The Center for Pre-College Programs at NJIT is proud to announce our third annual Elementary STEM challenge for elementary school students (3rd - 5th grade), focusing on engineering and design.
This year's challenge will feature a "disruptive technology" question (involving topics such as Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, or Internet of Things) that student teams will solve using the Engineering Design Process (EDP). Student teams will design, build, and demonstrate their working models.
Challenge Date: March 24th, 2023 (Snow Date: March 27th, 2023)
Eligibility: 3rd - 5th grade students
# of Team Members: 4 - 6 student members per team (Limited to 2 teams per school district, 1 team per charter school)
Registration Deadline: December 16th, 2022
Registration Fee: $200 per team (payment method: check / school purchase order)
Cost includes:
Supply kits (1 set per team member)
Engineering logbooks (1 per team member)
A professional development workshop for teacher-coaches
An NJIT student mentor who will meet with the team on a weekly basis for seven weeks prior to the competition starting January 2023
Challenge Components:
Engineering Design Device Demonstration (40% of the overall score):. The first component of the challenge will require students to demonstrate the devices they worked on for the six weeks leading up to the competition. Judges will time, observe and evaluate the students using a score sheet during the device demonstration.
Game Show Challenge (15% of the overall score): The second part of the challenge will be a game show style question and answer challenge where the teams will use a Computer Application to answer questions.
Oral Presentation (30% of the overall score): The third part of the challenge will feature team members’ presentations of project overviews that include their design processes, concepts and evidence of teamwork. The presentation will include a board/slide display and provide information on Engineering principles used as well as methodology and scientific reasoning.
Engineer's Logbook (15% of the overall score): The Fourth part of the challenge will require the team members to complete and submit an Engineer’s Logbook.
NJIT Student Mentors:
Each team will be assigned an NJIT Student Mentor that will meet with the team on a weekly basis for seven weeks prior to the challenge to answer questions regarding rules and logistics, and provide overall guidance to the team.
Teacher (Coaches) Professional Development:
January 10th, 2023 from 3:30pm-5:00pm (Virtual)
Awards & Prizes:
The challenge will culminate with an award ceremony that will include the announcement of first, second and third place challenge winners based on overall scores. Additional awards will be given to the teams for best building / design, best presentation and best Engineer's Logbook. Other special awards will include best teamwork, most innovative design and a sportsmanship award. Medals will be given to each team member in the award categories, while the top placing teams will receive a trophy.
If you have any questions or need additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us at eSTEM-group@njit.edu.