Challenging students to design solutions that improve everyday life

Texas Instruments has issued a coding challenge for students: create a solution using the company's education technology that helps enhance daily lives. Perhaps an alarm clock that shakes the bed until a person wakes up, or something relevant to the environment, say a smart irrigation system that conserves water, or a product that tracks a home's electricity consumption in real-time. Whatever students can imagine, the company wants them to create it using their graphing calculators and the TI-Innovator Hub. Innovator, as it's known, is a palm-sized box with a built-in microcontroller that plugs into a TI graphing calculator and enables students to imagine, design and test creative solutions. Teams of up to five students, ages 13 to 19, can enter the contest by presenting a design proposal. "At TI, we want to help teachers keep students engaged in math and science as visions of summer vacation start dancing in their heads," said Curtis Brown, former teacher turned math specialist for TI. "This fun, hands-on contest combines coding, collaboration and some spirited competition to keep students focused on learning important STEM concepts as the school year comes to a close."