How to Participate

Teachers and students in the Ciena Solutions Challenge use the Challenge Based Learning, a framework for learning while solving challenges. Ready to begin? Watch our introduction to Challenge Based Learning and follow the five steps below:

Step 1: Explore the Big Idea

A big idea is a broad theme or concept that can be explored in multiple ways and is important to you and your community. There are lots of places to look for big ideas—anywhere from the daily news to phenomena found in the natural world can serve as inspiration.

Step 2: Engage

During the Engage phase, you and students will move from the big idea to a concrete and actionable challenge. Creating essential questions help guide you to your challenge idea. Watch our quick tip to get started.

Step 3: Investigate

The Investigate phase is all about discovering what you and students need to learn to address your challenge. Coming up with guiding questions will point you toward what you need to know and the resources and activities to help you get there. Watch our quick tip to get started.

Step 4: Act

Here’s where you and students develop your solution, which could be anything from a product, a campaign, a physical space, or even a system. Watch our quick tip to get started.

Step 5: Share Your Project

After you have developed your solution, share it with the Ciena Solutions Challenge community and apply for a Ciena Solutions Challenge Sustainability Award to scale or sustain your solution. You can also showcase student projects at the YouthMADE Festival.