An all-round creativity challenge where schools become virtual castles, defended by problems and captured by creativity.

We suggest a three-phase contest that encourages children to think creatively to solve real-world problems in a comprehensive and innovative way. Throughout the contest children will be challenged to think critical, factual and creative. They will learn how to:

Find problems and address them in an original way;
Alternate between divergent and convergent thinking;
Think positive and build on each other;
Be convincing and persuasive;
Distinguish between good and better.
The contest will be held through an interactive website and the story itself goes like this:

Defend your castle with your school’s most profound problem.
This is the subscription stage: Every school willing to participate needs to submit a problem they are facing. It can range from disturbing hallway noises to an uninspiring atrium; anything goes. The problem will serve as their castle’s defence, but will also create an inevitable hole in the wall of their fortress.
Try to capture other castles with your creativity.
Once the application deadline has passed, it’s time to get the creative juices flowing. Children and their respective schools can start submitting ideas for solving other schools’ problems. Multiple solutions can be submitted and the game allows to build on each other’s ideas as well. No matter how hard some problems might be to solve; with the right thinking and some fresh minds every castle is possible to conquer.
Watch your kingdom expand and become Kings & Queens of Creativity.
After the idea-generation period is over, schools will get the time to review and evaluate all creative solutions that came in for their problem and pick the best one. The school that came up with the chosen idea will capture the castle that elected their idea and thereby expand its Kingdom of Creativity.
Eventually, the school with the biggest kingdom will be the winner of the contest, crowning its children Kings & Queens of Creativity. As a prize they will be given the tools necessary to solve their own problem using the solution chosen by themselves. Furthermore, all schools in the winning kingdom will receive the same prize to celebrate the winner’s creativity.

The contest is implementable on various levels of education and geographic scales. Additionally, the challenge:

Supports all forms of creativity rather than just music and art (a solution could be in the form of anything);
Involves teachers as much as their children since the solution will benefit the whole school;
Encourages the children to have a positive mind and build on existing ideas or think differently;
Motivates children to help others in order to help themselves.
Finally, here is a visual representation of the idea. Now, let’s celebrate the kings and queens; let’s celebrate creativity!