Starting in August 2024, Frost Science will kick off the first-ever STEM Challenge for middle and high school students in Miami-Dade County and surrounding areas. Students enrolled in the challenge will use the engineering design process to create new and innovative solutions to some of the problems scientists are currently trying to solve—and compete for scholarships along the way.
While traditional science fairs require students to come up with their own questions to investigate and test, all students participating in the STEM Challenge will investigate one of four pre-defined problems relating to one of Frost Science’s core disciplines: marine science, health, paleontology, and astronomy. Students can work in a group or individually to pick a problem, develop and model a solution to it, and present their work. Even though many students might be working on the same topic, these problems are broad, and students will be able to use their unique interests, knowledge, and skillsets to derive their own creative solutions.
At the end of the 2024-2025 school year, students will submit their projects for a first round of judging. Then, select students will be invited to present their projects at a special event at Frost Science. Students will be judged by experts and scientists in the marine science, health, paleontology, and astronomy fields. Winning groups and individuals will receive college scholarships covering up to four years of college!
Frost Science’s vision is for the STEM Challenge to be an ever-evolving challenge, with the overall program structure remaining constant but the theme and problems for students to solve changing each year. This gives students the opportunity to compete in the STEM Challenge for multiple years. For this inaugural 2024-2025 school year, the theme of the STEM Challenge is “Climate Mitigation and Adaptation.” From trying to reduce the astronomy fields’ carbon footprint to finding ways for corals to survive our warming oceans, all students will be working to solve real-world scientific problems.
While the STEM Challenge was initially designed for high school students in Miami-Dade County Public Schools, continued interest from teachers has encouraged us to expand the challenge to other counties and to middle school students. Despite being a brand-new challenge, more than 15 schools have already registered as of May 2024, and these schools plan to engage over 1,000 students. We can’t wait to see what solutions these students create!
Teacher registrations are still open for the STEM Challenge. To register or to learn more about the challenge and associated teacher benefits and resources, please click here.
The STEM Challenge is generously funded by the Glenn W. Bailey Foundation.