Frequently Asked Questions

For elementary classrooms and groups, a team can be any subset of a classroom, extracurricular group, or homeschool students, including the full classroom or group or just 1 student, along with an educator or group leader, who is at least 18 years old. For middle school youth and  high school youth teams, at least 1 student, but no more than 4 students, plus a “Supervising Adult” (an educator, community member, or family member who is at least 18 years old) can be a team. For educators in Track III, teams must have at least 1, but not more than 3 educators. See Section IV of the Official Rules.

Yes! We encourage this!

Yes! Middle school and high school youth must still have a Supervising Adult to submit the team registration, consent forms, and projects. See Section IV of the Official Rules.

No, middle school youth teams may only consist of students in grades 6-8 and high school teams may only consist of students in grades 9-12. See Section IV of the Official Rules.

No. Each student may only be on one team.

A student may switch teams after he or she is registered by asking their Supervising Adult to email Challenge@science.doe.gov for further instructions. Please note that new parental or legal guardian consent and media release forms will be required.

Yes! Please ensure that each student is only on one team and that teams do not mix elementary, middle school, and high school youth.

Students who voluntarily choose to enter their projects into the competition part of the Challenge (Challenge Competition), must be a U.S. citizen, U.S. national (American Samoa), or lawful permanent resident (LPR). Students who are attending a U.S. Department of Defense or U.S. Department of State schools overseas may participate. Please note: travel to the National Championships will only be provided within the United States and its districts and territories. All other eligible students would have to arrange and pay for their travel to the United States.

Only one adult may be the Supervising Adult for middle school and high school youth teams. No other adults will be recognized by the Challenge. However, the team may work with local mentors, with permission from the students’ parents or legal guardians. Elementary groups may have up to 4 official leaders who are registered as group leaders.

The consent forms for youth participants must be signed by the youth’s parent or legal guardian.

No; however, educators in Track III must be full-time K-12 public, charter, private, or official homeschool teachers. See Section IV of the Official Rules.

No, only current, full-time K-12 classroom educators at public, charter, private, and homeschools may form educator teams. See Section IV of the Official Rules. College Faculty are welcome (and encouraged) to participate as Supervising Adults or mentors.

Elementary groups can be any size from 1 to many students, ideally no more than 30 students.

The forms can be found on the Eligibility page.

Yes. Please submit two registrations – one on the educator category and one in the youth category.

No, grade categories cannot be combined. Middle school youth teams may only consist of students in grades 6-8 and high school teams may only consist of students in grades 9-12.

Yes, parents can serve as community group leaders in the elementary classroom/group category. You will only register yourself, but you must collect signed a Parental and Legal Guardian Consent and Media Release for Elementary Youth Participants form for each child in your group and email all forms to AI.Challenge@science.doe.gov.

In order to receive the proper notifications and materials, we suggest that each team register no later than January 15, 2026.

Yes. If the team consists of people from different states, or even regions, the team will represent the state of the Supervising Adult (youth teams), Lead Educator (educator teams) or community/elementary group leader (elementary teams).

Yes, as long as the same link submitted in the team’s proposal can be used. Otherwise, the team should email Challenge@science.doe.gov to let us know that the team will be uploading a new submission with the updated link.

The youth and educators who create the projects for the Challenge will maintain the intellectual property rights of the work for their project submissions. The participants grant to the U.S. Government a non-exclusive license to publish, share, display, or distribute the submitted projects to promote the Challenge, showcase innovation, or educate the public. See Section XV of the Official Rules.

There is no maximum word count, but there is a maximum size to the PDF submission. The PDF document can be no larger than 50 MB and no more than 10 pages in length, using 12-point (or larger) font size.

When your team submits your project, you will click a box stating that the project began after July 30 and that it was originally created by team members solely for the Challenge.

Projects submitted for Track III (a) are only about teaching AI in the educators’ classrooms. Projects for Track III (b) include creating new, or building on current, AI tools to be used by educators to help them teach content to their students, manage their classrooms, or complete administrative tasks.

Educators and Supervising Adults (no one under the age of 18) may “Schedule a Meeting with an Amazon expert” on this page. No one under the age of 18 may attend any meeting by themselves. Offenders will be disqualified.

No, in addition to free and age-appropriate online resources, resources are being provided by our partners to support all participants. Participants are able to complete the Challenge at no cost.

In addition to the Guiding Questions, participants can review the President’s Executive Orders for other priorities.

No. Participants are free to design their submission however they would like, AS LONG AS the requirements on this page are fulfilled. We suggest that teams review the Guidebook, especially pages 10-12, when preparing their PDFs.

When teams submit their proposals, they are completing the Challenge. All team members who submit eligible and compliant submissions will receive a Presidential Certification of Completion. During the submission process, the team will be able to choose to enter their submission into the Challenge Competition. Eligible and compliant submissions entered into the Challenge Competition will be scored by at least three judges. These scores will be used to determine the state champions, who will be eligible to compete for the regional championships.