More than 350 Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) elementary and secondary students will compete in the seventh annual Technology Challenge on Friday, April 9, from 3:00 p.m. until 7:45 p.m. in the Physical Education Building and High Technology & Science Center at the Germantown Campus of Montgomery College. The elementary awards presentation will be held in the High Technology and Science Center auditorium at 6:00 p.m. and the secondary awards presentation will be presented in the same auditorium at 7:45 p.m.

This is a rigorous and exciting competition where elementary, middle, and high school student teams will compete to solve technology problems using a systems approach, higher-order thinking skills, and ingenuity. Judges representing the high technology business and industry communities will assess the participants' solutions in each challenge. Plaques, medals, certificates, and T-shirts will be awarded to each winning team. High technology companies and other business groups provide support for the competition by serving as consultants and judges, and through their financial support of the Technology Challenge.

Each challenge integrates learning skills from across school curricula. This includes completing a multimedia technology report, developing a cost analysis of the project, preparing computer-generated drawings, documenting problems and solutions, demonstrating research procedures, and making a culminating oral presentation. High school entrants submit a 3-5 minute multimedia presentation of the challenge solution from inception to completion.

The competition was developed by the MCPS technology education leadership staff, a group of technology educators who are helping to redefine the nature of technology education. Challenges such as the ones on display at Technology Challenge '99 are representative of activities implemented in the middle and high school technology education curriculum.

Montgomery County Public Schools, Montgomery College, and the High Technology Council of Maryland, which promotes high technology training for technicians, are sponsors of Technology Challenge '99, along with the Technology Education Association of Maryland and the Montgomery County Technology Educators Association.