Khan Academy’s Breakthrough Junior Challenge Offers $250,000 Scholarship

Khan Academy is back this year with the Breakthrough Junior Challenge 2017. If you’re passionate about science you stand to win a $250,000 scholarship. What’s more, you can get your teacher a handsome $50,000 on the side too.

If you’re a student between 13-18 years old and love physics, mathematics or life sciences, you can participate in the Breakthrough Junior Challenge.

If you’re participating from a school, your school will also get $100,000 for renovation of/establishing a science lab.

What You Need to Do

All you need to do is make a short film explaining a scientific or mathematical concept of your choice:

Make a short film – 3 minutes max – about a big idea in science or math.

Submit your video by October 1 to have a chance to win amazing prizes.

You will need to make a 3 minute video to explain a theory or an idea in one of these fields

• Physics
• Mathematics
• Life Sciences

The video can be of any type like animation, documentary, talking in front of a blackboard etc. Do keep in mind that you need to get your message across as effectively as possible, no matter what kind of video you make.

To get an idea of what works and what doesn’t you can check out the winners of previous Breakthrough Junior Challenge.

Judgement

Your video will be judged on the following criteria

• Engagement: Did the video capture the viewer’s interest? Did the viewer want to keep watching the video to the end?
• Illumination: Did the video explain the subject matter clearly, allowing the viewer to develop a genuine understanding of the video’s content? Did the video demonstrate a rigorous dive into the subject matter?
• Creativity: Did the entrant make an effort to approach the subject matter in an innovative or creative way?
• Difficulty: Is the subject matter challenging? Is the subject typically taught at high school level or beyond?

To get an idea of how the judges will score each category, head over to this page.

How to Participate

To get started, sign up for the challenge by clicking here and fill out the form to submit your entry.

The last date for submitting your entries is October 1st, 2017.