RWDC RULES

Official Competition Rules & Eligibility Requirements

The following are the rules and eligibility requirements for RWDC participants. To qualify to participate in the National Event each participant and team must meet all criteria and follow all stated rules.

Student Eligibility Requirements

• Participation is limited to students living in OR enrolled in schools located in a state or territory that is hosting a State Competition. Schools are defined to include public, private, charter and home schools.
• To be eligible to compete as a student team member, a student must be currently enrolled in grade nine, ten, eleven or twelve. Students enrolled in school environments with alternative grade or level designations must be engaged in a program of study equivalent to the corresponding high school grade level.
• Student team members must have attained the age of 13 as of November of the competition year.
• Student team members shall not yet have attained the age of 20 as of November of the competition year.
• Teams may be organized around extra-curricular organizations such as Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and science clubs, etc. Teams from extra-curricular organizations are encouraged to participate.
• Student team members may only participate on one team.
• Student team members may not transfer from one team to another.
• Student team members may not be changed after the March nationals registration deadline.

Team Composition

• An RWDC team consists of one designated coach and no fewer than 3 nor greater than 7 student members.
• Only those team members identified on the official registration form are considered part of the team.
• Each team may compete in only one state competition and all team members must be permanent residents of that state OR be enrolled in a school located in that state.
• Teams may not have students from more than one state.
• Teams may have students from more than one school.

Competition Rules

• One coach may lead multiple teams
• A team coach must be at least 22 years of age by November of that competition year.
• Coaches may be a teacher or other responsible adult.
• All submissions shall be the original work of the students involved.
• All communications between members of a team and external persons should be documented
• No team may register after 12:00am local time for the team on the fall deadline of that year.
• All National Challenge Engineering Design Notebooks and any other work must be submitted by the deadline listed on the dates page.
• All submissions must conform to the specifications outlined in the Challenge, the RWDC Coaches/Teachers Guide and the RWDC State Challenge Scoring Rubric available on the getting started page.
• Teams shall only contact mentors through the means and at the times specified by the mentors.
• Only team members registered as of the March registration deadline will be eligible to travel to the National Event.
• A team can be represented by no fewer than 3 students at the National Event.
• Teams also may not have 8 or more students on a team.
• Students will be required to participate in all scheduled activities at the National Event.
• The team coach must accompany the team if the team is selected to attend the National Event in Washington, DC.