The deadline to submit your solution to the Your AI Horizons Challenge is just 3 weeks away. If you’re interested in participating but haven’t begun your submission, don’t worry! These steps can help you move through the submission process efficiently. And remember: You don’t need any AI experience — your professional knowledge and commitment to student collaboration are all that’s required.
This week: Register your team
Step 1: Visit the challenge website and register your team.
You’ll need to share:
- Your school’s basic information
- Your role as CTE teacher, coordinator, or director
- Contact information for your team
Step 2: Secure administrative approval and gather school information.
Use the administration approval email template (available in the “getting started” section of the Resources page) to get permission from your school’s principal or a district-level administrator. Gather your school’s information needed for the submission form(the 12-digit NCES public school ID, the number of secondary students, and the number of secondary CTE students).
Week of November 3: Develop your AI solution concept with your students
Step 3: Identify a career or industry.
Choose a specific career path or industry that your CTE program connects to. Consider:
- What careers are your students already learning about?
- What local employers or industries could benefit from your solution?
Step 4: Define the problem.
Work with your students to:
- Describe major day-to-day activities performed in your chosen career/industry.
- Identify which activities could be improved with AI.
- Explain how, specifically, you could use AI to make these activities more efficient, safe, or effective.
Remember: Your solution should present a realistic approach to incorporating AI that leverages existing technology.
Step 5: Collaborate with external organizations.
In your submission, you’ll need to describe how you collaborated with external organizations to identify an AI solution and develop your submission. Consider reaching out to industry leaders, postsecondary institutions, community organizations, and independent experts to see how they might support the development or implementation of your proposed solution.
Week of November 10: Start drafting your submission
Step 6: Work with your students, discussing how you would implement your solution with a local employer.
Be sure to cover:
- Implementation steps: What would you do first, second, third?
- Necessary skills: What skills would employees need to use this AI solution effectively?
- Required resources: What time, expertise, technology, and cost would it take to implement your solution?
- Measuring impact: How would you evaluate whether your tool is effective? Consider impacts on time, resources, safety, and quality of work.
- Addressing safety and ethics: Identify potential ethical concerns or safety considerations related to your AI solution and explain how you would address them. This will show that you understand responsible AI implementation.
As you discuss these questions, we suggest that you work with your students to record your answers. That way, it will be easier to fill out the actual submission form!
Step 7: Create your video.
Record a short video (no longer than 60 seconds, landscape orientation format) that demonstrates your AI solution or concept. Get inspired by videos submitted by past winners. Once you’re ready, upload to YouTube, Vimeo, or another file sharing platform and provide the link in the submission form.
Note: Please ensure you have signed release statements for any students shown in the video.
Week of November 17: Finalize your submission
Step 8: Finish the submission form.
This is where you’ll translate all of your collaborative brainstorms and discussions into final, written answers. Students should participate every step of the way, but it’s the team lead who must complete and submit the form. As a reminder, the team lead must be a CTE teacher, CTE coordinator, or CTE director employed by the submitting team’s school and be at least 18 years of age. The deadline to submit is Wednesday, November 19, 6:00 p.m. ET.
Ready to get started? Register your team today — then check out the available resources.