WAC - Frequently Asked Questions

What is the World Affairs Challenge?
When is the Challenge?
How does it work?
What are the four events?
That is the theme for this year’s Challenge?
How does it connect to Social Studies Standards?
What is required of Teachers?
How much does it cost?
Who judges the competition?
What support is available?
How does the Challenge benefit students?
How does the Challenge benefit teachers?
How does the Challenge benefit businesses and the community?
How is the World Affairs Challenge different from History Day?
How is the World Affairs Challenge different from Model UN?

What is the World Affairs Challenge?

The World Affairs Challenge™ is an innovative academic program and competition on international affairs for middle and high school students that focuses on an annual global theme.

When is the Challenge?

World Savvy coordinates the World Affairs Challenge each Spring in San Francisco and Minneapolis-St.Paul. For specific program dates, please visit the local sites: Minneapolis - St. Paul | San Francisco

How does it work?

Students spend up to three months preparing for the competition, with research and administrative support provided by World Savvy. An international thematic area is selected each year as the focus of study. Within this focus of study, Challenge teams identify a more narrow and specific aspect of the theme for their team presentation. The end of the research process culminates with the World Affairs Challenge, which occurs each spring. During the Challenge, students compete in four different events that test their global awareness knowledge, their presentation skills, and their ability to work collaboratively with their peers. Teachers serve primarily as coaches, helping their students prepare for the events. Often, teachers incorporate the Challenge theme into their course curriculum.

What are the four events?

The Formal Presentation: In a format of their choosing, each team presents its extensive research and analysis, identifies the major policy issues raised, and proposes reasonable solutions at the international, national and local levels. Presentations often take the form of creative skits or simulations as students communicate their understanding of the topic’s complexities.

The Global Knowledge Quiz: A short, multiple-choice test that assesses students’ conceptual knowledge of global geography, world events, and aspects of the annual theme. The quiz is scored individually as well as averaged for each team.

The Collaborative Question: An improvisational exercise in which students apply the teamwork and problem solving skills they have been developing in preparation for the Challenge. Participants are organized into new teams with peers from other competing schools. Students are presented with a real-world scenario and asked to devise a viable solution. The teams receive support materials and data, including maps and statistical information but are left alone to address the task as they see fit. Judges later join the Collaborative Question teams to hear their ideas and discuss the scenario.

The Solutions Showcase: A visual representation of each team’s Formal Presentation solutions. This component allows students to emphasize their solutions and share them with other students and observers at the Challenge.

That is the theme for the Challenge?

The theme for the World Affairs Challenge changes each year. In 2011, the theme will be Food: Feeding the Planet Sustainably in the 21st Century. Past years themes have included: Water Around the World (2010), Human Migration (2009), Global Health (2008), the Global Marketplace (2007), Contemporary Conflict (2006), Energy (2005), Human Rights and the Child (2004), and Hunger (2003).

How does it connect to Academic Standards?

World Savvy compiles lesson plans and resources that connect the program to state standards in US History, Geography, World History, Civics, Economics, Language Arts, Science and Math. Through structured activities and individual research, students will examine the economic, environmental, political, and social aspects of the annual theme.

What is required of Teachers?

While the program is largely youth-led, teachers act as team coaches by facilitating team meetings in or out of class and supervising research and Challenge preparation. The time commitment for teachers includes a brief orientation, advising team meetings of 1-2 hours per week for 8-12 weeks leading up to the Challenge, and one Saturday for the Challenge. World Savvy provides ongoing support for teachers along the way.

How much does it cost?

Participation in the Challenge costs $300 per team of up to 10 students from one school. Additional teams from the same school cost $200 each. This cost includes breakfast and lunch for students and coaches the day of the Challenge, a t-shirt for each participant, and support from World Savvy during the research and preparation phase (see below for details).

Who judges the competition?

Judges are prominent community members who volunteer their time to participate in the Challenge. They have an interest in international affairs and come from a variety of backgrounds and professions. Their role is to judge the Formal Presentation, and the Collaborative Question.

What support is available?

World Savvy provides a comprehensive resource guide with curriculum for teachers, containing lesson plans, activities, and resources related to human migration, an orientation for coaches, on-site workshops focused on the global theme, structured research support (including access to a research advisor), and comprehensive administrative support to all team.

How does the Challenge benefit students?

The World Affairs Challenge educates youth about community and world affairs and builds important skills such as critical thinking, teamwork, public speaking and leadership. It is fun and allows students to be creative and engage in project-based learning while still building the skills and content knowledge to be successful global citizens in the 21^st Century. The Challenge empowers youth to see themselves as lifelong global citizens and encourage them to become agents of change in their communities, both locally and globally.

How does the Challenge benefit teachers?

Teachers benefit from access to curriculum, individual consulting with World Savvy program staff to support the integration of global issues into your classroom, ongoing curriculum support to access lessons, resources, art and media on human migration, and professional development workshops based on the World Savvy Monitor, an online current events resource: monitor.worldsavvy.org.

How does the Challenge benefit business and the community?

The World Affairs Challenge illustrates the local community's increasing role in the international global economy and the need for students to understand these new connections. We hope to develop a work force and an electorate attuned to international events and how these events relate to the lives of global citizens. The Challenge affords community members an opportunity to participate in an innovative academic program that showcases the amazing talent and vision of our young people.

How does the World Affairs Challenge compare to History Day?

The Challenge is similar to History Day in that it stresses project-based learning and builds students’ teamwork, communication, and research skills. However, the Challenge also requires students to think critically about current global issues and use their problem solving skills to develop possible solutions to these issues. In the World Affairs Challenge, students are encouraged to apply their knowledge of history to current events to be forward-looking and solution-oriented.

How does the World Affairs Challenge compare to Model UN?

Like Model UN, the goal of the World Affairs Challenge is to encourage young people to become engaged in international affairs and develop the skills and knowledge to understand complex global issues. However, the process by which these two programs accomplish this goal is quite different. Through Model UN, students work at the country level to understand their assigned country’s role in addressing a specific global issue. They also learn about UN processes and procedures as they role play a UN meeting. The Challenge offers students an opportunity to be creative in addressing the annual theme by choosing a specific topic of interest to them and developing a presentation and poster in a format of their choosing. The Challenge is intended to be flexible, so teachers can use it as a classroom activity or it can be done afterschool with minimal involvement from the teacher or coach.