CNMI invited to Real World Design Challenge

The CNMI Public School System has received an invitation to participate in the Real World Design Challenge, an annual high school competition for all states and territories.

The challenge’s goal is to transform the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education in the U.S. by providing professional science and engineering and learning resources to students and teachers.

Education Commissioner Dr. Rita A. Sablan disclosed that PSS had formally accepted the invitation of Dr. Ralph K. Coppola, the challenge’s project director, after securing the support of the Governor’s Office.

Sablan said this is the first time CNMI schools will join the competition, which she described as a good opportunity for students from the Commonwealth to engage in real-world activities relating to science, technology, engineering, and math.

On Feb. 10 and 11, the commissioner said public and private schools will showcase their projects for the annual PSS-wide STEM Fair which entries to the state-level competition will also be presented. The commissioner, however, has yet to disclose the competing schools but mentioned that the Marianas High School aviation class is among the participating teams in the competition. The upcoming PSS STEM Fair also covers projects of elementary students.

The Real World Design Challenge began in 2008 through a partnership between industry, government, academia, and non-profit. The partners were committed to bringing a program to schools that brought professional engineering resources into the classroom, was free to participate in, and could scale to every school in the United States. On its first year, 10 states participated.

Sablan said that every school that participates in the challenge gets $1 million in professional engineering software along with training, curriculum materials, and access to mentors. She said competing teams of high school students are mandated to use these resources to solve an engineering challenge that is currently faced by industry.

Based on the competition’s website, students first compete in a state level Governor’s Cup and the team with the best design in each state gets an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C. to compete in the national finals. For the state level, governors sponsor the program in their states.

Pleased with the invitation, the commissioner expressed her excitement on the upcoming event next month. Based on the competition’s schedule posted on its website, state challenge digital submission scored by judged is due on Feb. 7-17 while state winners will be announced on Feb. 20-24. For the national challenge, submission is slated for April 10-18, while the national challenge is on April 20-23.

“We are very pleased to know that the executive branch is supporting this project for our students and we’re very excited,” the commissioner told Saipan Tribune, adding that the competition is also supported by the Federal Aviation Administration and the administration of President Barrack Obama.