[2] The Fairchild Challenge promotes environmental awareness, scholarship and stewardship in students in grades pre-K through 12, and by extension in their families, schools and communities, through a combination of hands-on research, creativity and a variety of competitive projects.
[3] The Fairchild Challenge is a multidisciplinary, environmental science competition designed to engage South Florida students of diverse interests, abilities, talents and backgrounds to explore the natural world.
Past challenge outcomes have included newsletters, opinion and research papers; artwork, postcards, environmental cartoons, posters and T-shirts; performing songs and skits on stage; creating and/or restoring gardens or designated habitats; conducting oral debates; preparing meals; designing solar-powered devices; and undertaking ecological initiatives such as recycling, conducting waste and energy audits, and initiating tree plantings at home, at school and in their communities.
[7] Since its founding in 2002, The Fairchild Challenge has spread beyond South Florida by conducting partner site trainings for dozens of museums, zoos, botanical gardens and other institutions throughout the United States of America as well as other countries.
These institutions provide their own customized Fairchild Challenge programs for their area schools based on the original South Florida model.