Create, Connect, Compete

Read The Global Classroom: Connecting Student Stories Across Borders to learn about the idea behind Create, Connect, Compete

The Challenges

Create, Connect, Compete offers three hands-on challenges that transform classroom learning into opportunities for authentic creation, global collaboration, and real-world innovation:

  • Global Media Competition – Students produce podcasts or videos to share ideas worldwide.

  • Pen and Prose Contest – Students craft written works enhanced with digital elements.

  • Global Design Challenge – Students tackle real-world problems through engineering and prototyping.

These challenges help students develop essential future-ready skills—such as critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving—while connecting with peers around the world. Rather than simply studying concepts, students put them into practice to produce work that resonates beyond the classroom.

Student Participation

When students participate in these challenges, they:

  • Create with purpose rather than just completing assignments.

  • Connect with authentic audiences beyond their classroom walls.

  • Showcase their unique talents in media, writing, or engineering.

  • Develop future-ready skills for meaningful application in the future.

Each challenge provides structured opportunities for students to apply their knowledge, creativity and expertise while celebrating diverse perspectives and approaches.

About the Challenges

  • Share student stories and perspectives through podcasts or videos with a worldwide audience.

    This competition gives students the opportunity to create media content that communicates their ideas to peers around the world.

    Key Benefits:

    • Develop communication skills through creative storytelling and media production

    • Gain global awareness by exchanging ideas with students from different cultures

    • Build digital literacy by creating podcasts or videos for authentic audiences

    • Express unique perspectives on topics that matter to them

    Students will strengthen their abilities as communicators while learning to appreciate diverse viewpoints from around the world.

  • Apply engineering principles to solve real-world problems through hands-on prototyping.

    This challenge transforms STEM learning by having students identify authentic problems and develop working solutions through the complete design process.

    Key Benefits:

    • Practice human-centered design by addressing actual community needs

    • Apply engineering principles through practical, hands-on prototyping

    • Master maker technologies including digital fabrication and electronics

    • Collaborate across borders to develop innovative approaches to complex problems

    Students will experience the entire innovation cycle from identifying needs to building functional prototypes that can make a real difference.