Technical Innovation Plan Competition
Start Date: Start anytime of the year after your Global Team is formed.
End Date: Submit a TIP solution by April 30 or October 30.
Awards:Your final written report will be judged and scored using a rubric which you will be provided. The winners will be announced June 1 (for April 30thsubmissions) or December 1 (for October 30th submissions). Top awards include sponsorships for further study, travel and money for college.
Take your team into new territories of thought, design, creativity and imagination when you enter the TIP Challenge. The challenge is to create an innovative idea, work as a team to understand the underlying science, technology, engineering and mathematical challenges involved with the idea, and document your journey so that others can understand your concept. Your idea can sythesize great ideas from other people and add new value to concepts that are less powerful before you bring them together. Or, you can envision a feasible new idea where the science is still too young to have fully developed into an innovation. Your imagination and engineering insight is the only limit.
Student Activities
The basic idea for making progress on the TIP is for your team to tackle some part of the plan outlined on the web site, submit work products to your team space and seek feedback from each other and your mentors, parents, and scientists. Even the staff and mentors of the Global Challenge can give you helpful feedback! Use external feedback plus your own self-assessment of your products (using the TIP Rubric) to make steady improvements in your work until submitting the final TIP. If you consistently score high in your own eyes and in the eyes of outside observers, then you are sure to be among the top performing teams in your chosen competition!
Here's some of what you can expect to do if you select to work on the Technical Innovation Plan:
- Build a team of four students from at least 2 countries and get to know your teammates, establish team working processes and be in regular communication with your team
- Select a problem related to climate change and/or energy that you all feel passionate about
- Research technical aspects of the problem, consult with advisors, explore technical feasibility to develop a technical solution to your problem
- Document and create a technical innovation plan to reflect your thinking of the problem and solution
- Work through the set of challenges that we have provided which will guide you through writing the entire innovation plan
- Submit your final plan in your team space for external evaluation
- Communicate regularly with your mentor to seek clarity, ask questions, resolve team issues, and receive feedback on your work
- Challenge yourself, ask lots of questions and have fun!
