What is STYLE?
- It is a team’s STYLE that makes its problem solution unique
- It is a team’s STYLE that demonstrates its creative thinking outside the problem constraints
- It is a team’s STYLE that ties all the elements of a problem solution together
How does a team select STYLE elements?
- Some teams choose the elements at the very beginning of their journey and plan them carefully
- Some teams identify and choose the elements in the middle, after they’ve begun working
- Some teams identify the elements – especially “free choice” – after they are almost done (and they have a number of items from which to choose)
Understanding STYLE
Each problem will include two mandatory Style categories. These categories are scored in every team’s solution for that problem. However, a different element, or a different aspect of that element, may be scored from team to team. That does not mean that each team has to do it the exact same way—just that the elements are the same.
For example, we have a primary problem, Top Sea-cret Discoveries, the two required style elements are:
(1) Creativity of the team’s membership sign. The sign for one team might be a fish with the team name and membership number on it, as it is a requirement to have these two identifiers on the sign (and to be read from 20 feet away). The team decided that the creativity of the sign is that it is a fish, and that fish is next to some other fish just like it, as it is part of the school of fish.
(2) Creative use of a trash item in a costume worn by one of the Sea Explorer characters. The creative use of the trash item was old DVDs that were used on the Sea Explorer to make his suit jacket look like scales of a fish. If you were to state that you used an old suit jacket and slashed it with scissors to make it look like gills of a fish you likely would not score as high. Though the jacket may be ‘trash’, it was actually the cutting that made it creative, not the jacket itself. If you were to describe creative use of trash for a character other than the Sea Explorer the judges could not count it.
(3 & 4) Two Free choice of team: For these categories, team cannot select anything that is already being scored; however, they can list a different aspect of something already being scored.
(5) Overall effect of the four Style elements in the performance: For this category, the team is scored on how well all of the Style elements come together to enhance the presentation of the long-term solution. For example, the team chose the sign to be a part of the ‘school of fish’ so that it became a part of the set—the sea. They used the DVDs to make the suit jacket look like scales of the same type of fish, as this Sea Explorer wants to blend in with them as part of the humor of the skit.
Free Choice
Let’s take this a step further by examining the two free choices for the team. This is where a team can really shine. If a team member can sing, perhaps a song can be the free choice. Or if the team can write some funny lyrics, it can be the words to the song. Careful here—these two can be very different. Is it the words to the song that add to the style, or is it the silliness of the ugly old bear breaking out into pitch-perfect singing? Or is it both—the bear singing a song that describes the situation at hand in the skit, and in perfect pitch?
A costume might be particularly creative. One year a team member took trash bags, made them into ’yarn’, and then crocheted them into a skirt. This is where it can get tricky in what you want the judges to score. 1) Do you want them to score the overall costume, 2) or the skirt, 3) or the way in which the skirt was made through both use of creative materials and the actual crocheting.
Whatever you choose, word choice is key. For example, do you want the judges to score the princess costume? What aspect of the costume do you want them to score? The artistic quality? The creative use of materials? The humor of the costume? And do you want them to score the whole costume or just part of it? Was the skirt made out of dyed coffee filters? If so, the free choice of ‘the creative use of materials on the skirt of the princess costume” would be a better choice than just “the princess costume”.