2020-21 CHALLENGE PREVIEWS

TECHNICAL CHALLENGE

The Technical Challenge prompts students to complete tasks by using engineering, research, strategic planning, and related skills.

• Create and present a video presentation in the style of a video game.
• Include an adventurer who goes on a quest to win an ultimate prize.
• Portray a special ability used by the adventurer.
• Integrate 3 quest items and combine them to create a tool.
• Create and present two Team Choice Elements that show off the team’s interests, skills, areas of strength, and talents.

SCIENTIFIC CHALLENGE

Our Scientific Challenge blends the curiosity of scientific research with the creative expression of performance art.

• Produce a video presentation that tells a story about a Scientific Law that is bent and/or broken.
• Show how the Scientific Law is bent and/or broken.
• Include an expert and a witness in the story.
• Use documentary techniques to tell the story in the style of a documentary film.
• Create and present two Team Choice Elements that show off the team’s interests, skills, areas of strength, and talents.

FINE ARTS

Our Fine Arts Challenge helps students develop acting and creative skills through artistic media, theater arts, scriptwriting, and prop design.

• Research music videos and create a music video of your own.
• Use music and lyrics to retell all or part of a piece of literature.
• Design and build a costume.
• Research production techniques to enhance the music video.
• Create and present two Team Choice Elements that show off the team’s interests, skills, areas of strength, and talents.

SERVICE LEARNING

Our Service Learning Challenge is designed to engage students in public service that addresses real-life community issues.

• Identify, design, carry out, and evaluate a project that addresses a need in a real community.
• Create a video presentation that includes a podcast and a commercial.
• Include a cliffhanger and a quirky character.
• Integrate information about the project into the video presentation.
• Create and present two Team Choice Elements that show off your team’s interests, skills, areas of strength, and talents.

EARLY LEARNING / RISING STARS®

Our Rising Stars for Early Learners Challenge offers simple experiences with the creative process, and it gives young kids (preschool through 2nd grade) a place to work together and make new friends.

• Create and present a story about a critter who goes on a big adventure.
• Write and illustrate a picture book.
• Integrate a special effect into the picture book.
• Create a song that helps tell the story.
• Share the picture book and the song in a team-created video.

ENGINEERING CHALLENGE

Our Engineering Challenge asks students to explore and apply engineering skills and tools to design and build solutions to specific applications.

• Research visual art styles and architecture styles.
• Design and create a single three-dimensional physical model of a building.
• Create a video presentation that tells a story about how opposites can be complementary.
• Integrate your model of a building and a planning artifact into the video presentation.
• Present part of the video presentation using a split screen to enhance the story.
• Create and present two Team Choice Elements that show off your team’s interests, skills, areas of strength, and talents.

IMPROVISATIONAL

Our Improvisational Challenge is all about research, spontaneity, and storytelling. Teams receive topics and quickly produce skits.

• Research detectives and forensic techniques.
• Create an improvisational video presentation that tells a story about a detective and a sidekick teaming up to solve a mystery.
• Integrate a true clue and a red herring into the mystery.
• Include the use of a forensic technique to help solve the mystery.

INSTANT CHALLENGE

All teams will have the opportunity to solve an Instant Challenge. These challenges require teams to engage in quick, creative and critical thinking.