Challenge your students with the 2011-12 Inventors Competition

Here are the competition guidelines:

1. Students should provide a written description of their electricity producing system, including a listing of required materials and approximate costs. They should use drawings to help explain and illustrate their designs.

2. All drawings should be either computer-generated or hand-drawn in ink. Use only one side of the paper and use only plain paper—no graph paper, please, since it will not reproduce well in the magazine. Also, to facilitate good reproduction of winning drawings that will appear in the magazine, do not fold the drawings.

3. On an additional sheet of paper, describe the benefits of the system’s design and any other relevant details.

4. Students must include on their submission their grade level, their teacher’s name and email address, and the postal address of their school.

5. Mail all submissions in a 9" × 12" envelope.

Submit ideas by January 31, 2012.

Mail all invention submissions to:
Inventors Competition
Tech Directions
PO Box 8623
Ann Arbor MI 48107-8623

After visiting several developing countries, famed professor and inventor Phineas T. Quirkbotham has asked his aspiring-inventor nephew Thaddeus and the students of Tech Directions readers to come up with some unconventional ways to provide electricity to remote villages that traditional electrical utilities have not yet reached. The professor notes that having access to electrical power would greatly improve the quality of life of a large number of people—and in some situations, could save lives. How would your students address the important challenge of providing electrical power to remote villages that have no nearby electric grid or power line?

If Professor Quirkbotham and inventor/engineer/assistant judge Harry T. Roman determine that your students’ ideas are among the best, they will receive a Tech Directions Inventors Award certificate and their solutions will be published in the May 2012 issue of the magazine. The top three competitors will also receive a book or poster of their choice from Tech Directions Books & Media. All winners will have a notable accomplishment to list on future resumes and college applications and they’ll bring excellent publicity to your technology and engineering education program!

The judges suggest that each student think broadly and creatively in brainstorming many ideas, then select his or her single best idea to submit to the competition. This approach allows for really focusing attention and effort on the best solution. The judges also encourage students to let ideas flow freely and not be afraid to unleash their imaginations.