Technovation Girls 2022

Technovation Girls is a free technology-based program for girls ages 8 - 18.

Working in teams (of 1 to 5), girls identify a problem in their community and build a mobile app to help solve it. Along the way, they develop their collaboration, problem-solving, and leadership skills.

Technovation Girls will take 30+ hours to complete (we recommend allocating about 12 weeks to finish) and it’s completely free.

To register, go to https://my.technovationchallenge.org/#/

Any girl or young woman (ages 8-18) interested in Technovation Girls is eligible to compete.

To join our competition, a girl must create or join a team on our online platform, have a parent/guardian sign the consent form and meet the following Student Participation criteria:

• All students must be between the ages of 8 to 18 as of August 1, 2022.
• All students must identify as female, trans, non-binary, or gender non-conforming. Participation in the competition is not available to students who are assigned male at birth and self-identify as male.
• Teams are composed of 1 to 5 students. Students can only join 1 team.
• Competition Divisions are based on the age of the oldest student on the team.
• Students can participate in Technovation Girls for multiple seasons until they reach the age of 18
  • Students can work with the same team members and mentors
  • Teams can explore the same problem, but the app prototype must be different or improved each year.

Technovation Girls is a self-select program and there is no application/selection process.

    December 8, 2021:  Registration Opens for students and mentors

    January 10, 2022:  Official Start of Season

    March 25:  Last Day to Register as a student or mentor (All members of your team must have registered)

    March 29:  Judge registration opens for volunteers who'd like to help provide feedback to teams

    April 26, 11:59 PM PDT:  Submission Deadline

    May:  Quarterfinal Online Judging. Note: due to COVID-19, all official judging will happen online

    Early June:  Semifinalists announced via email

    Mid to late June:  Semifinal Online Judging

    Late June/Early July:  Finalists and Regional Winners announced. Teams will be able to access their scores and certificates at this time

    August:  Technovation World Summit, where we celebrate the hard work of teams from across the world!

The basics

• Teams are composed of 1 to 5 girls. No more than 5 girls are allowed to join a team
• Students can only join 1 team
• Mentors can join one or more teams
• You can review the Getting Started lesson for more information to get started!

How are team divisions formed?

Divisions are based on the age of the oldest student on the team. For example, if 3 students on the team are 14 years old, but there is one student who is 16 years old, the team will be considered Senior division. Here are the divisions:

• Beginner Division: 8 - 12 years as of August 1, 2022 (Please note that at the University of Calgary, we are currently unable to work with teams in this division)
• Junior Division: 13 - 15 years as of August 1, 2022
• Senior Division: 16 - 18 as of August 1, 2022

How do students find a team?

Most Technovation Girls teams meet at schools and are mentored by school teachers, industry professionals, or Chapter Ambassadors. In some cases, parents and other community leaders step up to mentor teams.

As a first step, the student should see if she has friends/classmates who would be interested in forming a team. In the case that there are enough students to form at least one team at the school, the students should then look to find a teacher(s) who can volunteer to mentor the program.

Can a team include students from different schools?

Yes, Technovation Girls teams can include students from different schools or even different countries! If you are having a hard time finding someone to be on your team, you can find other team members through your dashboard and work with them online.

Make sure if you form a team with students from outside your school that you decide early on how you will meet (example, WhatsApp, Zoom, etc).

When to meet?

Teams decide when they meet. Most students meet after school with their mentors, but there are some who meet at home on weekends. It’s up to the team to coordinate a time that works for them.

Teams should always take into account COVID precautions and obey all local mandates if meeting in person!

We strongly recommend that teams work with mentors, so students can learn from their experience and have extra support for completing the program. However, having a mentor is not a requirement for teams to participate and submit to Technovation Girls.

Junior and Senior Division teams will learn more about finding a mentor by completing the Getting Started lesson in the curriculum.

How do I add a mentor to my team?

(This information applies only to teams registering in the Junior and Senior Divisions)

Register your team, then you can search for mentors and invite one or more to your team.

Students who are unable to find a local mentor are also able to search on our platform for a virtual mentor, who may be located anywhere globally.

Your daughter’s learning is at the center of all that we do! We share your commitment to your daughter’s success.

As a parent or guardian, you can choose the level of commitment that makes sense to you. Parents can serve as a mentor to a team (though we suggest finding a co-mentor if possible). If you don't have time to mentor a team, consider signing up for the Technovation Girls newsletter to hear more about your child's learning journey.

Mentors are professionals who feel comfortable supporting teams of girls to participate in the program and helping their teams become leaders. They learn with their teams and help them problem solve, while also supervising girls through their journey.

• Mentors can be teachers, parents, community leaders, students or professionals.
• Mentors can be any gender
• Mentors do not need to be tech professionals (although it's great if you do have tech expertise!)
• Mentors can work with a local team in-person, or be a virtual mentor to a team anywhere in the world

Do you want to volunteer as a mentor? Here are the eligibility details:

• Mentors must be over the age of 18
• Mentors can be Technovation Girls alumni
• To mentor a team you will need to register and complete the following information:
  • Consent form
  • Background Check (if applicable)
  • Short biography about yourself
  • Participate in a 30 minute training video which includes basics about the program, student safety and competition requirements
• If you'd like, you can mentor more than 1 team
• Mentoring a team is a large time commitment. We suggest planning to spend 30+ hours supporting your team.

Technovation Girls challenges participants to solve a problem by creating an app. To register as a mentor, it's not necessary to have knowledge of coding and/or app building, but it can reduce the time commitment if you're already familiar with the content.

All that mentors need to have is a willingness to learn alongside the girls and help them through the 20+ hour problem-solving process. Registered mentors can also complete online training to learn more about app builders and other components of the program.

First, sign-up on my.technovationchallenge.org and complete the necessary onboarding steps.  Once complete, you will be able to find a team and can search by location to find available teams near you. You will then need to send a request to the teams that you are interested in mentoring. Include a personal message and don't be discouraged if a team does not respond, they may already have a mentor that has yet to sign up.