Industry Connections
STEM Week Challenge
Educators: Connect with STEM Professionals!
The 2020 STEM Week Challenge featured several ways for students and educators to connect with industry professionals. Engaging with STEM experts is a great way to motivate students, connect the work they’re doing in class to what professionals do every day, and help them recognize their own grown knowledge and abilities.
Good news: There are still opportunities to connect with industry professionals!
Online Challenge Portal
Student prototypes can be submitted through the Online Challenge Portal through November 25th. All submitted work will receive written feedback by industry experts and be eligible to win prizes. Review the submission expectations for each challenge in your teacher guide.
Exciting industry prizes
Students who submitted their STEM Week Challenge projects by Friday, October 23rd are be eligible to win exciting prizes from our STEM Week Challenge industry and curriculum partners:
- 9-12: Design sessions with experts from IBM, plus the opportunity to attend PBLWorld, a project based learning professional development conference from PBLWorks, for the teacher of the top team (conference held virtually in Summer 2021)
- 6-8: Invitation to present their ideas and discuss designs with Dell Technologies executives, plus one year of Project Lead The Way for the school of the top team
- K-5: Opportunity to present game designs to the New England Aquarium team, plus a year of ST Math for the school of the top team
Submit by Wednesday, November 25th to receive real-world feedback and a chance to win additional exciting prizes!
Submit student work!STEM professionals: Share your expertise!
While STEM Week in Massachusetts has passed, you can still volunteer to review and provide real-world feedback on student work! Connecting with you brings their classwork to life and helps them see themselves as future STEM professionals.
Students across the state will continue to tackle the STEM Week Challenge, designing prototypes to face the largest STEM challenge of our time – the spread of COVID-19 and the heightened difficulties and isolation it has caused.
- High School students are applying lessons of virus spread, contract tracing and design thinking to design an app to help their community slow the spread of COVID
- Middle School students are applying learnings of anatomy and physiology of the nervous system and the engineering design process to develop an adaptation to an everyday task for persons with paralysis
- Elementary School students are applying their problem-solving skills to create a viral math game that not only employs fundamental math skills but also overcomes some of the isolation we’ve been facing due to COVID
Review and provide feedback on student work including STEM Week Challenge projects through the Online Industry Challenge All-Call.