Challenge your students to become a Design Squad Top Builder by designing a roller coaster out of poster board!

Students can use poster board or file folders, tape, paper towel tubes, books, a marble and a cup. A marble should be able to ride down your roller coaster and land inside a cup at the end of the track. Watch this video to see Deysi make her own poster coaster. 

Students can enter Design Squad's Top Builder: Poster Coaster Challenge by logging into our website and submitting a photo of their roller coaster using the form at the bottom of this link on or before May 29, 2013. (Please don't include students or teachers in photos - poster coasters only!) We'll highlight our favorite poster coasters and then students can vote for the the best! The builder with the most votes will earn a special sticker they can use on the Design Squad website.

Learn more by visiting the website.

$10,000 for One Trailblazing Teacher

On February 26, 2013, MAKERS premiered the documentary, MAKERS: Women Who Make America proudly presented by Simple Facial Skincare, which chronicles the last 50 years of the women’s movement through first hand accounts of trailblazers, leaders and opponents. If you missed it, the full documentary can be viewed here.

Now - we're ready for action. We're ready to highlight women that are making a difference in the educational community and developing the next generation of MAKERS.

MAKERS will recognize the unsung efforts of teachers that go beyond the "call of duty" to foster innovation, creativity and growth in the classroom, providing a positive impact for students and their local communities. One female teacher will be selected to receive a $10,000 grant from MAKERS and Simple Facial Skincare and the honor of the first MAKERS: Excellence in Education Award. Together - let's say "thank you" to these teachers.

Click here for more information

The Adobe Foundation invites you to participate in the second Adobe Youth Voices Aspire Awards, a global online youth media competition showcasing creative and socially-conscious media from youth ages 13–19.

First submission deadline for any media created between 2010–2012 will be February 22, 2013. All submissions created after January 2013 must be submitted by April 19, 2013.

Also announcing, for the first time ever, Adobe Youth Voices Aspire Awards has partnered with UNICEF to provide the opportunity to implement active change in communities worldwide. The Adobe Youth Voices Aspire Awards will supply three youth-led projects with grants totaling $90,000 to support their initiatives.For more information about the Adobe Youth Voices Aspire Awards UNICEF Challenge, please visit: www.youthvoices.adobe.com/awards.

The PBS KIDS GO! Writers Contest is a national-local contest designed to promote the advancement of children’s reading skills through hands-on, active learning. The Contest encourages children in grades K-3 in communities across the country to celebrate the power of creating stories and illustrations by submitting their own original pieces. The PBS KIDS GO! Writers Contest is produced by PBS KIDS Raising Readers, managed by WNED-TV, Buffalo/Toronto and implemented locally by Eight Public Television. 

2013 Winners

2012 Winners

2011 Winners 

Arizona StoryMakers is a writing contest for 6th 7th and 8th Grade Students.

2012-2013 Winners

2011-2012 Winners

Inspired by the Educate to Innovate Campaign, President Obama’s initiative to promote a renewed focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education, the National STEM Video Game Challenge is a multi-year competition whose goal is to motivate interest in STEM learning among America’s youth by tapping into students’ natural passion for playing and making video games.

http://www.stemchallenge.org/