NPR Student Podcast Challenge

This competition is open to students in grades 5-8. Both in-person and online learners may participate.

YES! Professional podcasts are created with a whole team, and you are encouraged to do so as well. Think about who you would work well with and what each person could bring to the project. For example, you may have some people help with scriptwriting, music production, editing, and actually speaking.

Podcasts come in all shapes and sizes. That's good news for you, because it means that you have lots of room to be creative and make something you're excited about. Some podcasts, like This American Life, are long — sometimes an hour or more. Others, like Kind World, a podcast from WBUR, are less than 10 minutes. Some podcasts, like NPR's Up First, are about news. Up First comes out every morning, and the hosts talk about the news and feature stories from guests reporting on the news. Other podcasts tell stories. Lots are funny. Some feature people having conversations. Many are educational: They teach listeners about a specific topic. NPR's Hidden Brain is about science and human behavior. And there's Planet Money, a podcast all about money and life.

Think about sound. We're challenging you to work with sounds — interviews, narration and recorded sounds from the world around you.

You may create a podcast about any topic you'd like, but here are a few ideas:

1. Tell us a story about your school or community: about something that happened there — recently or in the past — that your audience should know about.
2. What is a moment in history that all students should learn about?
3. Show us both sides of a debate about an issue that's important to you.
4. What do you want to change about the world? What's a big change that you want to make in the future?
5. Explain something to us that kids understand and grown-ups don't.

No fancy equipment is required to create a podcast! However, you want to do what you can to make sure the audio quality is good.

Mr. Riesel has purchased some high quality microphones that you may use. Please visit the library to check out a microphone.

Recording and editing can be done in a tool like WeVideo.

Mr. Riesel needs to submit your podcast by March 15th, so he is requesting your FINAL recordings by March 5th.

Yes! No experience is necessary - just a desire to make your voice heard and to learn new skills. It is recommended that you spend some time listening to different types of podcasts to help you prepare.

All podcasts need to be between 3 and 8 minutes in length.

The addition of music can be a powerful way of enhancing your podcast. However, we have to be very careful about using copyrighted music. As such, only originally composed music may be used in your podcast.

The grand prize winners will be visited by NPR journalists and interviewed. The winning podcast submissions will be featured nationally in segments on NPR's Morning Edition and All Things Considered shows.

The judges will use the following criteria to narrow down and choose the winners in our two age groups — middle (fifth grade through eighth grade) and high school (ninth grade through 12th grade).

INFORMATION AND STRUCTURE, 40 PERCENT

Does the podcast tell a compelling story or teach us something new and important? Is it structured in a way that makes sense and keeps listeners engaged? Can we easily follow the story you're telling or the information you're explaining? Have you spent time editing — cutting out unnecessary information or repetition and making sure the main ideas come through clearly?

PERSONALITY AND CREATIVITY, 40 PERCENT

We want to listen to this podcast and hear your voices. Do we hear the unique voices of your class and community? Does it have personality, or does it make us want to fast-forward? (Tip: Try not to sound like you're reading from a script.) Does it make us laugh or cry or leave us deep in thought — feel something? That's what we're looking for.

PRODUCTION, 20 PERCENT

We're not judging you on how fancy your equipment is and we don't expect you to be an expert on recording and editing sound, but we hope you'll try.

Some podcasts may use sound, or audio, in creative ways. Others may be more of an interview format. If you use sound apart from interviews and narration, does it add to the story you're telling? Is the sound clear, and are the volume levels even? Do the transitions sound smooth, without gaps between audio clips? Did you layer the audio and narration? These are some of the things we'll be looking for.

Please visit the Student Training Guide for examples. 
Explore podcasts on tunein.com, stitcher.com, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and more.