 6th – 9th grade junior high, middle school and intermediate elementary students. www.sciencedecatholon.com
Toychallenge
TOYchallenge is a national toy design challenge for 5th-8th graders and a chance for teams of imaginative kids to create a new toy or game. Toys are a great way to learn about science, engineering, and the design process. That’s why astronaut Sally Ride brought Hasbro, Sigma Xi, Southwest Airlines, and Sally Ride Science! together to launch this challenge! www.sallyridescience.com/toychallenge
Internet Science and Technology Fair (ISTF)
From October through February of each year, student teams apply technology to real-world problems when they participate in the ISTF. As a team, students use ISTF Content Guidelines that are based on national science content standards developed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). They work with a practicing scientist or engineer who acts as the team’s on-line technical advisor. Teams publish their final research reports in a web page format that is then judged against other teams from the United States and other participating countries. Top teams receive certificates of award from the National Medal of Technology Program at the U.S. Department of Commerce. http://istf.ucf.edu
TechXplore
TechXplore is an innovative mentoring program and online competition dedicated to helping middle and high school students build the science and technology skills needed for future workplace success. This is a FREE competition and gives students the opportunity to win US Savings Bonds! www.techxplore.org
USA Mathematical Talent Search (USAMTS)
The USAMTS is a free mathematics competition open to any U.S. middle or high school student. As opposed to most competitions, USAMTS allows students a full month to work out their solutions. The goal is to help students develop problem-solving skills. Prizes are given. www.usamts.org
Boston University Design Competition
The Boston University Design Competition involves teams of two students, both of whom must be high school freshmen, sophomores, or juniors at the time of the competition. Each team will design and build a vehicle that will, under its own power, climb a sloped ramp, knock over a flag at the top of the ramp, and sustain its position against an opposing vehicle. www.bu.edu/eng/design/
Science Olympiad
The Science Olympiad is an international nonprofit organization devoted to improving the quality of science education, increasing student interest in science and providing recognition for outstanding achievement in science education by both students and teachers. These goals are accomplished through classroom activities, research, training workshops and the encouragement of intramural, district, regional, state and national tournaments. The Science Olympiad tournaments are rigorous academic interscholastic competitions that consist of a series of individual and team events, which students prepare for during the year. These challenging and motivational events are well balanced between the various science disciplines of biology, earth science, chemistry, physics, computers and technology. http://soinc.org
Destination ImagiNation
Destination ImagiNation is an international creative problem-solving competition program for kids in elementary, middle and high school divisions. Schools representing U.S. States and Canadian Provinces compete with teams from foreign countries each year in late May. The program includes a college division. Each year some of the problems require extensive engineering solutions. Others require minimal engineering activities. The challenge (problem) summaries for this year can be found online. www.idodi.org
Botball Educational Robotics Program
Botball is an outreach program that uses robotics technology to engage students in learning the practical applications of science, technology, engineering, and math. Any middle or high school-aged student can get involved in Botball. The organization of the team is up to the team leader. All kinds of groups can participate in this technology based educational program as long as there is an adult contact. www.botball.org
BEST Robotics Inc.
BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science, and Technology) is a non-profit, volunteer organization whose mission is to inspire students to pursue careers in engineering, science, and technology through participation in a sports-like, science- and engineering-based robotics competition. BEST is organized as hub sites. At the present time there are 32 hub sites in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, New Mexico, Kansas, Missouri, Alabama, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, and Connecticut. Winning teams from the hub competitions advance to the closest Regional Competition hosted in Texas, Alabama, or Arkansas. www.bestinc.org
National Engineering Design Challenge
JETS – Junior Engineering Technical Society National Engineering Design Challenge is a team competition in which students use their creativity and problem solving … math … science … research … writing … presentation and drafting/design skills to create a real-life solution to help individuals with disabilities succeed in the workplace and achieve independence in their lives. www.jets.org/programs/nedc
ExploraVision
A competition administered by the National Science Teachers Association that encourages K-12 students to create technologies-including energy technologies- of the future. www.exploravision.org
The International RoboCup Competition
The International RoboCup Competition entails the construction of fully autonomous, fast moving robots, which work together as a team to compete against similar teams of robots in a robotic soccer match. The RoboCup is an excellent test bed for developing new tools and techniques for controlling autonomous systems in uncertain and dynamic environments; applications include space exploration, disaster relief, and national defense. From an educational perspective, it is also a great means for exposing students to the systems engineering approach for designing, building, managing, and maintaining complex systems. www.robocup.org
National Robotics Challenge
The National Robotics Challenge is open to students in middle schools, high schools, vocational schools, community colleges and universities from the United States. The National Robotics Challenge consists of nine different robotics contests with difficulty levels that are sure to challenge any student that wants to participate. www.nationalroboticschallenge.org
Enjoy the competitions. Your future starts now. Show them what you can do!