Around YOUR World in Eight Days
A STEAMpunk Exploration
A fun and free online team competition to raise awareness and imagination around the interaction between humans and technology in today’s world.
Inspired by the STEAMpunk movement, we invite you to use your imagination and apply technology in novel and original ways to solve real-world problems of your choice. Let’s inject Arts and Humanities into STEM to create the STEAM required to power our future.
Form your team > explore YOUR world for problems > select your project > design & invent > present your solution > win access to our comprehensive program later this year.
Ideal for people aged 8 -16, and open to anyone.
Why not sign up a team for your family, group of friends, sports club, youth club, science club, STEM club, gaming club, book club or start a STEAM club?
Our inaugural event was part of Australian National Science Week, but is open to participants from around the world and can be done as a self-paced program.
What next?
Although the inaugural competition has now finished, we are planning another round in 2020, so make sure you let us know if you are interested.
To comply with privacy regulations, we require an adult to register teams with participants under 14.
And the winners are…
So much fun in just EIGHT lessons!!!
I cannot believe what these teams were able to achieve in just 8 lessons over a period of two weeks in conjunction with National Science Week 2020. We are currently working on sample curriculum links and lesson plans that you may want to use in your own classroom to inspire and engage students and give them agency in their own learning.
Program Outline for Learners
Calling all creators, technologists & inventors!
STEAMpunk is an inspired movement of creativity and imagination. Use clothing, props & technology in new and unique ways to explore & change your future (or past). Present your ideas and inventions using art, film, writing, images, audio or other media.
The WHY
In our world today, it is hard to imagine how we would survive without technology. And to figure out what we can do to improve the outcomes.
We invite you to come with us on an adventure to learn more about how human intelligence and technology intersect and interact. What is the right balance? Is there a right balance? Where do arts, creativity and other 21st Century skills fit in.
Some people feel a bit lost and don’t understand STEM or technology. Let’s explore and have some fun with STEAMpunk.
The WHAT
Put your own dream team together & come along for a ride. Your team can be any size, but we believe 4 – 7 is ideal. Invite your friends, your family, your youth club, your sports club, your classmates, or your gaming friends.
Find a problem that you are passionate about and come up with ideas & inventions to solve.
Use your imagination, change things around, add seemingly unrelated information and props. Does that make for a better world?
Submit a creative pitch to showcase your ideas and inventions with a chance to win your next adventure.
The WHO
We believe this competition will be most fun for people aged 8-16, but it is open to anyone. Adults. e.g. parents, teachers, youth workers, can participate to help guide, but not contribute.
The rule is that the young people are given free rein to ideate and explore together, come up with inventions and to present their journey in any way that they see fit… drawings, story telling, audio, interviews, video, images, an essay, song and dance… their preferred method of expression as a team.
Don’t have a team? Send us a message and we will see if we can match you up.
The WHEN
Our inaugural competition was part of National Science Week in Australia in August & September 2020.
We will be running the competition at regular intervals, so don’t be shy about signing up.
We will provide support for teachers, community workers and parents who are interested in running the program for young people they know.
The HOW
It’s a fairly simple process
- Explore & form team
- Explore your world for problem(s)
- Invent & design solution(s)
- Present your invention
Your presentation is what we will use to select the winners. There are no wrong or right answers. This is exploratory and we look forward to seeing how you map out this journey and present it.
We have no doubt that you will have fun and come up with plenty of ideas, but to help you along the way, we will provide a suggested approach, guiding questions and samples every day.
All you need is LOW-TECH
Think you need advanced tech to participate? Think again.
We want everyone to be able to enjoy this, so the only thing you need is an email address and one device per team so you can join online, view resources and submit your entry at the end. We will be suggesting a couple of easy to use digital platforms, but they are not mandatory.
What you will need is:
- Can-do attitude
- Collaborative team
- Creativity & critical thinking
- Communication skills
- Paper, post-it notes
What next?
Although the inaugural competition has now finished, we are planning another round in 2020, so make sure you let us know if you are interested.
To comply with privacy regulations, we require an adult to register teams with participants under 14.
Why STEAMpunk?
STEAMpunk is an inspired movement of creativity and imagination, where people use clothing, props and technology in novel and original ways. It invites images of the Victorian era and the Wild West, ideas of fascinating machines and fanciful costumes, etiquette and wit, playfulness and adventure.
It is a wonderful backdrop for inspiring youth to develop research skills, learn about history, engage in collaboration, and gain numerous other essential skills for 21st century learning.
STEAMpunk incorporates ideas such as retro-futurism and anachronisms. It imagines certain discoveries never happened and impossible or unknown inventions exist. It dresses up gadgets and makes them fashionable, it runs with illogical designs, and invites creativity and play. Technology as we know it progresses in a logical way, with each discovery building on previous discoveries. But what would happen if something changed – what would the impact be on future discoveries and events?
Books and movies have expanded on these ideas, with a fascination in machines, gadgets and weaponry, that are innovative, creative and out of this world! These classics include The Golden Compass, Back to the Future, BladeRunner, Dr. Who, Studio Ghibli films, and Around the World in 80 Days, by Jules Verne. Verne’s novels are often called the earliest versions of STEAMpunk literature. They imagine different pasts and futures than the ones we have experienced. They contain a spirit of discovery and adventure, with an individualistic “can-do” attitude, and a belief that anyone can do anything with enough science and nerve.
By playing with these ideas, understanding the advantages and disadvantages of technology, learning about cause and effect, and adding creativity and imagination, we will have a fun and accessible journey of learning and discovery. We will offer opportunities to see the benefits and shortcomings of technology and create innovative solutions that harness the best qualities in humans and technology, through inventive projects, daily check-ins, and powerful questions to stimulate ideas. We will be the heros in our own STEAMpunk adventure!
There are unlimited possibilities for creating new futures, innovative technologies and funky fashions while learning important skills for 21st century learning.
What next?
Although the inaugural competition has now finished, we are planning another round in 2020, so make sure you let us know if you are interested.
To comply with privacy regulations, we require an adult to register teams with participants under 14.
Competition Rules
1. Organiser
The competition is being run by STEAM Engine Global, a social enterprise that aims to bridge the gap and develop career pathways for people who are underrepresented in tech roles and organisations. Part of the challenge is that a lot of young people feel disengaged and alienated in a world underpinned by technology. The goal is to inspire, enable and empower the learners through bringing in 21st Century skills in a fun, personalised project-based learning environment where the learners have agency in their own learning through relevance and choice.
2. The Online Event & Competition
“Around YOUR World in Eight Days – a STEAMpunk exploration” is part of a series of affordable, low-tech, blended programs inspired by the STEAMpunk movement. Participants are encouraged to think outside the box and not be limited by time and space while they explore the interaction between human skills and technology, Arts and STEM in their own world and try to come up with “inventions” that can improve the outcomes.
3. Competition Dates
The first competition was delivered during National Science Week in Australia from August – September 2020.
Teams may sign up for future competitions continuously and do the eight days at a time that is convenient for them. Finals will occur twice a year with the best submissions progressing to an in-person/online global pitch-event. Winning teams will be announced one week after the closing date.
Deadlines will be communicated on this website and to any teams that have signed up. All times are stated in AWST.
Late pitch submissions will not be considered and/or accepted.
4. Prize
All participants will be provided with a certificate each for their participation.
Teams will be allocated into a category before the kick-off session. Each category will have a winning team, which will be given free entry to the “Around the world in eight weeks – a STEAMpunk expedition” online event, which commences later in 2020. The team is free to invite additional members or gift the prize to other teams.
The most popular entries will be featured on the STEAMpunk Adventures videocast to be launched later this year and will be promoted to media.
There is no payout in cash. Prize must be collected in one transaction.
Categories will be determined based on the teams that enter the competition and may be based on age or type of project / presentation.
5. Teams and registration
- Teams must register to participate in the event online before 08:00am on the opening date.
- Each team can consist of 2 or more members and we recommend 4-6 as a great team size. Teams can be made up from family members, classmates, youth clubs, sports teams and community members.
- The online event / competition is ideal for ages 8-16, but open to anyone.
- The team must be led by youth and can be supported or facilitated by adults if required.
- During registration, we will ask for information about the team members, including age
- If the team has participants under the age of 14, the registration must be done by an adult such as a parent, teacher, youth worker who can act as an advisor for the team
- Submissions must be online through a mechanism that will be made available during the competition.
6. How to submit your the presentation of your “invention”
Entries must be the original work of the team, they must not have won or been entered in any previous competitions or any other public display and they must not have been previously published in any form or in any other place in Australia.
Make sure that if there are photos, video footage or other identifiable media of someone in your submission that you have the signed consent of their legal guardians.
Valid entries must:
- Entries must be made on the STEAMpunk submission page (to be provided for registered teams).
- Each team is limited to one entry, but can include up to three components in their entry
7. Evaluation and selection of winner
The winning team of the competition will be judged by a selected panel of staff and collaborators from STEAM Engine Global.
The judging panel will decide the winner based on the evaluation criteria below. The judges will review each submission as they deem appropriate. The judges’ decision is final.
The evaluation criteria are as follows:
- Does the entry clearly describe the project the team selected
- Does the entry clearly describe the journey the team went on
- Does the entry include aspects of technology, human skills, Arts and STEM
- Creativity.
8. How winners will be notified
The winners will be announced at a live online event on August 23, 2020 at 6pm (AWST), which will be available from the STEAM Engine Global website after the event. The winners will be notified by email to the person (adult) who registered the team.
9. Use of moderated entries
Selected entries will be used in STEAM Engine Global material. Selected entries may also be used in STEAM Engine Global social media
10. Method for claiming prize
STEAM Engine Global will contact the person who registered the team by email to discuss prize claims.
11. Unclaimed prize
If the prize is unclaimed for a period of 30 days from time of the winner announcement, the winner forfeits their rights to the prize. The prize will be given to the runner up, as selected by the judges’ panel.
12. Purpose of collection of information
STEAM Engine Global Pty Ltd collects personal information only as part of the entry in order to conduct the competition.
By submitting an entry, entrants agree that the STEAM Engine Global may, for an indefinite period, unless otherwise advised, use the personal information collected from the entry for promotional, marketing and publicity purposes for the competition, for internet posts and/or for future communication.
Details are documented in our Privacy Policy.
Contact Info
Perth, Western Australia
steampunk@steamengine.global