As a mentor you are expected to mentor up to 3 teams. This largely depends on the number of students that enter the Challenge each year.

You are expected to spend a total of 5 hrs with each team you are paired with. How and when you use the allocated time over the 6-week Challenge is up to you and your team to discuss. Communication is typically conducted virtually (via email or zoom) but we also encourage face-to-face engagement where reasonable. You are in charge of organising your own meetings with your teams so you can schedule it to suit your calendar.

We will send you an email in the lead up to the Challenge start date with you team, topic of interest (if you picked multiple), and the high school supervisors contact information. This information can also be found via the Challenge login members page once the Challenge begins.

If you are mentoring multiple teams, expect that each team will be working on a different problem or solution in the area of interest you selected. The areas of interest are deliberately left open ended and encourage students to come up with unique and meaningful ideas.

No. All BIOTech Futures mentors are volunteers who are excited by the opportunity to share their love of STEM with students.

Yes! We want you to feel connected with your community of mentors and well equipped to mentor your teams, and so we run regular events for you. Keep an eye on your email and on the events panel on this page for upcoming events. There will also be online training modules for you to work through at your own pace so you feel well-equipped. The BIOTech Futures team is also only a emails reach away if you have any concerns or questions throughout the process.

That’s ok! We don’t expect mentors to have deep expertise in a specific topic area. You just need to be further along a professional pathway than the high school student teams you’re mentoring to guide them through the problem solving and innovation process.

Only your time and expertise! We often see the most successful mentors may provide white papers, articles and electronic resources to help teams hone in on their projects. We do not expect mentors to provide any physical resources, labs, or other facilities for their student teams. BIOTech Futures provides everything else high school participants will need including poster templates, syllabus and Challenge handbooks.

Your role as a mentor is to guide the students in identifying a real-world problem and coming up with an innovative solution. You may help the students in defining the nature and scope of the problem and/or solution. You’re not meant to develop the solution for them or be deeply involved in putting together their poster or other assessment materials. You’re also not accountable for the progress of your students’ projects.

In the submission form found on this website, please be ready to input your personal details, areas of interest, as well as a working with children check (WWCC) number depending on your state of residence. If you have not yet obtained a WWCC, please first submit an online application relevant to your state of residence and have your application number ready for input into the form.

We would love it if you can share this opportunity far and wide! However, mentor matching is a complex process and because we have so many enthusiastic student teams needing a mentor, we are currently unable to accommodate for co-mentoring requests. But both you and your friends will have an amazing experience mentoring your own student teams!