PLTW Innovative Solutions Challenge
- Eligibility
- Students
- Must be a current high school student
- Must have completed or are currently enrolled in a PLTW Course
- Must be from the PLTW South Central Missouri District
- Mentors
- Teachers, mentors, parents or other students may assist the team with accomplishing their goals
- Goal of the mentor is push the team towards a vision of the teams own design, however the mentor may provide feedback to a prompt or a problem for the students to solve using innovative solutions
- The mentor may provide guidance on how to approach any challenges that are encountered.
- Students must clearly identify the role of any and all outside assistance that is provided along with their abstract.
- Teams
- 1-3 Members
- Team members are not allowed to be on more than one team
- Schools are only allowed to have 1 team per discipline
(3 teams maximum: Biomedical, Engineering, and Computer Science)
- Competition Description
- Problem
- Must identify a pressing problem related to the targeted discipline
- Must be clearly identified
- Must be specific
- Solution
- Must present a novel solution that either “solves” or “mitigates” the problem identified
- Students must come up with an innovative solution on their own without direct guidance
- Solution must be feasible
- And include information concerning
- How would the project be implemented?
- Estimated cost analysis.
- Expected stakeholders in the project
- Who is the target of this solution or product?
- Who else would be interested in seeing the solution implemented?
- Abstract and materials
- The abstract must include a description of the identified problem and the presented solution
- The abstract must also be 250 words or less
- The abstract may have any drawings/prototypes with descriptions included with it to clarify the solution
- Students must clearly identify the role of any and all outside assistance that is provided along with their abstract.
- All first level judging will be based on the abstract and provided drawings/prototypes
- Formatting
- Any sources used must be cited, direct plagiarism will not be tolerated
- APA format must be used for all citations
- There must not be any use of Al tools, such as ChatGPT or any other generative artificial intelligence, to write their abstract.
- The Competition
- Deadlines
- All abstracts and drawings/prototypes must be submitted by March 8th
- All Finalists will be chosen by March 22nd
- Showcases and Presentations will be April 9 at Missouri S&T
- Selection
- Finalist teams will be selected from all submissions for each respective disciplinary category
- Presentation
- These finalists will present their problem and novel solution to a select group of distinguished judges following their showcase.
- Presentation must include a visual of the solution.
- This may be accomplished by providing a prototype, multimedia presentation, models or presentation boards.
- All participants must be part of the presentation to win.
- Problem and solution details will be presented.
- Presentation time:
- 5 minute setup time
- 10 minute presentation time including multimedia
- 5 minute question and answer time with the judges.
- Showcase
- All finalists must attend the showcase in order to compete for the prizes.
- You do not need to be a finalist to attend the showcase with your project.
- Students are encouraged to showcase their work, even if they are not a finalist…Showcases will inspire younger students, university and special guests.
- Showcase will be for all PLTW students (Launch, Gateway, Biomedical, Computer Science, and Engineering)
- Finalists will be decided prior to the showcase.
- Presentations will follow the showcase on April 9.
- Inability to attend the showcase and presentation is a considered a forfeiture
- The Prize
- Prizes will be awarded based on abstracts, solution, showcase and presentations
- $1200 will be awarded for each winning team for each discipline
- Groups of 2 or 3 the prize will be split evenly.
- There will be alternative awards presented to groups who match specific other criteria
