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    Essential Information for Competition Participants

    Requirements

    The Governor’s STEM Competition offers two options for school teams who wish to participate in the 2024 competition. 

    Regardless of each student team's participation in the competition, a team is limited to a maximum of five students in grades 9 through 12. Students must be associated with a public, charter, or private school, a career and technical education center, or homeschooled in Pennsylvania. Each student team must work under the guidance of an approved school mentor.

    Option A: Prototype and Digital Research Poster

    • The digital research poster should include a comprehensive overview of your project or prototype. It is highly recommended that you document your journey throughout the development process using multimedia platforms and devices, as this will be helpful when creating your digital poster. The digital research poster should cover the following key components:
    • Project Description: A detailed explanation of the identified need and how your project aims to improve the quality of life for Pennsylvanians.
    • Engineering Design Process: A clear and thorough explanation of how the Engineering Design Process was utilized in your project.
    • Innovation: Highlight the originality and inventiveness of your proposal.
    • Local Business/Industry Partnership: Describe how local business or industry partnerships were utilized in the construction of your prototype.
    • Team Dynamics: Showcase the collaborative efforts of your team members, their roles, and contributions.
    • Prototype Demonstration: Include video with explanation of your prototype, demonstrating its features and functionalities. See criteria in 2025 Governor’s STEM Competition eBooklet (PDF).
    • Organization: Ensure that information is presented concisely using bullet points or numbered lists, with minimal narrative sections.
    • Project submissions are categorized in one of two divisions:
      • Division 1: Those who competed in the STATE COMPETITION in the last 5 years.
      • Division 2: Those who have not competed in the STATE COMPETITION in the last 5 years.
    • Top 20 projects will advance to the State Finals at PaTTAN Harrisburg

    Option B: Digital Poster to Non-Competitive Digital ResearchPoster

    • The purpose for creating a Digital Poster is to demonstrate the scientific and engineering process students engaged in, while developing and designing their school’s STEM class, program, or club.
    • Option B is for those teams who do not wish to participate in-person. 
    • School teams will submit their posters digitally.  
      • Posters will be printed by PaTTAN, displayed at Finals, and then mailed to school teams. 
    • No formal judging will occur for posters submissions.
    • Digital badges and Certificates of Participation will be provided to participating student teams.
    • A maximum of 5 students are permitted to work and submit a poster.
    • Approved mentors are not permitted to contribute to the development or creation of digital components for the team’s poster.    

    Competition Format

    The Governor's STEM Competition will be held in a hybrid format.

    • Round 1: Virtually
    • State Finals: Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA

    Theme

    Harmonious Fusion: The Art and Science of STEAM

    Local Business/Industry Partnership

    Teams are required to partner with a member of their local community or business to develop a solution to a real problem rooted in the community – this helps create an authentic experience for the students and provides opportunities for them to learn more about career pathways and employment opportunities based in STEM.

    Team Stipend

    Registrants will receive a one-time $600 stipend to design and build their prototype or device. Stipends will be distributed to schools pending commitment to participation in the competition. Once school district business offices receive the stipend, they are responsible for disbursement of funds to the team advisor.

    Any team that withdraws from the competition will be required to immediately return the full amount of the stipend. Advisors are required to send an email to govstemcomp@pattan.net that provides notice of this decision so the team can be removed from all STEM documentation and publications. 

    Advisors

    Team advisors will be mentored by regional intermediate unit STEM points of contact. Advisors will be notified by the intermediate unit as to who their mentor will be.

    One team advisor must be identified for each participating team. This individual will work with the team as a mentor/coach. The role of the advisor is to:

    • supervise work sessions.
    • provide support.
    • facilitate positive collaboration and teamwork.

    PaTTANpod: Mentoring students in the Governor's STEM Competition (YouTube)

    Judging

    Judges reserve the right to disqualify or deduct points from any team that is found to have violated the rules or the spirit of the rules.

    Each division will award a team as the Grand Champion, First Runner Up, Second Runner Up and Third Runner Up. Scholarships will be awarded to each student on the winning teams (students only).

    Four special awards have been developed to honor contributions made to the Commonwealth that will impact the medical, sustainability, and survivability needs of all citizens of Pennsylvania.