Below are summaries of the five Science Challenges for the upcoming school year. Please keep in mind these three things:

1. The full Challenges will deliver considerably more detail in terms of Challenge Terms, Range of Activities, Essential Questions, Student Outcomes, Development and Production Process, Curricular Correlations and Evaluation Rubrics.
2. The website is expanding its offerings of support documents and Innovator and Artist videos that will assist students and teachers in the completion of these Challenges.
3. The dates in parentheses are the due dates and may shift. However, please keep in mind that classes can actually produce the Challenges well before the due dates, if desired: there are no defined starting dates. They simply must be submitted by the due dates.

OK, enough on the peripherals…read on! 

Challenge #1 – Local Flora and Fauna Documentary (January 25)
(Community Engagement)

This Challenge asks each team to examine and attempt to chart out the future of local flora or fauna that is threatened or threatening in some manner.

Create a three-minute documentary about the past, present, and predicted future of a local plant or animal that has experienced a significant population growth or decline over the past 50 years in your state.

• Choose a local plant or animal that has experienced a significant population growth or decline over the past 50 years.
  • Hint: You might want to focus on new/introduced/invasive species or threatened/endangered species.
  • Research history of the species in your state, using at least two different media formats – the Internet, newspaper, magazine, or book.
    • Field guides might be handy!
    • The documentary must contain interviews from at least two real people in your community.

Challenge #2 – Eco-Disruption Radio Drama (January 25)

Create a 3 – 5 minute radio drama about the effects of a major disruption to a chosen ecosystem.

• Choose an existing ecosystem on Earth.
• Research background information about the ecosystem, using at least two different media formats – the Internet, newspaper, magazine, or book.
• Research physical and biological disruptions that can alter an ecosystem.
• Determine what your ecosystem would be like once it has undergone a plausible, unstable disruption. Focus on one area in specific: e.g. insect life.
• Make a 3-5 minute radio drama about the effects of this change– you can create news reports, interviews etc.
  • Some ideas for inspiration: What would happen if a meteor knocked the moon and moved it closer?  What if a widespread plant mutation or a certain pesticide caused nectar to become scarce?

Challenge #3 – Rube Goldberg Time! (February 15)

It’s time to make the simple complex! Create a 2 -3 minute documentary about the design, building, trialing and successful running of a Rube Goldberg machine.

• Become familiar with the concept of a Rube Goldberg machine.
• Design and create a Rube Goldberg machine of your own invention.
  • Create a diagram of your plan; include labels that explain the energy transitions in the project.
  • It must involve the use of water.
  • Your machine must use more than 4 energy transitions.
  • High school: Include at least two instances of chemical and/or electric energy.

Challenge #4 – Water Cycle Cruise Sales Pitch (April 15)

In this Challenge, your audience is (wait for it) water droplets! That’s right water droplets …who are eager for a change of scenery!

Create a travel sales pitch to an audience of water droplets about a new ‘Water Cycle Cruise’ that they can go on. The pitch can be a produced Power Point, Prezi presentation, or mix of photo stills and video.

• Research the water cycle and how it can interact with landscapes.
• Create a “travel log” following a water droplet in the water cycle through at least one of these five environments: a suburban backyard, an ocean, a river, an urban sidewalk, or a subterranean reservoir.
  • Create narration, music, and sound effects to a montage of pictures of the various places the water drop will visit and see.
    • It must go through at least three location transitions and one phase change (gas, liquid, solid), ending in its original phase.
• Be sure to put a time frame to this trip (ie. 1 day; 1 month; 100 years; 100,000 years)

Challenge # 5 – Genetics Mystery Video (May 31)

This Challenge begins with a mystery: who are the parents of a newborn baby? Create a 3 – 4 minute video based on a scenario that you create in which you need to match a baby to one of four sets of parents.

• Base your story on the characteristics of earlobes, dimples, freckles, and hairline, to determine who the biological parents of the baby are.
  • Assume that attached earlobes, no dimples, no freckles, and a normal hairline are recessive traits, whereas unattached earlobes, dimples, freckles, and widow’s peak hairline are dominant.
    • Denote the dominant/recessive alleles for each trait as follows:
      • Earlobes: E/e, Dimples: D/d, Freckles: F/f, Hairline: H/h
      • Specify what genotype you are giving the baby.
      • Create four uniquepairs of genotypes for the sets of parents that are options
        • It should only be genetically possible for one of your sets of parents to be the biological parents of the infant.