To get kids excited about recycling (not to mention the launch of its third season), the PBS show Design Squad teamed up with Stamford, Conn.-based youth marketing agency BKFK (By Kids for Kids) for an Intel-sponsored contest to build useful items from garbage. The Trash to Treasure Competition offers a $10,000 college scholarship from the Intel Foundation, and a Dell laptop for the best invention made of post-consumer materials.

‘The competition is aligned with Intel’s mission of engaging young people’s curiosity and developing their problem-solving skills,’ says Cathleen Aubin Barton, U.S. education manager at Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel.

The contest launched last month and runs until the end of June. Daniel Gwartz, BKFK’s COO, says they’ve run similar contests for Xerox, Mattel and Tommy Hilfiger, and get an average of 10,000 entries. ‘The engagement time is significant, because they’re actually inventing something,’ he says, adding that the typical visit is 15 minutes, and that entrants usually visit the site multiple times when entering a labour-intensive contest.

Gwartz, a Canadian ex-pat, says BKFK plans to launch contests north of the border within the next year or so. AB