WEBChallenge 2015 Celebrating 13 Years Engaging Students in STEM Learning 2015 Theme Adopt a Nonprofit Program Guide TAG Education Collaborative 75 5 th Street, Suite 625 Atlanta, GA 30308 (404) 920-2038 www.tagedonlie.org Michael Robertson, Executive Director
The 2015 WEBChallenge Helping a Nonprofit Organization Increase Traffic The 2015 WEBChallenge is unlike any of the previous 12 challenges we have conducted. In our ongoing effort to expose students to real world technology issues this year s WEBChallenge will require each team to develop a plan to increase traffic and visibility. Each team will select from a group of six non- profit organizations and evaluate the sites ability to attract their target market. The team will then choose at least two focus areas to make recommendations for improvement. The participating organizations will provide answers to a questionnaire as a starting point for the team s use and teams will have an opportunity to ask questions prior to submitting their recommendations. Each team s plan will be evaluated by a group of business, technology and education professionals. Winning teams will win scholarships for the students and a stipend for the Faculty Advisor s supply budget. Teams may choose from the following organizations to adopt: STEMREACH.ORG The goal of STEMReach.org is to provide an engaging and informative resource to help students, parents, and teachers find STEM educational opportunities in the state of Georgia. CFY ATLANTA CFY Atlanta partners with middle schools to help them leverage digital learning to transform low- income school communities, promote educational equality, and improve student achievement. 21ST CENTURY LEADERS 21st Century Leaders is a collaboration of business and professional leaders inspiring high school students to take on leadership positions, seek out opportunities, and give back to their communities by connecting them with a diverse group of enthusiastic peers, passionate professionals and powerful ideas, transforming their skills, attitudes, and abilities through training and hands- on experiences. Women in Technology (WIT) Women in Technology s mission is to serve as passionate advocates for women of all ages in Georgia s STEM community. Their vision is to make Georgia the state with the highest percentage of women in the STEM workforce by providing opportunities that champion women throughout their education and career. CAPTAIN PLANET FOUNDATION Based on the critically- acclaimed animated series Captain Planet and the Planeteers, CPF was co- founded in 1991 by media mogul Ted Turner and producer Barbara Pyle. Since then, the Captain Planet Foundation has provided grants to over 1,800 hands- on environmental education projects, impacting 1.2 million youth, in order to ensure that the next generation of business leaders and policy makers are environmentally literate citizens who leverage technology and information to manage and protect the air, land, and water upon which all life depends. GREENING YOUTH Greening Youth provides environmental education programs to underserved young people in Atlanta s public schools. GYF also recruits and trains 16-25 year olds to conservation and preservation careers through internships, work crews, and special projects. Participation Criteria Teams will consist of 2-4 students. Teams must have a primary contact person.
Each team must represent a school or approved school organization; home school and after school programs are welcome. A faculty advisor must represent each team. This may be anyone who represents the school or organization. All communications will take place between TAG Ed and the Advisor. Students from different schools may participate on a single team (in this case the primary school will be the Faculty Advisors school) Faculty advisors may represent multiple teams from the same school. Winning teams must agree to provide their documents to the Non- Profit organization for their continued use free of charge. Registering your Team All teams must register by February 17, 2015 via this link. You must be registered in order to access the nonprofit s website content. Resources One of the key learning objectives of the WEBChallenge is for students to identify resources and learn new tools. Teams are encouraged to seek additional tools and resources to complete their entry. Your WEBChallenge team is allowed to only use resources and tools that they currently have or resources they can get for free. Teams must include a listing of all resources used to complete their recommendations. Faculty advisors may provide guidance and direction for the team; however, students are held accountable for completing all aspects of their project. Teams may not contact the non- profit organization directly. Students will be able to ask questions of their selected nonprofit during a Q&A session during the 4 th week of competition. All teams working with a specific non- profit will be able to participate in the Q&A session. Each team will submit questions to TAG- Ed before the session to allow the non- profit organization to prepare. The Q&A results will be posted on a shared resource folder for those who are unable to participate in the session. Each registered team will have access to a shared resources folder for their selected nonprofit. This folder will contain any information the organization has to provide. Teams may NOT use this folder to store their project files. Final Deliverables Content Strategy Document Teams should research Website Content Strategy to find a template to use for evaluating their nonprofit organization s site. Then teams should write a detailed content strategy document evaluating the site. At a minimum, this report should contain which types of content would work best on the non- profit website. Content types could include videos, blog posts, slide shows, testimonials, photos, etc. This strategy document should also include analysis and recommendations of accessibility, navigation, design, content, technical performance, Social Media connection and Search Engine Optimization. Strategy recommendations should be backed up with well- thought out reasoning based on the non- profit s mission and existing website resources and layout. Choice at least two of the four areas below: o Content Implementation Directions: Teams will create a detailed plan for how to implement their content strategy recommendations. This plan will address how the team would get their content onto the existing website and where it would go. Examples of this information would answer questions, depending on their content strategy, such as: Who will write and upload the blog
posts? How do you integrate a YouTube channel into a website? How will photos be added? What is the process for integrating a Twitter feed into a website? In short, teams will provide the nonprofit organization with instructions that would allow them to put the content strategy into place on a real website. o Search Engine Optimizations (SEO): Teams will research SEO and create a document which explains what SEO is and how to optimize SEO. They will provide an SEO strategy that is customized to include - 1) How to optimize SEO for the types of content they recommend in their content strategy document and 2) strategies to increase organic search ratings related to the particular subject matter and mission of the website. o User Experience / Website Improvement recommendations: Teams will perform a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) on the non- profit website and provide a set of recommendations that they think will make the site more engaging or user friendly. Examples of these types of recommendations might include adding features like a calendar or search bar. o Social Media Strategy: Teams will research what Social Media outlets the nonprofit organization currently uses and provide input on the effectiveness of their current approach. Teams should recommend additional resources, content plans and a Social Media calendar. Resources Bibliography - Teams will provide a detailed bibliography of the resources and tools used to conduct their research and provide their recommendations. The size, depth and detail of the bibliography will be a major component of the evaluation Submission: The primary contact for each team will email their report and supporting documentation by March 31, 2015 at noon. Submit your entries to Michael Robertson at mrobertson@tagonline.org. All documents must be included as an email attachment in a single pdf file. Please name the pdf file using the following format 2015 WEBChallenge {School or Program name} {Team Name} No changes are allowed after submittal of the entry. Important Dates Registration Available: January 9 - February 17 (Teams not registering will NOT be eligible for prizes) Teams will receive detailed information on nonprofit and website content: January 23 Deadline to submit questions to non- profits: February 17 FAQs/Non profit questions and answers published in Shared Folder: March 2 Entry Submission Deadline - Noon March 31 Judging conducted between April 1 April 16 Winners announced in each category: April 17 Awards Reception Date To Be Determined in late April / early May Judging Criteria
Volunteer judges from the business, technology and education will determine the semi- finalist based on the following criteria: Proper Submission Thoroughness of Analysis Realism of the Recommendations Creativity of the Recommendations Quality of Research as measured by Resource Bibliography Each nonprofit organization will then select the finalists from the group of semi- finalist entries. The winning team will receive a partial, post- secondary scholarship. Faculty advisors of the winning team will receive a stipend for classroom supplies. Awards Over $200,000 has been awarded since the inception of this program, as post secondary scholarships for students. The size of awards in 2015 will be determined by the size of the Scholarship Pool. Student Scholarships will be awarded to winning teams for post secondary studies. Award sums will be distributed equally among the team. o Payments will be made directly to the post secondary institution where the student is attending in the student s name. Teacher Stipends Faculty Advisors of winning teams will receive a stipend for their supply budget. o Payments will be made to the educational institution the Advisor represents in the name of the winning team. o Advisors are responsible for providing payment information. For more information - Contact Michael Robertson at mrobertson@tagonline.org Contest Rules NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. The High School WEBChallenge Contest ends at 12:00 p.m. EST on March 31, 2015. Entries may not be acknowledged or returned. ENTRY: Entries must be emailed to Michael Robertson at mrobertson@tagonline.org. Late entries will not be accepted. LIMIT: Teams are limited to one entry per team. There is no limit on the number of teams per school. ELIGIBILITY: Entries must be developed in a team consisting of 2-4 Georgia high school students. WINNER SELECTION: A panel of judges will select finalist teams. Winning entries will be determined by the Adopted Non- Profit Organization. Decisions of the TAG- Ed, its partners, and its affiliates are final and binding in all respects. PRIZES: Each winning team member will receive partial post- secondary scholarships. Faculty advisors paired with the winning teams will receive one stipend toward their classroom supply budget. PRIVACY: Winners names and project details, possibly including the finished project, will be included in a widely distributed news release. IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO SHARE YOUR ENTRY, PLEASE DO NOT ENTER THIS CONTEST.
OWNERSHIP OF Entries: All entrants and winners agree that by submitting documents, automatically and without further documentation, TAG- Ed, the Adopted Non- Profit Organization, and the team submitting the information will have joint ownership of all documentation relating to the website. The Adopted Non- Profit Organization, TAG- Ed and the team shall have the right to modify and creative derivative works of the documentation and to commercially exploit the Report and documentation, together with any modification or derivative work thereof, in any manner, anywhere, without attribution of authorship and without payment or accounting for any revenue received as a result of such exploitation. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the party creating any modification or derivative work of its documentation shall be the only party owning such modification or derivative work and no license is hereby granted to any other party with respect to such modification or derivative work. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS OF OWNERSHIP FOR YOUR ENTRY, PLEASE DO NOT ENTER THIS CONTEST. OTHER: TAG- Ed, its partners and affiliates assume no responsibility for entries it is unable to process due to network, hardware or other technical failures; or any other reason, or incomplete, damaged, misdirected, or lost entries. Promoters further reserve the right to cancel, terminate or modify the contest if not capable of completion as planned, including infection by computer virus, technical corruption, or non- authorized human intervention. TAG- Ed shall have the right to resolve any interpretation, question, omission or ambiguity regarding the contest rules and procedure.