Educate → Competitions

Design Competitions

Stellr runs multiple competitions across the school year, giving middle and high school students the opportunity to develop real STEM Skills through structured, theme-based design challenges.

About Our Competitions

Each competition is built around a real-world theme and challenges students to apply engineering thinking, teamwork, and communication to solve meaningful problems.

Students can participate through two pathways: live Events (in-person or virtual challenges run by Stellr staff) or Curriculum Campaigns (asynchronous activities run by an educator at a school or district).

  • Open to middle school and high school students
  • State-level (USA) or national (international) challenges
  • Campaign Champions invited to Championship events
  • Core Material is free to access
  • No cost for students to participate in a Campaign
  • Educator must be at least a Subscriber to submit Campaign entries

2027 School Year Themes

Space

Students explore engineering challenges inspired by space exploration — from propulsion and life support to communication and habitat design.

Environmental

Students tackle real-world environmental problems through systems thinking, sustainable design, and engineering trade-off analysis.

Activity Types

Competitions include two types of activities. Both count toward competition participation; the right choice depends on your students’ schedule and your school’s geography.

Activity TypeEventsCurriculum Activities
Event TypeDesign Competition
ActivitiesChallenge / ChampionshipCampaign
DeliverableFull PresentationWritten Proposal OR Presentation
FacilitatorStellr StaffEducator
SettingIn-Person OR VirtualSchool OR Classroom
DurationFixedVariable

Competition Material

All competition participants receive Core Material. Educators can unlock additional tiers by registering as a Subscriber or Member.

Free

Core Material

  • Request for Proposal (RFP)
  • Mission Handbook
Subscriber

Baseline

  • Delivery Overview
  • NSES Curriculum Map
  • Worksheets (cost, calculations, schedule etc.)
  • Assessment Guides / Marking Rubric
  • Student access to Community free training
Educator Member

Advanced

  • Multi-week lesson plans
  • Agentic AI Sub-Contractors + PM tools
  • Live kick-off and close-out calls
  • Student certificates
Premium Member

Premium

  • Weekly mentoring calls (recorded & posted)
  • Teacher CTE activity
  • Student access to Community paid membership
  • Student awards
  • Student progression to Finals activity

Ready to get started?

Register for an upcoming live event, or download curriculum material to run a Campaign in your classroom.