The Breakthrough Junior Challenge is an initiative by Yuri Milner and his wife Julia Milner to help children from all over the world and with diverse backgrounds get a shot at sharing their understanding of concepts and theories in multiple science subjects.
These challenges are a part of the Milners’ Giving Pledge, aiming to help the students learn how to communicate complex scientific ideas in imaginative ways.
Here’s all you need to know about the Breakthrough Junior Challenge.
What Is the Breakthrough Junior Challenge?
The challenge is an annual global competition for students all over the world. Children from ages 13‒18 are given a chance to demonstrate their scientific theories and creations through a 1.30-minute video.
The Breakthrough Junior Challenge founded by Julia and Yuri Milner allows students to brainstorm ideas and create something unique and fantastic. By creating a video, the children can share a glimpse of their intelligence with the rest of the world.
It helps inspire children younger than them to engage in these sorts of activities that challenge their imaginations. It also opens doors for multiple future opportunities for children and shows them a path to their potential careers.
The competition gives children an edge, and it helps them build a perspective on what they aspire to be when they grow up.
Breakthrough Challenge Prize
The Breakthrough Junior Challenge is given out as part of the annual Breakthrough Prize, established by Yuri Milner, and well-renowned as the “Oscars Of Science,” The reason behind that is Yuri and Julia’s contribution to the Giving Pledge ‒ sharing the majority of their wealth for mainly scientific causes.
The prize is about $3 million for each young mind that creates the most inspiring video on life sciences, physics, or mathematics and has the talent to share it globally.
Here’s how the BJC prizes are categorized.
- The winner gets $250,000 for the college scholarship.
- $50,000 for the teacher who inspired them for the project.
- There’s also a gift of $100,000 for a science lab built at their school to continue nourishing young minds and motivating them to reach further with their ideas and make contributions to the world of science.
How to Take Part in the Breakthrough Challenge?
To take part in the Breakthrough Junior Challenge, put on each year by Yuri Milner’s Breakthrough Foundation, you must create a video explaining your idea or theory regarding a subject in life sciences, physics, or mathematics.
The video must be a maximum of 3 minutes long and not any shorter than 1 minute and 30 seconds.
Regional Champions of Last Year
Here are the top five regional champions of last year.
1. VAN DER WAALS AND CASIMIR FORCES
Amber Kwok, 18, Mauritius
Amber explained how two objects with a neutral charge can still attract when electrons during their irregular movement accumulate more on one side than the other.
2. WHAT DO BLACK HOLES HAVE TO DO WITH TIME TRAVEL?
Gornekk Suwattanapong, 17, Thailand
Gornekk explained how in space you’re free to move through space, but time moves only, and in the event horizon (black hole) can move through time, but only forward in space.
3. QUANTUM TUNNELING
Maryam Tsegaye, 17, Canada
Maryam demonstrated the idea that people can walk through walls at subatomic quantum levels because of how light is not completely reflected from a surface and some particles impel onto the surface, the same way as when electron waves bounce off a surface, some of them can actually get through.
4. FATE OF THE UNIVERSE
Aldrean Paul Alogon, 18, Philippines
Aldrean showed how the universe is not expanding, but rather accelerating, because of the existence of dark matter that doesn’t only absorb light but also exerts a gravitational pull.
5. GLUCOSE METABOLISM
Deram Tamir AlTabbaa, 17, Saudia Arabia
Deram explained what the human body does after a certain level of low to no food consumption to keep up the sugar levels in the body.
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