STEM & SCIENCE CONTESTS

3M YOUNG SCIENTIST CHALLENGE

The Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge is the nation’s premier science competition for grades 5-8. This one-of-a-kind video competition has sparked the imaginations of hundreds of thousands of students and enhanced science exploration, innovation and communication across the United States.

THE PARADIGM CHALLENGE

​The Paradigm Challenge is an annual competition that inspires youth to use STEM skills plus kindness, creativity, and collaboration to make a difference.  The Challenge aims to generate new ideas to reduce waste in homes, schools, communities, and around the world.

Intel ISEF​

The Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF), a program of Society for Science & the Public (the Society), is the world’s largest international pre-college science competition.  Each year, approximately 1,800 high school students from more  than 75 countries, regions, and territories are awarded the opportunity to showcase their independent research and compete for on average $4 million in prizes.​

CONGRESSIONAL APP CHALLENGE

Every year we challenge students in our districts to create and submit their original apps for a chance to win the Congressional App Challenge (CAC). Each challenge is district-specific. As U.S. Representatives we publicly recognize our winning teams and each winning app may be put on display in the U.S. Capitol Building for one year.

BIOGENIUS CHALLENGE

The BioGENEius Challenges provide students to compete on an international stage with some of the brightest scientific minds in the world.  There are three Challenge tracks:
•The Global Healthcare Challenge in medical biotechnology
•The Global Sustainability Challenge in agricultural biotechnology
•The Global Environment Challenge in industrial/environmental biotechnology

Junior Science and Humanities Symposia 

​​JSHS is designed to challenge and engage students (Grades 9-12) in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM). Individual students compete for scholarships and recognition by presenting the results of their original research efforts before a panel of judges and an audience of their peers.

GOOGLE SCIENCE FAIR​

The Google Science Fair is a free online science competition, open to students between the ages of 13 and 18 from around the world.    Students can register on their own, or as teams of up to three. 

you be the chemist

The You Be The Chemist Challenge sponsored by the Chemical Educational Foundation is a competition and program that celebrates and elevates the science of chemistry to inspire on-going study and careers. The Challenge is a multilevel individual competition, that begins with participants completing the Challenge Qualifier at their schools.

NASA SPINOFFS

NASA spinoffs are technologies originally created for space and modified into everyday products used here on Earth. Through this Challenge, students become aware of NASA Spinoff technology in their everyday world and use their imagination, creativity, and use engineering skills to develop ideas for Spinoff use of NASA technologies.

project
​csgirls

The challenge is simple. Build something using computer science and technology that can help solve an imminent social problem under one of four themes - global health, a safer world, intelligent technology, and bridging inequalities. You can think of it as a virtual hackathon for middle school girls.

national chemistry olympiad

The U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad (USNCO) program is a chemistry competition for high school students. The purpose of the competition is to stimulate young people to achieve excellence in chemistry. The American Chemical Society has sponsored the program since 1984. 

MIT THINK
​SCHOLARS PROGRAM

THINK is an annual science research and innovation competition for high school students. Rather than requiring students to have completed a research project before applying, THINK instead caters to students who have done extensive research on the background of a potential research project and are looking for additional guidance in the early stages of their project. 

national science bowl

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Science Bowl® is a nationwide academic competition that tests students’ knowledge in all areas of science and mathematics. Middle and high school student teams face-off in a fast-paced question-and-answer format, being tested on a range of science disciplines including biology, chemistry, Earth science, physics, energy, and math.

national oceans science bowl

The NOSB is an academic competition and program that addresses a national gap in environmental and earth sciences in public education by introducing high school students to and engaging them in ocean science, preparing them for ocean science-related and other STEM careers, and helping them become knowledgeable citizens and environmental stewards.

TEAM AMERICA
​ROCKETRY CHALLENGE

The Team America Rocketry Challenge is the world’s largest student rocket contest and a key piece of the aerospace and defense industry’s strategy to build a stronger U.S. workforce in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). 

future city competition

Future City starts with a question—how can we make the world a better place?  To answer it, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students use the engineering design process as a framework to guide students to create cities that exist at least 100 years in the future and represent the team’s solution to a citywide sustainability issue.

national robotics challenge

The National Robotics Challenge is designed to provide students of all ages and levels of study the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of manufacturing processes, controls, robotics, and other technologies through competitive engineering contests. Students are judged on their application of technology principles, engineering concepts, and their ability to solve real-world problems through a team approach. ​

nasa human rover challenge

Each year the NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge features an engineering design challenge to engage students worldwide in the next phase of human space exploration. The annual event is a more complex follow-up to the successful NASA’s Great Moonbuggy Race. The competition challenges high school and college students to create a vehicle designed to traverse the simulated surface of another world.  

rube goldberg

A Rube Goldberg Machine Contest (RGMC) is an event where students of all ages compete with the machines they have imagined, designed and created in a fun and competitive forum.
​The competitions encourage teamwork and out-of-the-box problem solving, in a fresh learning environment and level playing field. Remember, to compete in a RGMC all you need is a good imagination and a pile of junk!

lemelson -mit
inventeams

Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams™ are comprised of high school students, educators, and mentors that receive up to $10,000 each to invent technological solutions to real-world problems of their own choosing. 
​Students learn to work in teams, while collaborating with intended users of their inventions. They partner with organizations in their communities to enrich their experiences.

Samsung solve
for tomorrow

Designed to boost interest and proficiency in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), this nationwide contest challenges public school teachers and students in grades 6-12 to show how STEM can be applied to help improve their local community.

Broadcom masters

In order to compete in Broadcom MASTERS (Math, Applied Science, Technology, and Engineering for Rising Stars), Society-affiliated science fairs around the country nominate the top 10 percent of 6th, 7th, and 8th grade participants to enter this prestigious competition. Nominees then complete an online application for a chance to compete at the national level.

Conrad
​CHALLENGE

The Conrad Challenge is an annual, multi-phase innovation and entrepreneurial competition that encourages young adults to leave their mark on the world. Each year, teams of 2-5 students, ages 13-18, from around the globe create products and/or services that address some of the most pressing global challenges. 

FUTURE
​ENGINEERS

Future Engineers offers free challenge-based curriculum for students and classrooms. Students submit designs online, compete with their peers, and build a portfolio. Join our community of educators getting hands-on with innovation education!

TECHNOVATION APP CHALLENGE

Technovation offers girls around the world the opportunity to learn the skills they need to emerge as tech entrepreneurs and leaders. Every year we invite girls to identify a problem in their community, and then challenge them to solve it.
Girls work in teams to build both a mobile app and a business plan to launch that app, supported by mentors and guided by our curriculum.

MICROSOFT IMAGINE CUP

Imagine Cup is a global competition that empowers the next generation of computer science students to team up and use their creativity, passion and knowledge of technology to create applications that shape how we live, work and play. Every year tens of thousands of students from across the globe compete for cash, travel and prizes and for the honor of taking home the Imagine Cup!

ZERO ROBOTICS

Zero Robotics is a robotics programming competition where the robots are SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold Engage and Reorient Experimental Satellites) inside the International Space Station. Depending on the game premise, the students must program their satellites to complete game objectives (navigate obstacles, pick up virtual objects, etc.) while conserving resources (fuel, charge, etc.) and staying within specified time and code-size limits.  

eCYBERMISSION

eCYBERMISSION is a web-based science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) competition for students in grades six through nine. Students are challenges to explore how STEM works in their world while working as a team to solve problems in their community.

national science bee

The US Academic Bee and Bowl are academic quiz competitions for students in 8th grade and younger that take place throughout the USA. They are designed to promote the growth of and participation in academic competitions among elementary and middle school students. The competitions both reward classroom learning and encourage students to explore other subjects and fields of study that are new to them.

exploravision

The ExploraVision competition for K-12 students engages the next generation in real world problem solving with a strong emphasis on STEM. ExploraVision challenges students envision and communicate new technology 20 years in the future through collaborative brainstorming and research of current science and technology.

F.L.E.E.T.

FLEET is a web-based STEM competition that is free to U.S. students in grades nine through twelve. FLEET utilizes the youth friendly model of gamification to engage high school students in naval ship design and enables them to apply the real-life applications of STEM. Working individually, students compete via a web-based platform to complete several scenarios faced by naval engineers on a daily basis in the field. 

source america design challenge

The SourceAmerica Design Challenge is a national engineering competition in which participants create innovative workplace technologies for people with disabilities. Student teams collaborate with a nonprofit agency that employs people with disabilities, and/or they work directly with an individual who is experiencing difficulties in the workplace. 

Breakthrough junior challenge

The Breakthrough Junior Challenge is an annual global competition for students to inspire creative thinking about science. Students ages 13 to 18 from countries across the globe are invited to create and submit original videos (3:00 minutes in length maximum) that bring to life a concept or theory in the life sciences.  

Biomimicry design challenge

The Youth Design Challenge is a competition that asks middle and high school students to design bio-inspired solutions to fight climate change. It gives classroom and informal educators a framework to introduce biomimicry to students, providing a great context for STEM learning and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

WONDER LEAGUE
​ROBOTICS CHALLENGE

Teams of kids ages 6-8, 9-11, and 12-14 will design solutions for real-world science and technology challenges by programming Dash, Dot, and our newest robot, Cue.

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