Education - Edison Challenge

The competition will consist of projects based on the theme of “Energy and the Environment.” Your project should focus on one or more of the following environmental sciences:

• Energy transfer - How is energy transferred through wind, ocean currents, or water cycles?
• Energy conservation and energy efficiency - Why is this important, and what are some news ways we can conserve?
• Environmental protection and sustainability - What can we do to protect natural habitats and endangered species? What is global warming and what can we do about it?
• Renewable energy resources - What are the benefits of hydroelectric, natural gas, solar, wind, and nuclear energy?
• Air and water quality - What affects the quality of our air and water, and what are your ideas to improve this quality?
• Alternative transportation - What are the benefits of electric and biodiesel vehicles? What other alternative fuels are available?

Once your team's science topic is selected, your team will need to get busy and work on the following project items for this topic:

• Community Service - The students on your team should lead a larger group of your peers in a public service activity involving energy and the environment. You should be as creative as possible in this activity. You should also work to link it to some of the educational activities in your science classes at the school. Submit a description of your community service project in your portfolio.
• New Science Lesson Plan - Work as a team to create and teach at least one new lesson plan into the science curriculum at your school (or for a lower grade classroom). This lesson plan should use energy and the environment to illustrate or inspire students in some area of science, and should be related to your community service project. The idea for the lesson plan can come from existing curricula, other educational sources or, perhaps the best, be invented by your team. In your portfolio, include a description of the lesson plan and any new parts that you have created. You should describe how your lesson plan fits into your class science curriculum, and how it meets state science content standards. You should also describe how you taught the lesson in a classroom, how students responded to the lesson plan, and how it could be further improved.
• Creative Presentation - Your team should create a visually-interesting presentation that documents one component of your project. The presentation can include any level of visual media (including photos, videos, DVDs, CDs or websites) and/or physical mock-ups. Any multimedia materials should not exceed 10 minutes. Posters and other physical models should not exceed 30 x 48 inches.
• Portfolio - The project should be accompanied by a binder documenting the details of your community service and lesson plan activities.
• Research Proposal (For High School Only) -Write a proposal for an energy-related research project. The project can be on any environmental science question or topic that interests you. The proposal should describe the issue or question that you are addressing, what you hope to learn, and how you would go about addressing it, including the methods and equipment that you would use. Proposals should be 3-5 pages in length. (Note: You don't actually have to DO the project, just propose it!).

Please note that the judging of final projects will be based solely upon required components only. Any other submitted materials will not be considered.