2020-2021 Challenges Coming Soon!
Design It Make It (At-Home) Challenge 2019-2020
The Design it Make it Challenge has been updated to a Design it Make it (At-Home) Challenge to allow students to work on a solution at home. Leading up to TinkerFest, students participating in Design It Make It (At-Home) Challenge will work to solve a chosen real-world challenge by designing, building, and/or coding a solution. Students from across Indiana will come together at TinkerFest to showcase their solutions to the public and judges in hopes of winning recognition for their efforts on August 15th at the Indiana State Museum.
DIMI is free to registered student participants.
One of the challenges with a growing global population is lack of access to food. Here in the United States, we grow enough food for the entire world population, but we lack the distribution channels and logistics to distribute it across the world to people who are food insecure.
Our society needs global solutions for growing food in a sustainable way as the population increases. Our society also needs better solutions for distributing food that farmers grow. How can individuals contribute to the solution? Many people have started to grow their own food in the form of gardens, community gardens, or at-home hydroponics systems. What will your solution be?
2020 Challenge: How might you create a unique solution to grow or distribute food in a more sustainable way?
Rules
Each applicant may enter one (1) age category: K-4, 5-8, 9-12. (Highest grade achieved)
All projects should include documentation of work using the Google Sheets Template. (see Google Sheet Template below for final submission)
All projects must directly relate to the challenge statement.
Total supply list of new or purchased supplies may not exceed $100.
No open flames, dangerous/corrosive chemicals, explosives, weapons, blades or hazardous objects allowed.
Experiments that harm animals will be disqualified.
Must be built in a durable and portable format that can be safely transported and used for the Design it Make it (At-Home) Challenge Event on August 15, 2020 if participants qualify. Alternatively, students can create a display of their design if unable to transport (like live plants in the ground). Table display size will be 4 ft. by 2 ½ ft.
Participants are responsible for all set-up, maintenance and break down of project displays during the Design it Make it Challenge Event.
Rubric
Below is a link to the rubric that will be used to evaluate projects for all grades. Please review and keep in mind when putting your presentation and submission together.
Potential Supply List
Below are examples of supplies that could help get you started depending on the project you choose. Students are welcome to use any supplies, including repurposing supplies at home. Total supply list of new or purchased supplies may not exceed $100.
Ruler
PVC Pipe
Arduino: Adafruit, Elegoo, or Arduino Uno
Adafruit STEMMA Soil Sensor - I2C Capacitive Moisture Sensor
We believe that the Design it Make it Challenge should not be limited only to students that can afford to purchase additional supplies they may need for this challenge, that is why we are offering families up to $25 towards an Amazon purchase to offset the cost of supplies if you can not afford them.
Sign up
If you plan on participating in the Design it Make it (At-Home) Challenge we would like to know what students are working on the project. Please sign up for the challenge by clicking the button below and entering your name and email address. We will email you about special announcements, ideas for projects, and notifications about online workshops (we promise we won't email you a lot). We look forward to seeing what solution you come up with!
Parent Guide
It can be difficult to get started with a project at home like this, so we want to offer you some ideas to get you thinking about ways that you can approach the challenge that will make it easier to get started. Remember the rule of making is don’t get ready get started. Don’t be afraid to jump in and start, you will find that we often do our best thinking with our hands. As our hands are engaged in building, we find that our brains are activated, and the project begins to evolve and take shape. Here are some ideas for how you might approach the project.
There are so many ways to approach this and we encourage you to find the way that is most engaging and interesting to you.
Keep it Digital: Not everyone will want to put seeds in dirt and work with plants. That’s ok.
You might come up with a new way to manage a community garden membership.
An approach to maximize a given lot space for community garden or container garden.
Come up with a digital system to maximize the shipping and distribution of our food delivery (For example, how might we develop a system that diminishes food waste?)
How can you leverage Internet of Things technology to enhance the food production and distribution using sensors and connected systems?
Make it Smart: Smart technology widely available and can power a digital solution.
Develop technology that sends notifications to phone/email/other devices for watering, fertilizing, caring for your plants.
Create a system for better composting (think temperature, correct balance of “hot” items in composting). Worms and bees? Can you create a solution to improve the ecosystem to be most beneficial to worms and other biological life that helps our plants to grow?
Is there a better way to create containers for plants? How can you apply smart technology to these containers to improve their yields?
Keep it Simple: This might be the hardest lesson to learn. We all want to throw everything we can think of at a problem hoping a solution will come out the other side. Slow down and focus on one small problem that you feel, mostly, equipped to handle.
Build a new kind of container for plants.
Design the perfect layout of plants that will be beneficial. Think rotating corn and soybeans to replenish soil. Can you place plants or other biological life in proximity to maximize pollination, fertilization, soil composition, etc…
Create a simple solution for food waste. What can we do with that old head of lettuce sitting in the refrigerator?
What about packaging? Even the produce that we purchase is often packaged in ways that are not sustainable. How can you approach this issue?
Broaden your perspective and think about how food production might be changed to help solve other issues like climate change? This is an opportunity for the budding data analysts out there. Can you project what the impact of one plant per household would have on the global climate?
Resource Guide
The most important thing to remember is you can do this there are so many resources out there to help you from YouTube to Inventables to learn new skills and apply them to this important question. Here are some places to go and search for inspiration:
Books: Sometimes the best way to engage is through story.
Grades K-4
Stone Soup by Jon J. Muth: There are many variations of this story, but I particularly like this one. Not necessarily about food production but it is about the sense of community that can be developed around food preparation.
The Ugly Vegetables by Grace Lin: A young girl envies her neighbors’ flower gardens and wishes that her own garden wasn’t full of ugly vegetables but realizes how beautiful they are when her mother makes soup from the vegetables (contains recipes).
We Are the Gardeners by Joanna Gaines: In We Are the Gardeners, Joanna and the kids chronicle the adventures of starting their own family garden. From their failed endeavors, obstacles to overcome (bunnies that eat everything!), and all the knowledge they've gained along the way, the Gaines family shares how they learned to grow a happy, successful garden. As it turns out, trying something new isn't always easy, but the hardest work often yields the greatest reward. There are always new lessons to be learned in the garden!
Grades 5-12
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan adapted for young readers by Richie Chevat: This is a nonfiction exploration of everything from supermarkets to organic farming to foraging.
Moosewood Restaurant Kitchen Garden by David Hirsch: In what is called "a gardening book for cooks and a cookbook for gardeners," Hirsch offers brief seed-starting instructions, cultural requirements, harvesting instructions, garden design plans, and culinary tips for a variety of vegetables and herbs. He also includes general gardening techniques, insect control, and recipes from the Moosewood kitchens.
You Grow Girl by Gayla Trail: Quirky illustrations and a chatty style relay all sorts of gardening tips, from preparing a garden for winter to keeping pests away from potted tomatoes. Visit the You Grow Girl website here: http://yougrowgirl.com/
Prizes
1st Maker Space will donate the following prizes for 1st place:
K-4 grade band: 3Doodler pen
5-8 grade band: Bit:Booster Kit
9-12 grade band: Arduino Starter Kit
Submission Process
All projects are due July 15th, 2020
Using this Google Slides Template
Document all of your progress from start to finish of your project.
Create a video presentation demonstrating how your project works and what problem it solves.
Upload your video to YouTube (or another video format) and set the video to “unlisted” and not “private” so judges will be able to view the link provided.
View this tutorial here for more information.
When your project is complete please submit your final Google Slides in the link below.
Frequently asked questions (faqs)
1. If I create an app, software, or digital technologies solution using a laptop, does the laptop count as a part of my $100 budget?
No, laptops are not included in the budget and the $100 is a ceiling of expense for teams in an attempt to level the playing field. Don’t consider the $100 a budget you should try to meet.
2. How much does it cost to participate in DIMI?
Nothing! DIMI, just like the rest of the TinkerFest event, is free to all registered student participants. Families and guests of registered students will receive discounted museum admission.
Additional Questions?
Contact us at DesignItMakeIt@techpointyouth.org
Additional Resources
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