The contest is designed to allow students to showcase their persuasive speaking, communication, and debating skills. In this contest, we will focus on two areas - persuasive public speaking and debate.

Public Speaking and Debate is the best way to become proficient in the 4 “Cs” of 21st-century skills such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity, and a 5th, civic awareness. 

• It benefits students in many ways, and they acquire better poise, speech delivery, and public speaking skills. It increases student retention of information learned, improves listening and note-taking skills, and builds self-confidence, critical thinking, and creativity.
• Grouping by levels aligns well with the expectations for students in different grades to develop appropriate social-emotional learning skills, positive mental health and the ability to learn, build resilience and thrive.
• The evaluation rubric used in the contest provides further details on the fundamental concepts that form the basis of evaluation.

Contest Eligibility: Open to students in Grades 5-10

Contest Levels: 3 levels based on the student’s current school grade

• Junior Level: Grades 5 & 6
• Middle Level: Grades 7 & 8
• Senior Level: Grades 9 & 10

Preliminary Round: focuses on persuasive public speaking.

• This is a qualifier round; students will be scored on their speeches.
• Students will submit video entries of their persuasive speech.
• The topics will be specific to each level and provided in advance.

Final Round: this will be a debating contest 

• Students who score up to the top 20% in each level during the preliminary round will be qualified to compete in the final round.
• This will be a live contest over Zoom.
• Students in each level will be grouped into two sides - for and against a topic. They will then present their speeches according to their side. 
• Topics will be released in advance to all the qualifying finalists. 
• This will be an extemporaneous speech. Students can prepare in advance.

• Gold Awards: Top 1% of students for each contest level. The award includes a customized medal & e-certificate.
• Silver Awards: Top 2-3% of students for each contest level. The award includes a customized medal & e-certificate.
• Bronze Awards: Top 4-6% of students for each contest level. The award includes a customized medal & e-certificate.
• Honors Award: up to the top 10% of students in each participating school based on the minimum cut-off. It includes a customized medal & e-certificate. Individual participants will also be eligible for this award.
• Certificate of participation: Given to all participants​.

* Due to resource constraints, only personalized e-certificates will be sent to students and teachers outside Canada. We intend to provide everyone with the opportunity to participate and gain experience.

• If you are a school staff interested in participating, contact us at info@ckstem.org. We will get you started within a week.
• If you are an individual participant, you can enroll here. You must create the first if you don't have an account at our contest portal already. You can find instructions to create your account account at https://www.competitivekids.org/blog/registration.

You can download the Canadian Innovation Contests (CIC) brochure from here.