Capstone Innovation Experiences 2020-21

The STARTLAND team offers virtual coaching sessions to provide feedback to teams about your projects. These sessions take place the last Thursday of each month with the STARTLAND team and guest entrepreneurs serving as mentors.

Prepare with these tips and tricks from STARTLAND

Use this pitch flow to form your message.

This sneak peek at the judges’ rubric will help you do a self-check to see if you’ve built enough empathy around your targeted users and to see if your idea is novel, useful and viable according to the rubric’s suggestions.

More tips and tricks to consider:

• As you are trying to figure out what problem to solve, consider what BIG problem in the world you are passionate about and narrow down a component of that problem that you believe you can solve.
• Another way of ideating a problem to solve is by looking at the tedious, daily problems you or others face and consider how you might solve them.
• If you have an idea or project you think you’d like to pursue, begin validating your idea by talking to people that experience that problem to deeply understand their pain points. This will help you see if the problem is worth pursuing.
• Look for solutions that already exist and wonder, how can I make the current solutions better?
• If you have chosen a problem to solve, focus on using this rubric to make your solution better.
• Practice your pitch as often as you can with as many people as you can! This helps you understand if others’ understand the problem you are solving and the solution you are suggesting.

The Connector

The Connector, built on the Nepris platform and managed by PREP-KC, is a convenient platform for connecting industry professionals with your students via videoconferencing. Learn more about how you can use this tool to complement your PLTW courses during one of the following sessions:

• 3:30 p.m. September 22
• 3:30 p.m. October 5

Contact Teri Kriege for the Zoom link.

Additional Resources

Teacher Guide to Virtual Mentoring Sessions: Download this guide for ideas and resources compiled by KC STEM Alliance and STARTLAND.

Contact Teri Kriege for additional assistance with connecting to KC-area mentors.

KC STEM Alliance recognizes top PLTW design projects in the engineering capstone course through this annual competition. Competition participants submit projects online using Student Corner, a new platform for 2021. Practicing industry professionals then judge student works, evaluating how the projects illustrate students’ design-thinking and problem-solving capabilities.

Recognizing that students may not have had access to all their resources this year, for 2021 students may build/document their project in Google Sites or another platform and upload their final projects to their Student Corner accounts and the competition includes a new Theoretical Division that does not require a prototype. Projects will be judged against these:

• Engineering & Product Design (with Prototype)
• Engineering & Product Design (Theoretical)

Submission deadline is April 15, 2021.

The top three teams in each division will be awarded scholarship prizes, to be split among team members:

• First Place – $2,500;
• Second Place – $1,500;
• Third Place – $1,000.

KC STEM Alliance recognizes top PLTW design projects in the Biomedical Research capstone course through this annual competition. Competition participants submit projects online using Student Corner, a new platform for 2021. Practicing industry professionals then judge student works, evaluating how the projects illustrate students’ design-thinking and problem-solving capabilities.

Recognizing that students may not have had access to all their resources this year, for 2021 students may build/document their project in Google Sites or another platform and upload their final projects to their Student Corner accounts and the competition includes a new Theoretical Division. Projects will be judged against these rubrics:

• Biomedical Research (with Testing)
• Biomedical Research (Theoretical)

Submission deadline is April 15, 2021.

The top three teams in each division will be awarded scholarship prizes, to be split among team members:

• First Place – $2,500;
• Second Place – $1,500;
• Third Place – $1,000.

Sponsored by STARTLAND, the Innovator Awards recognize innovativeness and marketability of project ideas. Teachers will screen projects and must recommend teams by April 1, 2021, to be eligible for judging. There is no limit on the number of projects that can be submitted for judging by each school.

Nominate students here >

Nominated teams will receive an invitation to complete a short online application that will include written responses to a few questions, as well as a 1 minute video of their “pitch,” which will be due by April 22, 2021. The team from STARTLAND will recruit a panel of local entrepreneurs and business professionals to review applications and choose the Top Ten Innovator Award projects for 2021.

Graduating seniors who have completed a capstone project may apply for one of three $500 Make It REAL scholarships. This is an opportunity for students to reflect on their capstone projects and Make It REAL experiences, sharing what they’ve learned along the way and how they perceive it will influence their future.

• Apply here by April 22, 2021.
• Eligibility: Graduating high school students who have completed a capstone project and reside in one of the 9-county Kansas City metro area (Jackson, Clay, Platte, Ray, Cass, MO; Johnson, Wyandotte, Leavenworth, Miami, KS).

Sustainability Challenge: In this second annual challenge from Climate Action KC, students are charged with imagining how we might improve food production, food management or transportation to reduce food waste.

Download the Sustainability Challenge details.

Clean Water Challenge: Burns & McDonnell joins KC STEM Alliance to challenge students to improve access to clean water for personal, agricultural or industrial use.

Download the Clean Water Challenge details.

COVID-19 Challenge: KC STEM Alliance and Black & Veatch invite students to reimagine Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) used to prevent the spread of COVID-19 that improves comfort and functionality during sports and activities.

Download the COVID-19 Challenge details.