Statewide Design Challenge

2021-2022

For those who have completed the Local Competitions, you are now able to register Local Competition winner for the Regional Competition level. The registration window is open from March 4-15, 2022.

We are partnering with TN Chamber of Commerce for the 4th annual Statewide Design Challenge for Tennessee's students. 

What is a Design Challenge?

A Design Challenge empowers students to integrate prior knowledge, new discoveries, and the Engineering Design Process (EDP) to design, test, and improve a solution. Resources to learn about the EDP can be found here.

2021-2022 Student Design Challenge

Our overarching topic is infrastructure. Infrastructure is defined as the basic physical and organizational structures and facilities needed for the operation of a society or enterprise. That includes roads, buildings, utilities/power supplies, and more! This year’s challenge invites students to consider how they can improve their school, community, or world by reimagining an existing physical space, system, product, or service so that it is more equitable, accessible, or efficient. Students have choice about how they approach the topic so they may best approach the needs of their communities and lives. 

Students can select from these questions: 

• How can you repurpose an existing physical structure in your home, school or county to ensure equitable access, or improve the overall efficiency of that space? 
• What changes can you make to an existing system to improve equity, efficiency, or access for people in your school or county? 
• What changes can you make to an existing product so that it is more equitable, accessible, or eco-friendly? 

For each question, students are encouraged to:  

• Identify the problem with the current space, system or product 
• Define the target audience who will benefit from the solution 
• Create a physical model of the solution (build a physical prototype) 
• Discuss how the solution solves the problem for the target audience 
• Identify one career that is related to implementing the solution 

Participating schools will conduct classroom-level presentations and then nominate outstanding projects to participate in a virtual competition in Spring 2022. For safety and equity of access, all competitions will be held virtually this year. The cost and time of travel can be a burden to some families and schools. To alleviate that burden and encourage more students to explore STEM challenges, we will hold all levels of competition virtualyl. No student should be excluded from this opportunity due to constraint of their location in the state.

By registering for the Design Challenge, you will receive an interactive digital booklet you can share with students. The booklet includes step by step instructions, resources, and videos to help roll out the challenge at your school. 

Special "Thanks" to the TN Chamber of Commerce for partnering with us on this challenge.