 PROGRAMS
A successful approach to building skills and confidence outside of the everyday classroom experience is to form student-teacher teams to work towards a concrete goal or challenge. Innovate Our World takes typical competitions one step beyond the usual through our cutting edge Challenges. Where else can you design a payload for a real planned mission to the Moon? How about creating original content for your own mobile application using augmented reality technology? IOW Challenges bring together math and science whizzes with artists, designers, and writers to create something beyond a single group’s ability – while teaching students how to work together as a project team and think both systematically and innovatively. Any high school team with an educator leader can apply. See the Challenge descriptions below for more information.
Challenge registration begins Fall 2013
Moon Mission Challenge
Sponsored by: Astrobotic Technology, Inc.
 Student teams will design a payload that could fly on an Astrobotic mission to the Moon's surface. Astrobotic engineers have identified three possible mission scenarios:
• Apollo Rediscovery Mission
• Lunar Polar Mission
• Lava Tube Exploration Mission
Before working together to design a payload, students will learn about the Moon's characteristics and environment by studying the lunar surface and using scientific information from NASA experts and other sources, understand how space technology has been used to study the Moon from orbit and land humans and spacecraft on its surface, and learn about the Moon from history, economics, politics, and social sciences, all using our Common Curriculum lesson plans and resources. Educators will receive free training to lead their teams.
Teams will proceed through mission planning and design in order to present their concept to project sponsors in a presentation at our June 2014 conference. Students will learn lunar science, spacecraft technology, mission planning, and payload design as an integrated team and work directly with experts from Astrobotic, Penn State Lunar Lions, and other aerospace organizations. Teams will be expected to use STEM disciplines, project management, systems engineering, communications, and marketing skills in an integrated manner to evaluate, prepare, and present their mission publicly to a panel of judges from NASA, industry, colleges, and other professionals. Winning teams will receive cash prizes and an opportunity to work with IOW experts if they decide to enter the Conrad Foundation Spirit of Innovation Awards competition (www.conradawards.org).
More details about the Challenge can be found in the following documents:
Why Here? App Design Challenge
Sponsored by Mindgrub Technologies
 Devices such as the iPAD are becoming more popular in the classroom and are moving learners from static content and delivery model to a rich, interactive experience. Inspired by recent apps such as NYPL Biblion, Innovate Our World wants to harness student creativity by introducing a competition for student teams to create their own iPAD or Android apps. Creating an app takes research, content area knowledge, technical skills, and teamwork. This competition is designed to bring students with diverse backgrounds and skills together to create an app that can be used in an interactive learning environment. Students will create location-based app content and make their case to be the one school whose content gets turned into an actual augmented reality app!
Challenge details will be posted after September 2013. Teams will be formed starting this fall and finalist teams will have their content evaluated by a judging panel at the 2014 I3 Conference to see which team's content gets turned into an actual mobile app. The winning team will also get a cash prize and have their app made available for downloading courtesy of IOW. |
