Canadian Innovation Photography Contest 2025

Photography Contest 2025 · contest details

The Canadian Innovation Photography Contest invited students to capture how innovations influence lives, humanity and society, and to analyse, communicate and reinterpret ideas through photography.

Theme and project

Create a more sustainable world through a personal or school project. Tell a photo story explaining the project, its impact and its lifecycle. The two project themes were renewable energy and recycling.

Eligibility, levels and submission

Grades 5–10, through school only. Junior: Grades 5–6; Middle: Grades 7–8; Senior: Grades 9–10. Online submissions ran March 1–31, 2025. Students submitted their artwork online.

Curriculum and practice

The arts curriculum connection involved creating ideas and images that reflect, communicate and change views of the world; using technologies and conceptual and aesthetic approaches to record, enhance, communicate and reinterpret ideas. Photography principles included camera angles and lighting. The evaluation rubric explained grading. Optional free practice included video tutorials and lessons on photography rules and techniques.

Student recognition

The final contest offered a customized medal and e-certificates for all participants. Published award bands: Gold top 1%; Silver top 2–3%; Bronze top 4–6%; Honors top 7–10%.

Teacher’s role

The poster recommended a school or class contest, with top entries submitted to CIC. It also said students could submit directly with a teacher’s letter confirming that the student created the artwork.

Published 2025 awards and 2026 qualifier information

2025 school awards

The top three schools were recognized for support and commitment to CIC, based on participation and overall performance. Each participant earned points in each contest entered; the school’s total points determined the top three winners.

2025 student awards

Gold: top 1%; Silver: top 2–3%; Bronze: top 4–6%; Honor: top 7–10%, for each contest. A school’s top scorer could receive an Honor award subject to a minimum cut-off. Awards included a customized medal and e-certificate. All participants received a participation e-certificate.

2025 teacher awards

All participating teachers were considered, with the top ten recognized for dedication to student learning. Scores of the top five students in a class for a contest were considered; the top five scores in a class across all six contests were added. The highest overall scores determined the winning teachers.

2026 qualifiers, held in November 2025

The poster introduced Math, Computing and Writing qualifiers. Free training material was available. The top 3% received free entry to the 2026 CIC contests. E-certificates recognized Gold, Silver, Bronze, Honor and participation. These are historical arrangements, not the 2027 entry rules.

CIAC 2026 Theme

CIPC 2025 Contest FAQ

WHAT IS THE CANADIAN INNOVATION PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST (CIPC)?

Last year, CKSTEM introduced three new contests in the areas of Visual Arts, Creative Writing, and Photography. We believe that these contests allow for students' holistic development and success in today’s world.

CIPC, the Photography Contest, is designed to allow students to capture how innovations influence our lives and humanity. We also want our young photographers to show the impact of innovations on society. This will enable them to analyze, communicate and reinterpret the ideas and expressions.

CONTEST THEME

Create a more sustainable world through a personal or school project. Students can tell their photo stories explaining their project and its impact. Students can pick any one of the following themes to create their project and take photos to show the project lifecycle:

• Theme 1: Create a project for renewable energy.
• Theme 2: Create a project for recycling.

CURRICULUM CONNECTION

• Education in the arts enables students to create ideas and images that reflect, communicate, and change their views of the world.
• The expectations in this contest align well with the arts curriculum. It involves using technologies and conceptual and aesthetic conceptions to record, enhance, communicate and reinterpret ideas.
• This contest focuses on the basic principles of photography. For young artists, it helps increase their understanding of the art of photography and various techniques used within, such as camera angles, lighting, etc.
• The evaluation rubric used in the contest provides further details on how the student’s work is evaluated and graded.

CONTEST ELIGIBILITY & FORMAT: MARCH 1-31, 2025

Contest Eligibility: Open to students in Grades 5-10

Contest Levels: Three levels based on the student’s current school grade

• Junior Level: Grades 5 & 6
• Middle Level: Grades 7 & 8
• Senior Level: Grades 9 & 10

Contest Date:

• Submission open: March 1 - 31, 2025

Contest Format: The contest is online, and students will be asked to submit their artwork.

Originality: We are looking for original ideas in these contests. We will conduct checks for plagiarism. So, please be sure to trust yourself and be authentic. We want to see the world through your eyes. You may surprise the world through your insight. Please create something you will be proud of, regardless of the outcome of this contest.  

STUDENT AWARDS

All contest participants are eligible for the following awards:

• Gold Awards: Top 1% of students for each contest level. The award includes a customized medal & e-certificate.
• Silver Awards: Top 2-3% of students for each contest level. The award includes a customized medal & e-certificate.
• Bronze Awards: Top 4-6% of students for each contest level. The award includes a customized medal & e-certificate.
• Honors Award: Top 7-10% of students for each contest level. The award includes a customized medal & e-certificate.
• Certificate of participation: Given to all participants​.

* Because of the resources, CKSTEM will not pay for the international shipping to the schools. Awards will be sent to Canadian students, including schools and all other paid students. Students will also have an opportunity to join us in an award ceremony in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

REGISTRATION PROCESS

• If you are a school staff interested in participating, you can find the registration package View Canadian Innovation Photography Contest 2025 resource. You may also contact us at [email protected]. All contests are free for school registrations.
• This contest is not available for individual registration as we can not verify the work.

TEST YOUR PHOTO COMPOSITION SKILLS

This composition quiz aims to help you check your knowledge of photo composition. You can access the quiz View Canadian Innovation Photography Contest 2025 resource.

CONTEST BROCHURE

You can download the Canadian Innovation Contests (CIC) brochure from View Canadian Innovation Photography Contest 2025 resource.

CIPC 2024 WINNING ENTRIES

You can review the CIPC winning entries View Canadian Innovation Photography Contest 2025 resource.

Photography Contest · published evaluation rubric

Original historical rubric. Each criterion uses the published bands: 18–20 Excellent, 13–17 Good, 8–12 Fair and 0–7 Poor.

Theme Integration

Adherence to the theme and shows intent

18–20 · Excellent

Presents compelling ideas showing complex awareness of the theme

13–17 · Good

Presents distinct ideas showing strong awareness of the theme

8–12 · Fair

Presents recognizable ideas showing some or vague awareness of the theme

0–7 · Poor

Presents vague ideas showing little or no awareness of the theme

Creativity

Original, fresh, Visual impact, emotional reaction, mood, etc.

18–20 · Excellent

WOW Factor and unique indicating significant effort in creation

13–17 · Good

Caught attention, shows merit indicating significant effort in creation

8–12 · Fair

Acceptable and common, indicating some effort in creation

0–7 · Poor

Not remarkable and lacks imagination indicating little or no effort in creation

Composition

Eye movement, space usage, organization, etc. strong points of emphasis. uses line, shape, pattern, etc., to strengthen the composition

18–20 · Excellent

Effective use of compositional techniques. Demonstrates exceptional visual interest.

13–17 · Good

Good use of compositional techniques. Demonstrates Good visual interest.

8–12 · Fair

Image composition has potential. Subject positioning & use of compositional techniques could be improved. Shows some visual interest.

0–7 · Poor

Little to no consideration of basic photographic composition techniques and distracting backgrounds. Does not demonstrate visual interest.

Image Quality

Exposure, focus, color, depth of field

18–20 · Excellent

Perfectly in focus, with no shakiness or blur. Correct exposure and accurate white balance and range of tones

13–17 · Good

Mostly in focus with some shakiness or blur. Mostly correct exposure/ white balance/ range of tones.

8–12 · Fair

Somewhat in focus with lots of shakiness or blur. Somewhat correct exposure/ white balance/ range of tones.

0–7 · Poor

Barely in focus and mostly shaky and blurry. Exposure white balance/ range of tones are mostly off.

Story Telling

The image's or collage's ability to evoke imagination and show impact on humanity

18–20 · Excellent

Clearly shows the impact of selected innovation on a community

13–17 · Good

Clearly shows the impact of selected innovation on a group of people

8–12 · Fair

Clearly shows the impact of selected innovation on an individual

0–7 · Poor

Vaguely shows the impact of selected innovation on humanity