NPR announces student podcast challenge

Last week NPR announced a new opportunity for students and teachers throughout the nation: a student podcast challenge.

Students can enter the podcast challenge between Jan. 1 and March 31, 2019. There’s no specific topic, but 

The contest is open to students in grades 5-12, and the window for entries opens Jan. 1 and closes March 31 of next year. Two winners will be selected from all eligible submissions, one from grades 5-8 and another from grades 9-12. 

There are a few rules that entrants should pay attention to. I’d encourage you to read through the whole list of contest rules, but a few biggies are:

  • submissions should be 3-12 minutes in length
  • no music should be used
  • submissions must be uploaded to SoundCloud
  • submissions must be publicly viewable and downloadable

There’s a helpful judging criteria breakdown on the rules as well. Advisers hoping to use this as a class project could easily adapt them into a grading rubric or a post-production critique tool.

And if you’re looking for some great resources to guide your students through the podcast creation process, check out the archives of all podcasting-related posts here. There’s also a series of six lessons and a checklist available from WWNO in New Orleans here.

Winners get a visit from NPR journalists and a trophy, but the coolest part is that winning entries will be featured on NPR national programs in the spring. Good luck!

Michelle Balmeo

Michelle Balmeo, MJE, is the adviser of The Whirlwind newsmagazine and online news publication at West Albany High School in Albany, Ore. She's done some print stuff, some video stuff, and some web stuff over the past 16 years as a student media adviser.

Michelle Balmeo has 66 posts and counting. See all posts by Michelle Balmeo

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.