Everything to Know About the 2023-2024 eCYBERMISSION Competition

The 2023-2024 eCYBERMISSION competition is here! This year, we’ve revamped the competition with new Mission Folder questions and an extended Mini-Grant recipient tenure from three to five years. We’re excited to have you join us for what will be the best eCYBERMISSION yet!

How to Register:
The first step of eCYBERMISSION is registration. Team Advisors should register first at www.ecybermission.com/Advisor/Registration. Once Team Advisors have completed registration, it’s time for students to register. Don’t worry about teams yet, as those should be completed once all students have finished their registration. At that point, Team Advisors may log into their Team Advisor account and designate teams for each of their students.

How to Choose a Project:
One of the best parts of eCYBERMISSION is that it allows students to research a topic of interest to them. Once students are separated into teams, they should ask two questions: What problem do I want to address? Do I want to investigate it or attempt to solve it?
The first question, “What problem do I want to address?”, is often the most difficult to answer, as there are infinite topics! Fortunately, there are many ways to get inspiration. First, encourage your students to look into their lives and think about problems they experience. Are there a lot of potholes on their route to school? Do they have a difficult time staying energized during the school day? Is their sports team struggling with repeated injuries? Have them also consider the problems faced by people they know. Does their grandparent struggle with loneliness? Do they have a friend with a disability? Finally, encourage them to think about problems that they hear on the news. Does their region have a limited resource, like fresh water or green space? Maybe their local animal shelter frequently runs out of space, or their community garden is overrun by invasive beetles. Perhaps they often see trash floating in the nearby river. All of these topics are possible eCYBERMISSION projects!
After students have chosen a community problem, they must decide whether to investigate it or solve it. Investigating the problem with science involves doing an experiment to answer a question. For example, if a student team sees a lot of trash in their local river, they could divide the garbage into categories to determine what is polluted most frequently. Remember, just doing a trash clean-up is not an investigation, there must be a question they’re trying to answer. With the same example, students seeking to solve the problem with engineering could create a device, either by drawing a model or building a prototype, that would pick up the trash or prevent it from entering the river in the first place.
For more eCYBERMISSION inspiration, visit our previous blog: https://ecybermission.blogspot.com/2022/10/picking-project-ecybermission.html. 

How to Complete the Mission Folder:
We highly encourage students to review the Mission Folder before beginning their mission and answer the questions as they go along. We updated Mission Folder questions this year, so, even if students have done eCYBERMISSION before, it is still helpful to review them for the changes. The Mission Folder diverges into three sets of questions depending on the students’ projects. The first divergence is for a science or engineering project. The second divergence is within engineering and is based on if students build a prototype or create a drawing or model.

Competition Timeline:
Mark your calendar with these important dates! These dates can also be found at https://ecybermission.com/ImportantDates. Please note that these dates are final and cannot be changed.

Now: Registration is open for students, teams, Team Advisors, Ambassadors, CyberGuides, and Virtual Judges
November 16: Mini-Grant Application Closes
February 28: Registration closes for students, teams, Team Advisors, and CyberGuides
March 6: Mission Folders are due
March 12: Virtual Judge registration closes
March 13 – 27: Virtual Judging
April 22 – 26: Regional Judging
May 3: State Winners, Regional Finalists, and National Finalists announced
June 24 – 27: National Judging & Educational Event

We are so excited for this year’s eCYBERMISSION competition, and we hope you will join us in the fun! Register now at www.ecybermission.com/register!




Faith Benner
Sr. Communications & Marketing Specialist