Monday, January 9, 2012

Young Inventors Fair & AT&T Spirit of Innovation Youth Challenge - May 16, 2012

On May 16, 2012, Cross Keys High School will be hosting DeKalb's 1st Annual Young Inventors Fair open to students from all public schools in DeKalb County.

Please spread the word about this amazing opportunity for our DeKalb public school students from the 4th - 12th grade. I telegraphed to this blog this past summer that the Cross Keys Foundation would be working hard to support the initiation of DeKalb's 1st Annual Young Inventors Fair. At the time, I had no idea what an exciting form the project would take with our support and a commitment from Career Technology administration. DeKalb County is really going to turn some heads with this event!

For me, the most exciting part is the "AT&T Spirit of Innovation" section of the Fair. AT&T has agreed to supply 40 units of a custom Arduino-based kit. Arduino is an open hardware initiative that has captured the interest of engineers at AT&T. They are proto-typing a special purpose AT&T Arduino board for use in public education initiatives. The videos embedded in this post contain samples of creative uses of Arduino hardware.

In addition, the company formerly known as, "Ma Bell," has provided training to a dozen Cross Keys manufacturing students on the Arduino product so they, in turn, can provide two workshops for DeKalb students who would like to enter in the special section of the fair, "AT&T Spirit of Innovation." All-in-all this is a very exciting and cutting edge program and truly a ONCE IN A LIFETIME opportunity for our young people.

Entrants in this special section must attend one of the upcoming CKF-sponsored and CK-student lead workshops in February. Below is the detailed announcement - make sure your schools' kids take advantage of this and let's all meet at CKHS this May to see what they innovate!

The Young Inventor Program for Dekalb County Schools and AT&T Innovation Youth Challenge

PURPOSE
The Young Inventors Program and AT&T Innovation Youth Challenge is intended to stimulate interest in the study of science, technology, engineering and math by supporting a student Invention & Innovation Program in Dekalb County Schools. These programs involve students in grades 4 – 12 in hands on science, technology, engineering and math activities.

YOUNG INVENTORS PROGRAM
During the 2012 Spring Semester the Cross Keys Manufacturing Center will invite students to submit proposals for inventions they will develop and build during the 2012 Spring Semester. The deadline for the proposals will be March 29, 2012. These will be accepted on a first come first serve basis. The Young inventors Fair will serve grades 4 – 8 in the Middle School Division and grades 9-12 in the High School Division.

“Dekalb County Young inventors Fair”

Grades 4 – 8 in the Middle School Division Forty Applicants ONLY
Deadline 03/29/12
Grades 9 – 12 in the High School Division Forty Applicants ONLY
Deadline 03/29/12

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“AT&T Innovation Youth Challenge”
Grades 4 – 8 in the Middle School Division Twenty Applicants ONLY
Deadline 03/29/12

Grades 9 – 12 in the High School Division Twenty Applicants ONLY
Deadline 03/29/12

The Young Inventors Fair will be held in the Gym at Cross Keys High School on May 16, 2012.

Set-up will start on May 15th at 4:00pm – 6:00pm. All participants must complete set-up and receive a judge interview time for the following day no later than 6:00pm. Judging will start at 8:00am – 1:00pm and the fair will be open for the public from 2:00 pm – 4:00pm. The Awards Ceremony will begin at 4:00pm.

The Young Inventors Program and AT&T Innovation Youth Challenge will honor the achievements of the Dekalb County students by providing a public venue for the young inventors to display their inventions and receive awards. Official judges drawn both from Dekalb County teachers / college professors / and the surrounding Engineering / Manufacturing community will select winners of the Fair. If any student project is determined to be “Patentable” this invention will receive donated patent attorney services. The inventor is required to pay all filing fees.

AT&T Innovation Youth Challenge Purpose
To create a specialized, competitive “AT&T Innovation Youth Challenge” section in the First Annual DeKalb County Public Schools “Youth Inventors' Fair” in May 2012. This will amplify the impact of the power of open hardware, AT&T's commitment to education, and the energy of youths' inventiveness. The Cross Keys Foundation seeks to demonstrate the ease-of-use of the Spirit of Innovation Kit and to encourage youth interest in technology.

The event will have two main sections, one for 4-8th grade and a second for 9-12th grade. The Foundation and our partners will provide promotion of the event, logistical support, recruit judges, and raise scholarship funds as awards for the event winners.

“The Spirit of Innovation Youth Challenge” Will encompass a maximum of 20 middle school and 20 high school entrants. The section would be limited to those with viable “Spirit of Innovation Kit”-based projects and would have a separate set of awards from the general sections of the competition.

By generating community and media interest in the event and AT&T's commitment the innovation process, the Foundation will raise awareness about the need for and the opportunities in technology education.

The Foundation is seeking the incremental funding necessary to sponsor scholarship prizes for the three students judged to have the winning inventions in each section, 4-8th and 9-12th and the proposed “Spirit of Innovation” section. Our goal would be to provide 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place scholarship awards in each section.

Participants in the “Spirit of Innovation Youth Challenge” will be required to attend a three hour workshop at Cross Keys Manufacturing Center. Two workshops are scheduled:

Thursday 02/09/12 4:30-7:30pm

Thursday 02/16/12 4:30-7:30pm.

At these workshops students will receive the ”Spirit of Innovation” project Kit and training on how to use the kits to enter the Competition.

Cross Keys Manufacturing - Preparing Students for the 21st Century Workplace

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is really neat! To Kim’s past point regarding larger schools, having less high school buildings would cost effectively allow for robotics and related studies in most every school. Now to figure how to make a old fart look like he is a 12th grader . . . I can bring the Paolo Conte . . .