Project Lead The Way

Penn State Berks Celebrates Engineers Week with the Third Annual PA PLTW Design Contest!

Revised 12/14/2009

  Design Challenge for Pennsylvania PLTW High Schools!

NOTE:  Administrators and teachers from schools that are not currently offering PLTW are welcome to attend and observe.

When:  Wednesday, February 17, 2010

(Inclement Weather Date: Wednesday, February 24, 2010)

Where:  Goggleworks Center For The Arts, Room 238, Reading, PA.

Time: The Design Challenge starts promptly at 8:30 am. Dismissal is at 1:30 pm. The schedule for the day is still under review and dependent on the number of schools that register for the Challenge.

School Eligibility:  The Design Challenge is open to all Pennsylvania Project Lead The Way high schools.  Your school does not need to be certified to participate.  PLTW high schools may only send one team.

Who is competing so far?

Brandywine Heights Area High School, Topton, PA
Delaware Valley High School, Milford, PA
Forest City Regional High School, Forest City, PA
Hamburg High School, Hamburg, PA
Hempfield High School, Landisville, PA
Lakeland Senior High School, Jermyn, PA
James Buchanan High School, Mercersburg, PA
McCaskey East High School, Lancaster, PA
Montour High School, McKees Rocks, PA
Norristown Area High School, Norristown, PA
Parkland High School, Allentown, PA
Perkiomen Valley High School, Collegeville, PA
Radnor High School, Radnor, PA
Reading High School, Reading, PA
Twin Valley High School, Elverson, PA
Wilson High School, West Lawn, PA
York Suburban High School, York, PA

Costs:  There is a $50 non-refundable registration fee for your high school to enter this contest. The fee is used to defray part of the cost of the contest. The remainder of the costs are borne by Penn State.

Registration checks shall be made payable to Penn State University and must be received prior to the contest.

Checks shall be mailed to:

Penn State Berks
Attn: Tom Weiss, Continuing Education
PO Box 7009
Reading, PA 19610-6009

All transportation, housing, and meal costs shall be borne by the supporting school/school district except that a bag lunch and a drink shall be provided to student contestants and  one PLTW teacher.  Choices for the bag lunch are shown on the Registration page.  For your convenience, a list of hotels near the campus can be viewed here.

Rules:

1.  Registration

Students and PLTW teacher must register online no later than 3 pm, Feb 3, 2010.  

2.  Student Eligibility

Students must currently be enrolled* in either IED or POE.  Schools may bring up to 5 current * PLTW students and 1 PLTW teacher.  

Teacher exception granted if your district requires more than one teacher as chaperone. Additional teachers must supply their own lunch the day of the contest. A cafe is available at Goggleworks.

3. Laptop Usage

PLTW Teachers shall supply one PLTW laptop with the current version of Inventor, and other software as required for their students.  A maximum of two laptop computers are allowed per team. A current version of Power Point is suggested.  PLTW teachers shall also provide a Flash Drive for presentations.  Penn State Berks will supply all other materials necessary for the design contest.  Wireless Internet is available at Goggleworks.

4. PLTW Teacher Assistance

Attending PLTW teachers may not assist students during the competition.  Students with questions shall be directed to the Facilitator.  If the answer is deemed public knowledge, it shall be announced to the group.

5.  Hand Tool Use

There shall be a "common tool area" where students may use certain hand tools.  Safety glass use is required at the common tool area.  A team may be disqualified for failure to use Safety Glasses.  Please impress this upon your students.

6. Injuries

Students shall report any injury, no matter how minor, immediately to their attending PLTW teacher.

7.  Awards

Awards will be presented in the following categories*:

Best Design

 Best Teamwork

 Best Presentation

Best Overall Solution

A high school may only win one award.

*The actual title and number of awards may be subject to change, dependent on the number of entries.

Dependent on the number of participants, the Design Challenge Facilitator reserves to right to modify these rules without prior notificiation prior to the beginning of the Design Challenge.

8. Judging:

An outside panel of reviewers will provide the judging.

Schedule:

8:00 am to 8:30 am  - Arrive at Goggleworks in Reading, PA.

8:45 am - Competition begins.  All teams  will be given the same design problem and materials.  Teams will work towards developing and presenting a solution.  Students will be expected to design, sketch, build, test, and demonstrate a solution to the design problem if possible.  In the event a team does not complete a solution, they are expected to present what they have accomplished and what they would do given more time.

11:15 am - Working Lunch 

11:45 am (tentative, may change based on number of registered teams)  - Presentations of solutions begin.  The time allocated for each team's presentation will be determined by how many teams register for the competition.  Teams will have a maximum time limit to present and demonstrate their solution to the panel.  The facilitator will stop all presentations when the time limit has been reached.  Presentation order will be determined by random draw.

1:30 pm - Presentation of Awards and participant certificates.

*Exception:  If your school is on a block schedule, and your students have just completed either IED or POE, they are eligible to participate.

Registration for the Design Challenge Is Closed