Notes for Teachers
If you’ve been along to one of our TeenTech regional events you’ll know how inspirational the day can be – especially the young people who bring it to life by taking part. Our ‘Ideas Wall’ has shown a wealth of creative and innovative talent which deserves a bigger showcase and even further development! The TeenTech Awards are here to do just that!
The competition is designed to be as open as possible – so you have complete freedom to use it to support aspects of the curriculum if you wish to do so. Entries must be made by a UK school on behalf of teams of up to three students. All students must be UK students in year groups 7/8/9/10/11 in December 2012.
We want the TeenTech Awards to be an inspiring experience for every student who takes part. The aim is to encourage them to investigate STEM subjects, to see their relevance to everyday life and inspire them to consider careers they never realised existed.
Ideas Wall – Humber
They might decide to focus on clothing that reacts to music, an app for improving the wider understanding and enjoyment of sport, a new musical instrument or synthesizer, a special ‘Google’ map that works for teenage daily lives, or perhaps something that highlights the efficiency of renewable energy projects such as wind farms.
There are some terrific prizes and experiences for the winners but we want every student to feel enthused and inspired by taking part. We hope you will be enthused too. We have also set up links with schools across the world, so that your students can collaborate. You are also welcome to use existing links with schools you may already have.
Where possible we would like students to take advantage of interactions with STEM companies, FE colleges and universities. We want students to see how they can become part of this world and that it is accessible to them. We want to help them get to know people who work in IT, Engineering and Science so they meet real life examples of the people in the STEM workplace or study these subjects at University.
Who can help
Universities and Further Education Colleges – Use local universities’ widening participation and outreach services for support. They will also have STEM ambassadors who can be invited into your school to work with your students on aspects of their project. The teenagers should decide which aspects of their projects might benefit from external collaboration.
STEM Companies –many organisations are actively looking for opportunities to engage with the local community and the TeenTech Awards provide a focus to help them communicate what they do to a wider audience and help young people understand more about the skills required in their industry. Sponsors are very keen to offer help and support – even in categories other than their own.
Education Business Partnerships. Your local education business partnership may be supporting this competition. They will also have good ideas on how to make the best use of help from companies and will help to co-ordinate activity.
International Collaboration – many schools already partner with overseas schools, this could a be good opportunity to develop a joint innovation project and strengthen those links. We have also set up links with partner schools in Australia and we can put you in touch with them if you wish. These will be assigned on a first come, first served basis.
Consider using Skype, WebEx ,email to engage with your collaboration partner via scheduled call, this would also provide great material for the Innovation Log submission.
Please read the competition rules carefully.
Key dates are:
Register online by 14th December 2012. This is simply to let us know the category you intend you enter. Some categories may become oversubscribed and we will then suggest others to you.
Submit an “Innovation Log” by 22nd March 2013 This should be compiled by the students explaining why their idea is innovative, the market it will reach and detailing organisations they have contacted and collaborated with . More details can be found in the Competition Rules here and the Judging Criteria here.
Finalists will be notified on 15th April 2013 and invited to attend the TeenTech Awards Day where they will showcase their idea to the judges and then attend the ceremony where the winning team in each category and the overall winner will be announced.
Notes on Categories.
For 2013 there are ten award categories and a special category for journalism:
1. Sport – Students could run projects looking at different technology for tracks, buildings, equipment, drug detection, time keeping . Or they could look at different training methods and preparation.
2. Transport – What will the future of aviation look like? What inspiration could come from nature? Is there a more connected way to get from home to your destination? What will the vehicles of the future look like? How can roads be made safer? And what about tickets and signposting?. Is there a place for human power?
3. Healthcare – monitoring, co-ordination, advice, accessibility. How can students make life easier for their grandparents in the home, hospital and in the community.
4. Education – different ways of learning, outside/inside/beyond school . What real world education problem could you solve using technology? How can you give children in the developing world the same access to education as you have in the UK? What could you design using technology to help them?
Teaching – What will the classroom of the future look like? Will we need classrooms? How can technology change the role of the teacher? How can we ensure all students are taught in a way that enables them to achieve their full potential?
Learning – How will technology change the way you learn? How can the learning experience be made more engaging and interesting? How can technology help to make sure that all students regardless of socio-economic background and geographic location, have access to the best education has to offer? e.g.How can you study with the best Maths teacher in the world if they teach in Australia?
5.Wearable Technology – smart bags, glasses, clothing, artificial limbs, exoskeleton
6. Environment – renewable technology, sustainability, climate change
7. Entertainment – devices, integration text /audio/ visual
8. Communication – web, mobile, TV, radio, advertising
9. Construction – TeenTech City of Tomorrow. Students are encouraged to produce a model building which incorporates their ideas. If students are attending regional events in early 2013 they are welcome to bring their models for display.
10.Future of food – growing, making, distributing, evaluating
Special category for journalism . Use any media to report on a STEM story. It could be a world issue, local issue, business issue or indeed the talents of your teacher or group. Students may enter this category in addition to one of the categories above.
International Collaboration
This is an exciting opportunity for students to find out more about issues and priorities in different parts of the world. It’s also a real test of organisational skills.
Cisco have kindly agreed to make WebEx available to schools who collaborate internationally. We will send you details of how to access this when you register your intention to take part. You may prefer to use Skype, Google Hang-outs or school email .
The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) will award certificates and recognise teams who have shown exceptional management and leadership skills.
Suggestions for how to make the international collaboration work well
1. Students could make a short video to give partners an idea of their everyday life. It could show the town where they live, the size of their school, the bands they like , the sports they play etc . They could share details of ideas they think would improve life in their town or city.
2. Make sure to include lots of pictures of the partner team and the work they do on the project.
3. Students should let us know how and why they decided to work in a particular way. How often did they have contact with each other? How did they share the workload? Did they learn better ways of working together. How did they make the most of being able to collaborate internationally
