Project submissions

• How do I submit a project?
  Here’s our submission guide that goes through the details. But the general process is as follows:

  • Create an account through our online portal.

    • Students entering as a team must still create individual accounts. Use the project key to link all students to the same project

    • We have not set any password requirements, just a minimum of 1 character!

  • Fill in all required fields.

  • Add a short (1-5 sentences) description that summarizes your project

  • Add your project files. This can be a combination of up to 6 files that includes pdfs, images, and videos

    • For team projects, project description and files need only be added to one account. Just be sure your accounts are linked together with the project key. If you’ve done this properly, all students should be able to view the project entry, regardless of whose account you log in under

  • Complete your submission.
    

• How many students can be on a team?

  • Elementary and middle school categories: maximum of 3 students

  • High school category: maximum of 2 students

• Can students from different grades be on a team?
  All members of a team must be from the same category

  • Each elementary grade level is considered a separate category: Kindergarten, grade 1, grade 2, grade 3, grade 4, grade 5

  • Middle school is a single category which includes grades 6-8

  • High school is a single category which includes grades 9-12
    

• Why do I have to include my e-mail?
  This is a requirement of the third party platform that we use to create a project account. We will not use or distribute this information, except to make the winners announcement.
  

• Why is my school a required field?
  We send all participation certificates and winners prizes to the schools. This is also for our own understanding of where in Central Oregon we are getting participation.
  

• Do I have to list my teacher?

  • Listing a teacher is highly recommended, as it is often easier to communicate through the schools and teachers since student emails cannot receive messages from outside of the school system.

  • Teachers with high class participation also get gift certificates for classroom supplies, so this helps track those that are eligible for this award.
    

• What do I do if my school isn’t listed?
  Please reach out to us at inventerprise@lonza.com and we can get it added to the system.

Participants

• Can I enter on my own, or does it have to be assigned from my school?

  Of course you can! While many teachers get their classes to participate, any K-12 Central Oregon student can submit a project.
  

• I’m homeschooled, can I apply?
  Absolutely! As long as you reside in Deschutes, Crook, or Jefferson county.
  

• How will I know if I’ve won?
  We announce the winners through our newsletter, as well as local news outlets. We also notify all participants’ teachers, so that they can notify their students.

  • Please note that many student school emails do not accept emails outside of the school system. So make sure that your teacher’s email is listed on your project submission, and/or use a personal email address to set up your submission account.

Teachers

• Can I submit all of my students’ projects at once?
  Unfortunately no. Our contest is hosted by a third party platform, and this feature is not supported. We have submitted this to them as a feature request.
  

• How do I receive the teacher incentive gift card?

  • Based on the number of entries submitted under a specific teacher, we can generally tell which teachers have near-complete classroom participation. We will notify you of this award when the winners announcement is sent.

  • However, we understand that class sizes fluctuate and teachers with high participation (>70% of students) but small class sizes might get missed. Please feel free to email us at inventerprise@lonza.com if you meet these requirements to ensure you are included.

  • Gift certificates will be sent to you via your school.

Privacy

• I want my child to participate, but do not want any of their personal details released publicly.
  Answer
  

• Are my contact details stored after the contest is over?
  No. We clear all participant information from our system at the completion of each contest.

Miscellaneous

• Invent-a-prize? Inventor-prize? Inventionprise? What is the name of this contest?

  Inventerprise is a play on words between “invention” and “Enterprise”, referencing the Star Trek Starship Enterprise. In our early days, this was a prevailing theme that was incorporated into all of the artwork. We have since moved away from Star Trek references explicitly, but keep the contest name for community familiarity. You may notice that we still loosely adhere to a space theme, as a nod to the contest founder. Plus, it’s fun!!!