NOTICE: There are MAJOR changes to this year's event. These were presented, discussed and approved at the Fall SSTFI Board of Director's Meeting last week.
Highlighted Items reflect major changes! These changes hopefully will provide a better overall fair experience and will help keep the SSTFI fiscally stable.
1. When is the 2013 SSTFI?
Thursday, April 4 (Registration, Clearing of Violations, Campus visits, and Judging Workshops) Thursday will be AFTERNOON ONLY. Registration is tentatively set to begin at 1 PM and remain open until 4 PM to allow schools scheduling flexibility.
Friday, April 5 (Orientation, ALL Judging, Award Ceremony)
NO SATURDAY EVENT
2. When are Registrations DUE for the 2013 SSTFI?
Deadlines -- ALL Paperwork, Seminar Papers and Online Entries DUE: Tuesday, March 5, 2013
All Paperwork DUE:
Received (e-mail (pdf only), post, fax or hand delivery): Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Overnight Mail is completely acceptable - just be sure you know your Postal Services submission time for making the overnight deadline!
2.1 What is meant by DUE?
The Due date is a RECEIVED BY date NOT a postmark date! Please know how long it will take your mailings to reach Ames, IA.
2.2 Do Entries have to be received by postal mail?
NO – It is acceptable to e-mail the signed paperwork (SRC forms [see item 6 for details on SRC] and Fair Permission form).
Please check with your school staff and/or administration – many schools or administrative offices have copy machines that are able to copy papers and convert to an electronic pdf file. You may e-mail the students’ paperwork to me in this format. Teachers that tried this last year were very successful and feedback received was they would definitely go this route again.
2.3 Benefits of E-mailing Paperwork:
You save paper and postage.
You keep the original copy of the paperwork (which you/your students should do anyway).
You will actually receive a confirmation from me that the paperwork was received within 24 hours (often faster).
If you mail the entries there is no confirmation of receipt until the SRC processes them which can be a week past the entry deadline before the computer information is updated.
3. What is the cost for the fair?
Entry for the fair is still $0.00 (if your entries are on time) – participation in the fair – priceless!
NOTE: the Board has decided to keep the fair registration free for this year. In order to do this and still work with the limited budget we have the fair will be very BASIC and bare bones this year! Many things people have come to expect and some of the comfort items that have been built into the fair will disappear this year.
3.1 Why are late fees charged?
Late fees have been put into effect to ensure timely delivery of entry materials especially SRC (see question 6 for definition) paperwork which must go through a review process prior to the fair.
3.2 Why are entry deadlines so early?
All of the incoming paperwork (over 475 projects) must be reviewed by our SRC (more on this item later) team prior to the fair. Students need to have this information returned to them in enough time that mistakes/errors or missing paperwork can be put together. Due to many schools having Spring Break AND this year EASTER the week of or before the fair we want to ensure teachers and students have this information before they go on break. In addition the program deadline for print is 3 weeks prior to the science fair.
3.3 Under Deadlines what is meant by ALL paperwork?
ALL paperwork includes a.)ALL required SRC forms, b.) ALL additional SRC forms that may be required for specific projects and c.) the SSTFI Permission (signature) form.
Complete Research Papers are NOT REQUIRED
The SSTFI Permission Form is required and is separate from any of the other SRC forms that you will need to download from the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) website.
4. When are Seminar Entries DUE?
There will be NO SEMINAR EVENT!
4.1 Rationale?
The Board looked at both finances and logistics. This year the fair to remain financially responsible is cutting over $40,000 in spending. We have released our contract with Scheman and will be holding the SSTFI completely in Hilton to cut down on facility costs. The Board was given a cost analysis of just the Seminar Event and they decided the $10,000 spent on the 18% of seminar presenters (facilities, administration, award monies/prizes, judges) would be better spent serving all exhibitors.
5. What does the NEW Schedule look like?
The new schedule is still in draft form as there are a lot of details to review.
This is a very generalized version:
Day 1 - Thursday
1:00 – 4:00 pm Exhibitor Registration
1:00 Project Violation Reviews START
Students DO NOT have to be present during this time
Violation Sheets will be left at project if there are violations needing resolved.
12:00 – 4:30 ISU Department/College Workshops/Site Visits
4:30 Project Set-Up DEADLINE
4:30 Exhibitors at Projects for Final Violation Checks
5:00 Exhibitor Violations CLEARED
ALL Projects MUST be clear of violations
5:00 – 6:00 Student Judging Orientation (Workshop)
Session is optional but highly encouraged for all students!
6:00 Possible Sponsored Function by Colleges
Day 2 - Friday
7:45 Doors OPEN - Seating for Orientation Begins
7:45 – 8:00 Project Checks (OPTIONAL)
Students will be allowed to turn on computers, lights, etc.
8:00 – 8:45 SSTFI Orientation & Welcome (required by ISU Risk Mgt!)
Hall of Fame Inductions
8:00 – 8:45 Project Viewing (Judges ONLY)
Floor MUST be clear of ALL Exhibitors!
9:00 – 12:00 Interview & Special Award Judging
9:00 – 4:00 Exhibits Public Viewing (ALL)
9:00 Hall of Fame Inductee Meet and Greet
followed by Open Forum
9:30 – 12:00 Iowa FFA Agriscience Fair Judging (7th, 8th & HS)
10:30 – 10:45 Junior High BREAK – Even project #’s
10:45 – 11:00 Junior High BREAK – Odd project #’s
12:00 – 12:45 LUNCH - Not provided/on your own
1:00 Interview Judging Resumes – Finals (ALL)
3:00 Interview Judging Concluded (ALL)
Please wait to be dismissed before leaving projects
4:00 Projects Released
4:45 Seating for Grand Award Ceremony & Pre-Session
5:00 GRAND AWARD CEREMONY
7:00 ISEF Qualifier Meeting
5.1 Why Thurs/Fri & NOT Fri/Sat?
- After reviewing the survey results from our survey sent to judges we are able to provide more judges on Friday than on a Saturday - this is the MAIN reason
- Moving the fair off of Saturday removes conflicts with Music and Speech contests being held.
5.2 Why a 1.5 Day Fair and not a 1 Day Fair?
- Sheer number of projects restricts how quickly we can process registration and violations.
- Sheer number of projects makes judging all of them sufficiently and efficiently a major time factor.
- Registration and Violations will be handled the first afternoon. This leaves one day for all judging and distribution of awards.
- Unless we limit the number of students/projects that participate it is logistically impossible to have the event all in one day. The Board at this time is not willing to place limitations on participation.
5.2 What will the Award Ceremony look like?
- We are removing the big stage and going with something much simpler. It will still remain on the floor rather than in the seats for Disability/Liability issues.
- There will be some changes to the award structure in Junior High, however, we will NOT be reducing general award funds.
- Due to new policies in regards to awarding prizes all students will have to sign for their awards backstage.
- We will not be awarding cash prizes (due to the administrative cost and paperwork) but will switch everything to either pre-paid credit cards OR iTunes cards.
- Special Awards will be handled differently - not all special awards will be awarded on stage but recognition will still be given. We are still working this out.
- Senior High Scholarships will NOT change.
5.3 NEW Junior High Categories
- The Board made the decision to remove the TEAM CATEGORY from the Junior High Divisions. Junior High team projects will now be judged alongside individual projects in their respective category.
- The Grade Divisions (6th, 7th, 8th) will remain but now there will only be Biological and Physical (with teams selecting Bio or Phys).
- Rather than lumping biological and physical teams together the team projects will be able to compete with the individual projects all within their specific science area.
- This will move the JH to a method of judging and awarding more like SH which aligns more with ISEF.
- Example:
6th Grade Biological (individual and team)
6th Grade Physical (individual and team)
7th Grade Biological
7th Grade Physical
8th Grade Biological
8th Grade Physical
6. What is SRC?
SRC stands for Scientific Review Committee.
6.1 Local SRC vs. State SRC?
ALL School Districts (if not individual schools) MUST HAVE an SRC!
--this point cannot be emphasized enough – please be sure you have a local SRC
Most SRCs at local schools include: a science teacher (not the one supervising the project), an administrator, a school nurse (or local medical professional) and a veterinarian (required if any projects involve animal use). Once you have these people on board they need to review any projects that require prior SRC approval (some schools just have the SRC review all research to make sure they are covered). Any project utilizing potentially hazardous substances, animals or humans (this includes surveys and taste tests) MUST BE PRE-APPROVED.
State SRC – our State SRC (SSTFI) ONLY reviews the projects that will be competing at the SSTFI. The reviews at this level are to ensure that the local SRC did their jobs properly and that all research coming to the fair is in good standing for judging. The state SRC DOES NOT do Pre-Approval (prior to research).
7. When does ON-LINE registration open?
TEACHERS – teachers and adult sponsors may go in and update information anytime of the year under the Teacher Registration http://www.sciencefairofiowa.org/teachers.html . Also, if you are new to the science fair program or know a new teacher who will be participating please register at any time. The sooner you register the sooner you will receive SSTFI specific e-mail information directly.
A person registering in Teacher registration should the adult sponsor (this could be teacher, parent or other supervisor of the project)– if you are a parent (or have parents), AEA coordinator, or administrator who wants to receive science fair news and updates please go to: http://www.sstfi.blogspot.com ! I will post any mass e-mail message sent to adult sponsors on this site.
STUDENTS – student registration will not open until the middle of January. An e-mail announcement will go out to all registered teachers when student registration is open.
8. How do my students enter the Agriscience Fair?
A student MUST be an FFA member (this will be confirmed by the Iowa FFA Association). When students register for the SSTFI they will be asked if they are an FFA member – when they select yes, new information will be requested specific for entering the Agriscience Fair (mainly chapter ID, member ID, FFA Agriscience Fair category, etc.).
8.1 Do my FFA students have to participate in the regular portion of the SSTFI?
YES! ALL students are registered/entered for the SSTFI and MUST participate in the SSTFI. The FFA Agriscience Fair is a separate competition held within the SSTFI.
8.2 What is the Agriscience Fair?
The Agriscience Fair is a floor competition with research presented on a board just like the SSTFI.
8.3 Why is there no information of Agriscience Student this year?
The National FFA Organization has changed the structure of their FFA Agriscience Program and have replaced Agriscience Student with other Agriscience Award Programs.
8. Where will the SSTFI be located?
The SSTFI is held in Ames, IA. More specifically in Hilton Coliseum.
Senior High students will be located along the outer concourse.
Junior High students will be located on the floor.
Please let me know if you think of more questions you would like to have me answer!
Please note we are working as quickly as possible to lay out schedule specifics and also that much thought and effort has gone into trying to lay out a better/more efficient fair with limited funds.
You are welcome to provide constructive comments.
For more information regarding the SSTFI please visit our website at www.sciencefairofiowa.org
