Startland Education’s second annual Back to School Innovation Challenge
On Sept. 16th, our Education team hosted its second annual Back To School Innovation Challenge (#B2SChallenge). For the first-time in person, 100+ high school students all over the Kansas City Metropolitan Area were able to work in teams to create unique solutions to the design question,
“How might we leverage our specific identities in order to empower, advocate, and support young women in our communities?”
Check out some of the winning teams from the challenge below!
Winning Pitches
Runner-Up: Women in Sports (Team 19)
Members: Anna, Lauren, Mya, Anthony & Solomon
Schools: Tonganoxie High School, Valley View High School, Basehor-Linwood High School, Piper High School
Final Pitch: After completing their empathy work, this team determined that women in sports are often “overlooked or belittled”. To combat this, the team proposed creating a television show competition where amateur contestants compete with real-life, professional athletes of all genders. The TV show would also focus on highlighting these various athletes by including interview segments. Ultimately, the team hopes this will close the sports gender gap by showcasing all guest athletes with the same level of importance and excitement.
First Place: Sports Bingo Card (Team 20)
Members: Liam, Lane, William, Clarie, Alan
Schools: Piper High School, Basehor-Linwood High School
Final Pitch: As Claire opened with her own personal experience of women’s sports being undervalued, the team proposed their solution: a Bingo card. The idea is simple yet highly effective––students will receive a bingo card that can be filled out by attending high school sporting events. Whoever completely fills their bingo card will win a prize, and whoever fills a row will be entered into a raffle. These students hope that by incentivizing students to attend all sporting events, this will lead to more respect and attendance at women’s games.
Putting women first.
Check out a quick recap of the Challenge day at Shawnee Civic Center.
Our Impact
“I love how it made us think kinda outside the box and that it was asking for our opinions not just how most people think.”
— Anonymous, Raymore-Peculiar High School
“I think the pitching was really important. That was nothing like I'd ever experienced, and it'll be important later on.”
— Anonymous, Blue Springs High School
“My favorite part was being able to work with other people on a real world problem that is affecting humans.”
— Anonymous, Raymore-Peculiar High School
Photos captured by Sydney Siemens.
Thank You to Our Partners
A special thank you to our guest speaker, mentors, judges and The Shawnee Civic Centre for hosting us!
Congratulations to all our students who participated in Back To School Innovation Challenge!
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