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.

THEME: Voices of Empathy

This contest challenges students to articulate their perspectives on topics centered around empathy. Participants will develop and deliver speeches that argue for or against specific empathy-related issues, such as the role of empathy in leadership, its impact on community building, or its significance in conflict resolution. The aim is to foster critical thinking and effective communication skills while exploring the multifaceted nature of empathy.

Public Speaking 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 5-8

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

• Junior Level: Grades 5 & 6
• Middle Level: Grades 7 & 8

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.

All contest participants are eligible for the following awards:

• 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: Top 7-10% of students for each contest level. The award includes a customized medal & e-certificate.
• Certificate of participation: Given to all participants​.

* Because of the resources, CKSTEM will not pay for the international shipping to the schools. Awards will be sent to Canadian students, including schools and all other paid students. Students will also have an opportunity to join us in an award ceremony in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

• If you are a school staff interested in participating, you can find the registration package here. You may also contact us at info@ckstem.org. All contests are free for school registrations. We need a minimum of 5 students for school registrations.
• If you are an individual participant, you can enroll here. You must first create an account if you don't have it at our contest portal already. You can find instructions on how to create your account at https://www.competitivekids.org/blog/registration. There is a fee of 20 CAD for individual students.

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

You can review the CIPC topics here.