The Louisiana High School Technology Challenge. Teamwork + Technology = Success You can have incredible accomplishments through teamwork.
About This Online Competition
High School Team Registration
For The "Tech Team Coach"
For High School Student Participants

What To Expect

Questions & Answers
Event Guidelines
Judging
Important Deadlines

Sponsorship
Contact Information

A bright future for Louisiana!
What To Expect
The Team Coach reserves a location in your high school team to meet during the morning of the Technology Challenge at a location in your high school with computers that have reliable Internet access. The Team Coach received visual directions by email to access the Technology Challenge file(s) on "Moodle"

Once your team is logged in, you will be able to "download" files. When your team has completed the tasks on the day of the Technology Challenge,  "upload" or copy the completed files to your team account. Each team needs to complete uploading all files by 11:59 AM; there is a very stiff penalty for any late submission.

Scoring Rubric
Q. What "scoring rubric" do judges use to evaluate the 3 various tasks, each worth 20 points?
A. The dozens of judges see the directions for each task and use the scoring rubric, shown here, to determine a score from 10 to 20 points. Judges start the evaluation of each task at 15 points, using the scoring rubric; depending on what judges perceive to be important, the score goes up or down. Each of your team's 3 tasks is judged by 2-4 judges; about 10 or so judges are involved in evaluating each team.

All results are averaged in a spreadsheet; the average of all of the evaluations from all of the judges are "rounded up" to the nearest tenth of a point. In the event of ties, the quality of writing determines the winners.

  • All files from your team are only identified with an assigned team number. This assures impartiality.   
  • Each team answers 20 questions using the Internet.
  • And, each team selects 3 tasks to complete. (Only the first 3 tasks that each team completes are judged.)
  • The scoring rubric shows that positive qualities, as determined by each judge, can increase a score by 1 to 2 points..
  • Negative qualities, as determined by each judge, can decrease a score by 1 to 2 points.
  • Each judge determines a score for each task from 10 to 20 points. Judges' scores are averaged.
Approximately 10 judges evaluate your 4 files (Internet Search & 3 Tasks). While the rubric is subjective, the process of using averaged results from many judges tends to "even out" individual discrepancies. If there are ties at the 1/10th of a point accuracy for averaged scores, the top finishers are rechecked for an evaluation of the quality of writing.


Every registered team receives an email by Monday before the event as explained here, with visual instructions and login and password information. On the day of the Challenge, at 8 AM, your team can access your team's Moodle account using the directions and information your Team Coach received. The Technology Challenge consists of  Internet Search (40 points) and 3 Chosen Tasks (20 points each). A perfect score for the Technology Challenge is 100 points.

Teamwork is critical in completing tasks on time. Your team should work together to divide up the tasks during the first minutes, using different computers. It might be a good idea for groups of 2 or 3 to work together on specific tasks. Make sure to upload all of your 4 files to your team's moodle account well before the deadline. Late submissions after 11:59 AM are heavily penalized. Any incomplete team submission that is 30 minutes late, for any reason, will NOT be judged. The top finishers will be announced on this website, on the main page.

Q. Generally what do judges seem to think is most important?
A. Grammar and spelling are important. Many university faculty feel strongly about the importance of communicating clearly with complete sentences. Even if technology applications are impressive, judges appear to value good writing skills as equally important.

Q. How important is teamwork?
A. Teamwork makes a huge difference. In past years, Winning team coaches consistently have informed us how important it is for a team to work well together. 

Q. What should the Tech Team Coach do during the Technology Challenge?
A. Team coaches:
  • should provide minimal technical assistance.
  • should not touch a mouse or keyboard.
  • refrain from providing suggestions or guidance during the Challenge.
  • avoid "looking over students' shoulders".
  • should, as much as possible, allow the team to complete the activities, without assistance.
  • arrange, if possible (optionally), a "pizza party" for the students, using funds from the school.
Ideally, a Team Coach should allow the team of students the valuable opportunity to do all of the activities by themselves, without assistance.

Finally
In the interest of fairness, there is no advantage in completing more than 3 chosen tasks; if your team submits more than 3 chosen tasks, only the first 3 tasks will be judged.

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