About the Awards
Are you an innovator? Do you have an idea which could make life easier, simpler or better? It could take you to Buckingham Palace to have tea with our patron HRH Duke of York , win prizes for all your team and £1,000 for your school.
We want you to use your imagination, to think creatively. This is a chance to ask “What if?” or even build a fun example of what this might look like.
The TeenTech Awards are for UK students from 11-16 (Years 7 to 11) working in teams of up to three to look at problems large and small to see if they can find a better way of doing things.
Projects should be uploaded by March 22nd to the Innovation Log submission page here so finalists can be chosen. Do not worry if your projects are incomplete – if you are chosen as a finalist you will have until June 24th to complete your work for display at The Royal Society in London.
Categories
There are ten categories to choose from:
- Sport
- Transport Sponsored by Airbus
- Healthcare Sponsored by Shire Pharmaceuticals
- Education Sponsored by Google
- Wearable Technology Sponsored by CPC
- Environment and Sustainability Sponsored by Cummins Power
- Entertainment Sponsored by JVC
- Communication Sponsored by HP
- Construction -sponsored by Atkins
- Future of Food - sponsored by Heinz and Institute of Food Science and Technology
- Journalism
Journalism – Use any media to report on a science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) story. It could be a world issue, local issue, business issue or indeed the talents of your teacher or group
Choosing your idea
Working in team of three you need to decide on an award category, brainstorm ideas, clearly identify an opportunity or a problem, suggest a solution and research the market.
And you don’t have to work on your own! You can contact companies, universities, colleges and even join up with a group of students on the other side of the world to work with you on your project.
You could use Global Entrepreneurship Week (12-18 November 2012, http://www.gew.org.uk/ ) to brainstorm your ideas and this would also be a good opportunity to find an international partner school.
You could set up an Ideas Wall or run a ‘Dragons Den’ activity to find those great ideas.Don’t forget to send us pictures or videos of those early brainstorming sessions!
- You could set up an Ideas Wall – just like we did at Coventry
Working with others
TeenTech are very happy for you to collaborate with others. Ask your teacher or youth leader to contact any of the following for support.
- Link up with STEM companies to help develop ideas
- Partner with another school outside the UK to get an international perspective and develop communication and team working skills. We can help you find partners if you do not have them.
- Use local universities and further education colleges’ Widening Participation and Outreach services for support.
- If your local Education Business partnership is supporting the Awards, they may be able to help co-ordinate these approaches.
Who you approach will depend on your idea, you just need to let us know what they did and how it changed your thinking.
Developing your project
How you develop the project is entirely up to you. You could build a model, design posters or advertisements to explain your idea, conduct a survey to show why it’s needed or research existing solutions. Further information can be found on the TeenTech website under Rules and Judging Criteria
How to enter
Stage 1
Please register your team teams online on the TeenTech website entry form by December 14th 2012. You don’t need to have started work on your project – we just need to know the category you want to enter. Please note no teams or ideas can be registered after this date – see General Rules
Stage 2
You then have four months to continue to develop your idea. Using local resources (e.g. a STEM ambassador, a company, a university) your team can develop and refine your innovation, expand the research and practice your presentation skills.
What we ask is that you keep a record of drawings, ideas and any other evidence you create, it doesn’t matter how messy they are. This is your ‘TeenTech Innovation Log’ and it will support your project if you are chosen as one of the finalists invited to the Awards ceremony to present your idea to the judging panel.
By 22nd March 2013 your team needs to upload your ‘Innovation Log’ here explaining your idea to the TeenTech website. The submissions will then be judged and finalists informed by 15th April 2013.
All finalists will be invited to the TeenTech Awards Ceremony on June 24th at The Royal Society to present their entry and allow the final judging to take place.
Prizes
Prizes will be awarded in each of the ten innovation categories and the special journalism category.
The overall winning team across all the eleven categories will be invited to have tea with our patron HRH Duke of York.
There is also a prize for the best international collaboration.
More details to follow as we announce category sponsors.
