The Challenge: Save the World on Your Way to College!
The Global Challenge is an online international competition that encourages learning in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. If you are in high school, then we invite you to register, study, produce work and reap the rewards, including merit scholarships! 60% of our students are girls and young women, and 75% of all students are minorities, who are interested in making international friends and solving global problems.
Who Can Join the Global Challenge?
All students who are in high school (or the equivalent age which is usually 14-17 years old) are invited to participate. The official language of the program is English and you must be able to write and converse in English. The work for the different challenges is performed in teams of four students. Global teams are comprised of two students from one country and two from another country. Our website facilitates the matching of students into teams so students can join individually or with a friend they want to work with.
Registration is open year around and carries a fee of $25 US (click here for your local currency) main activities run from September to April and from June to September each year. Solutions are judged each May and October and awards are made in June and November.
What Team Projects make up the Global Challenge?
There are several team projects that are part of the Global Challenge Award Program. Each project has its own set of rules and a score card that helps guide your team to a winning solution. These projects are grouped into three main categories. Take a look and decide which one excites your passion for action!
Awareness
Projects in this category will broaden your knowledge on all aspects of Climate Change and the Future of Energy. You will learn how to build and work in a global virtual team, on fun projects! Awareness projects provide you with opportunities to spread the word about global issues in your school and community. Unleash your creativity!
- Play with ideas. Learn about new tools and methods of science and increase your scientific knowledge while having fun! Team Explorations are one of the easiest ways to join Global Challenge Award students from around the world who share your enthusiasm for making friends, learning about climate change, and competing for prizes! In this competition path, your team works together on as many Team Explorations as you have time and interest to do. Your rewards are matched with your level of effort. Win up to $250 per person. Win up to $250 per person. Register Now
GCA-350: Create an Event by October 24, 2009!
- 350 "parts per million" of CO2 is more than a number, it's a target for transforming the world we have into the world we want. Student teams create awareness in their school, community through any means. You can leverage technology and latest trends to create high impact awareness, reach large number of people, get your message to some of the most influential people locally. You can also get students, community members and leaders, corporations to sign declaration towards the 350 goal. Become more aware and win up to $250 per person. Register Now
Action
Projects in this category are based in issues that require students to apply their knowledge of science, math, technology and engineering. Your team will be provided with a specific, well defined climate change issue with a challenge to design and implement an action to address the issue. Design experiences help develop your skills for applying scientific knowledge to real world issues, and implementation experiences develop your entrepreneurial skills.
- Build a team that reduces global emissions of green house gases while learning new science, technology, engineering and mathematics concepts through project-based service learning and get ready for green jobs worldwide! You'll use advanced information and communications technologies, energy efficiency techniques, and renewable energy technologies to create ecologically sustainable actions that can impact human development in industrialized and developing nations. You will have ample opportunity to carry out field work, measure electrical energy consumption, develop your entrepreneurial, data management and business case skills. Win up to $500 per person. Register Now
Research
Research projects involve issue-based application of the knowledge of science, technology, engineering mathematics. Your team selects a Climate Change or Future of Energy issue you feel passionate about addressing. You develop and apply your scientific research skills to design a technically feasible solution. In addition, if you want to develop your entrepreneurial skills, you can expand your technical solution into a viable global business plan.
- Envision any kind of technical solution and explain it. Take your team into new territories of thought, design, creativity and imagination when you enter the TIP competition. The challenge is to create an innovative idea, work as a team to understand the underlying science, technology, engineering and mathematical challenges involved with the idea, and document your journey so that others can understand your concept. Your idea can synthesize great ideas from other people and add new value to concepts that are less powerful before you bring them together. Or, you can envision a feasible new idea where the science is still too young to have fully developed into an innovation. Your imagination and engineering insight is the only limit. Win up to $750 per person. Register Now
- Envision a global solution and create a detailed business plan. The GBP competition is the most demanding and rewarding choice you can make. Your team invents a TIP plus creates feasibility arguments (consumer, technical, financial, and political analyses) that would be needed to attract venture capitalists or government agencies to consider funding your proposal for a global business. Your business idea has both a technical and ethical heart, with a scientifically innovative idea to address climate change or the future of energy. Win up to $1000 per person. Register Now
What are the Rewards?
All participating students earn certificates, letters of recommendation for college or jobs, and the satisfaction of knowing that YOU created your own goals around your own ideas, set your own pace, and made a contribution to Saving the World on Your Way to College!
Cash Awards
We award either cash, tuition to summer institutes on a college campus, or travel support (or some combination) to all members of selected winning teams.
1. Cash awards are given to individual team members on winning teams in each competition.
2. Each competition will be judged using its own specific rubric.
3. Judging and the announcement of winners will take place twice each year. For April 30 submissions, judging in May and winners announced in early June. For October 30 submissions, judging in November and winners announced in early December.
4. An outside panel of experts and business professionals will assist in the judging process.
