I have come across some great competitions for NZ students over the past couple of weeks and wondered how many new about them. All 3 of these provide great, engaging, provoking tasks that Im sure at least some of your students will love!

The Barbara Petchenik Childrens Mapping Competition is an international competition that occurs every 2 years. It aims to promote children’s creative representation of the world in graphic form, to enhance their cartographic awareness and to make them more conscious of their environment. There are 4 different age groups and the maps can be made in a wide range of forms. More info is available here.

The Eggs Prize Competition is being launched at the Makertorium in April at Te Papa. It is a team competition to design a machine that can transport an egg. Teams are open to create a machine using any technology they choose (barring explosives) be it simple or complex. As well as an overall judged “best machine” there will be awards, such as most humorous, fastest, best technically, most efficient and most eco friendly. See more on the Makertorium website here.

Mix and Mash is a chance for students to get creative mixing up creative commons digital content into new stories. It will teach digital citizenship skills as well as letting them get creative. I saw this 2 days ago and we have already worked the first round of it into our Year 10 accelerate Social Studies programme – it is that great! Read more at www.mixandmash.org.nz.

What other great unknown competitions are out there!?