2016-2017 Challenge Summaries

Technical Challenge: Show & Tech

The Technical Challenge prompts students to complete tasks by using engineering, research, strategic planning and related skills.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Technical Design & Engineering
• Show Production
• Design Efficiency
• Technical Theater

 

 

POINTS OF INTEREST

• Present a show that includes an opening act and a headlining act.
• Design and build a stage on which the acts will take place and that will move a team member from one location to another.
• Enhance each act with a technical effect to amaze the audience.
• Create and present two Team Choice Elements that show off the team’s interest, skills, areas of strength, and talents.

Scientific Challenge: Top Secret

Our Scientific Challenge blends the research and curiosity of science with the thrill and creativity of the theater arts.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Cryptography & Steganography
• Science & Technology
• Storytelling
• Improvisation

 

POINTS OF INTEREST

• Create and present a story about a secret mission.
• Research and apply methods from cryptography and steganography to reveal secret messages.
• Design and create a gadget that appears to be an everyday item.
• Create and integrate a disguised character into the story.
• Create and present two Team Choice Elements that show off the team’s interests, skills, areas of strength, and talents.

Engineering Challenge: In It Together

Our Engineering Challenge asks teams to design, build and test load-bearing structures out of specific materials.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Structural Engineering & Construction
• Weight Distribution
• Research
• Material Science
• Global Competency

 

POINTS OF INTEREST

• Design, build and test multiple free-standing structures that work together.
• Develop a strategy for placing structures to support as much weight as possible.
• Develop and present a collaborative solution to a global issue.
• Create and present two Team Choice Elements that highlight the team’s interests, skills, areas of strength, and talents.

Fine Arts Challenge: Vanished!

Our Fine Arts Challenge has students flex their acting and creative muscles as they experiment with different types of artistic media and theater arts, write scripts and design props.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Cultural Symbolism
• Global Competency
•  Performing Arts Skills
• Technical Theater

 

POINTS OF INTEREST

• Research the meanings, roles and uses of colors.
• Present a story about how the disappearance of a color changes the world.
• Create a colorful character that is involved with the color’s disappearance.
• Use technical theater methods to create a vanishing act.
• Create and present two Team Choice Elements that show off the team’s interests, skills, areas of strength, and talents.

Improvisational Challenge: 3-Peat

Our Improvisational Challenge is all about spontaneity and storytelling. Teams receive topics and produce skits right on the spot.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Improvisational Theater
• Time Management
• Integration Skills
• Teamwork

 

POINTS OF INTEREST

• Create three improvisational skits from the same story prompt.
• Present each skit in a different performance genre.
• Portray a different stock character in each skit.
• Enhance each skit with props.

Service Learning Challenge: project OUTREACH® : Ready, Willing and Fable

Our Service Learning Challenge is designed to engage students in public service to address real-life community issues.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Social Entrepreneurship
• Project Management
• Community Partnerships
• Performing Arts Skills

 

POINTS OF INTEREST

• Identify, design, plan and carry out a project that addresses a real community need.
• Create a live presentation of a team-created fable that integrates information about the project.
• Include an impact prop and a character that changes appearance.
• Create and present two Team Choice Elements that show off the team’s interests, skills, areas of strength, and talents.

Early Learning Challenge: Rising Stars!® : Save the Day

Our Rising Stars! for Early Learners Challenge offers simple experiences with the creative process, and it gives young kids (preschool through 2nd grade) a place to work together and make new friends.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Simple & Complex Machines
• Engineering & Design
• Storytelling Skills
• Teamwork

 

POINTS OF INTEREST

• Learn about simple and complex machines.
• Use simple machines to create and build a new invention.
• Create a play that tells a story about how the new invention helps to save the day.
• Create props, scenery and costumes to help tell the story.

Instant Challenge

Instant Challenges require teams to engage in quick, creative and critical thinking.

At a tournament, a team will receive an Instant Challenge and the materials with which to solve it. The team members must think on their feet by applying appropriate skills to produce a solution in a period of just five to eight minutes.

In a world with growing cultural connections, increased levels and types of communication, and a new need for real-time teamwork and problem solving, the ability to solve problems quickly is becoming increasingly critical.

Instant Challenges are performance-based, task-based, or a combination of the two Although each Instant Challenge has different requirements, all Instant Challenges reward teams for their teamwork and the creativity of their solutions. Instant Challenges are kept confidential through the day of the tournament.