2017 Challenge Previews

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Technical

The world is full of changes, both big and small. So grab the wheel – let’s see them all!

Points of Interest

• Present a show that includes an opening act and a headlining act.
• Design and build a stage on which the acts will take place and that will move a team member from one location to another.
• Enhance each act with a technical effect to amaze the audience.
• Create and present two Team Choice Elements that show off the team’s interest, skills, areas of strength, and talents.

Scientific

Our Scientific Challenge blends the research and curiosity of science with the thrill and creativity of the theater arts.

Points of Interest

• Create and present a story about a secret mission.
• Research and apply methods from cryptography and steganography to reveal secret messages.
• Design and create a gadget that appears to be an everyday item.
• Create and integrate a disguised character into the story.
• Create and present two Team Choice Elements that show off the team’s interests, skills, areas of strength, and talents.

Structural

Our Engineering Challenge asks teams to design, build and test load-bearing structures out of specific materials.

Points of Interest

• Design, build and test multiple free-standing structures that work together.
• Develop a strategy for placing structures to support as much weight as possible.
• Develop and present a collaborative solution to a global issue.
• Create and present two Team Choice Elements that highlight the team’s interests, skills, areas of strength, and talents.

Fine Arts

Our Fine Arts Challenge has students flex their acting and creative muscles as they experiment with different types of artistic media and theater arts, write scripts and design props.

Points of Interest

• Research the meanings, roles and uses of colors.
• Present a story about how the disappearance of a color changes the world.
• Create a colorful character that is involved with the color’s disappearance.
• Use technical theater methods to create a vanishing act.
• Create and present two Team Choice Elements that show off the team’s interests, skills, areas of strength, and talents.

Improvisational

Our Improvisational Challenge is all about spontaneity and storytelling. Teams receive topics and produce skits right on the spot.

Points of Interest

• Create three improvisational skits from the same story prompt.
• Present each skit in a different performance genre.
• Portray a different stock character in each skit.
• Enhance each skit with props.

Service Learning / Project Outreach®

Our Service Learning Challenge is designed to engage students in public service to address real-life community issues.

Points of Interest

• Identify, design, plan and carry out a project that addresses a real community need.
• Create a live presentation of a team-created fable that integrates information about the project.
• Include an impact prop and a character that changes appearance.
• Create and present two Team Choice Elements that show off the team’s interests, skills, areas of strength, and talents.

Early Learning / Rising Stars!®

Our Rising Stars! for Early Learners Challenge offers simple experiences with the creative process, and it gives young kids (preschool through 2nd grade) a place to work together and make new friends.

Points of Interest

• Learn about simple and complex machines.
• Use simple machines to create and build a new invention.
• Create a play that tells a story about how the new invention helps to save the day.
• Create props, scenery and costumes to help tell the story.

Instant Challenge

Instant Challenges require teams to engage in quick, creative and critical thinking. At a tournament, a team will receive an Instant Challenge and the materials with which to solve it. The team members must think on their feet by applying appropriate skills to produce a solution in a period of just five to eight minutes.

In a world with growing cultural connections, increased levels and types of communication, and a new need for real-time teamwork and problem solving, the ability to solve problems quickly is becoming increasingly critical.

Instant Challenges are performance-based, task-based, or a combination of the two. Although each Instant Challenge has different requirements, all Instant Challenges reward teams for their teamwork and the creativity of their solutions. Instant Challenges are kept confidential through the day of the Tournament.