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Autodesk Best Starter Kit Contest Official Rules:
| Introduction |
Science Buddies is a non-profit organization that provides online resources for science education. We focus on helping K-12 students do better science fair projects. Every year over two million students in the U.S. do some kind of science research project, most commonly, a science fair project. The Science Buddies website has become a very popular place for these students to get help. In fact, 853,093 student and teacher visitors came to use our online resource library of tools, project ideas and information about the scientific method during the 2004-2005 school year.
One of the most popular resources offered by Science Buddies is our wide selection of project ideas, with information to help students get started with their project. Some of these project ideas are written by volunteers. As part of an effort to dramatically increase the number of volunteer-authored project idea Starter Kits offered on our website, we are conducting a contest for Best Starter Kit. |
| What You Can Do |
Help spark a young student's interest in science or engineering by creating a cool project idea Starter Kit in an area of personal interest to you that will be seen by thousands of students each year. |
| The Concept |
For most students, selecting what to work on is one of the most difficult parts of doing a science project. At the same time, one of Science Buddies' primary missions is to improve the quality of science projects. A mutually beneficial solution is to help students find a project that interests them AND at the same time represents better science than what they might come up with on their own.
Science Buddies' Topic Selection Wizard (which will be used by around 500,000 students during the 2005-2006 school year) first helps students identify an area of science that is inherently interesting to them, and then it presents some representative project ideas in the form of Starter Kits. Each Starter Kit has several objectives:
- Attract the student and capture his or her imagination
- Provide enough background information and guidance to get the student off to a great start
- Suggest variations on the primary idea, so that the student has plenty of room for creativity
Thus, a Starter Kit should be true to its name (it provides a start); it is not a cookbook. At the same time a good Starter Kit takes recognition of the fact that the intended user is a young student with far less experience than the author.
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| How This Works |
Write your Starter Kit in the comfort of your home and according to your own schedule. Then, just e-mail the document to us. Take a look at examples we already have online to see how they range from the simple to the elaborate. A good Starter Kit might take as little as a few hours or several days to write, but the beauty of this volunteer opportunity is that you can do it at your own pace, as your schedule allows. But please don't wait! The sooner we publish your Starter Kit, the more students we can help this year.
Science Buddies offers a guide on how to write Starter Kits, samples to view, and a template to help Starter Kit authors. These materials are available at:
http://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentoring/participate_starter_kit.shtml
Each Starter Kit's structure includes:
- A short description, including a brief abstract that serves as a brochure for the project
- A table showing key parameters for the project such as appropriate grade level and time required
- Background information including a bibliography and literature search plan that gets the student started on the correct foot
- Experimental procedures
- A list of possible variations on the experiment
We'll review and edit your Starter Kit and publish it online, giving you credit as the author. In addition, we'll categorize each Starter Kit into the most relevant field of science or engineering to make sure that the Topic Selection Wizard presents it to the proper and most interested students.
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| Prizes |
Through a generous donation by Autodesk, Inc., Science Buddies is able to offer the grand prize winner his or her choice of either Autodesk AutoCAD 2006 or Autodesk 3ds max, which have approximate retail values of $3,750 and $3,495, respectively. One 2nd place winner will receive a copy of AutoCAD LT and six runners up will receive a Logitech BuddyCam 2-Pack of Webcams. Prizes generously donated by Autodesk and Logitech. The winners of the contest will be announced by e-mail, by posting on our website, and/or by press release on or before May 31, 2006. Science Buddies reserves the right to withhold awards if no submitted projects meet minimum standards. This is the first contest of its kind and it is not known at this time approximately how many eligible entries will be received. |
| Eligible Topic Areas |
Entrants must write and submit an original Starter Kit that conforms to the straightforward specifications posted on the Science Buddies website at:
http://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentoring/participate_starter_kit.shtml
The Starter Kit must introduce a science fair-relevant topic in one or more of the following eligible fields:
- animation
- applied mechanics
- architecture
- civil engineering
- computer gaming
- construction science
- engineering design
- engineering modeling
- lighting, modeling, rendering, or visualization
- manufacturing science or engineering
- mapping or cartography
- mechanical engineering
- structural mechanics
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| Limitations |
There is no limit to the number of Starter Kits that an eligible participant may submit. |
| Eligible Participants |
Each Starter Kit must be submitted by a single author. Employees of Science Buddies or Autodesk are not eligible. In order to qualify for any prize, the participant must be legally able to receive a prize from an American non-profit organization, as determined by the relevant laws of the entrant's country of residence or citizenship. |
| Deadline |
Starter Kits must be submitted on or before April 30, 2006, Pacific Standard Time. |
| How to Submit |
A Starter Kit will be considered submitted when an eligible entrant e-mails a copy of his or her Starter Kit to scibuddy@sciencebuddies.org with the subject line: Autodesk Contest Submission. Date stamps on the e-mail will be checked to ensure eligibility. The body of the e-mail should include the entrant's full name, city, state, country, phone number(s), and preferred e-mail address. |
| Judging Criteria |
This is a contest of skill only, not chance. Winners will be chosen by Science Buddies personnel after judging all eligible entries against the following criteria:
- completeness, adherence to Starter Kit format as presented in the guide to writing a Starter Kit (10 points)
- creativity, originality, and student appeal (10 points)
- quality of the writing (10 points)
- appropriateness for the target age group (10 points)
- educational merit (10 points)
- cost effectiveness and accessibility of materials to a typical student (10 points)
In the event of a tie, the winning entry will be the Starter Kit that displays the greatest student appeal as measured by actual student usage over a period of 10 days of being posted for public use on the Science Buddies website. Plagiarism of any kind will not be tolerated and entries will be vigorously checked for it. All submitted Starter Kits become the property of Science Buddies (but the author will be duly credited).
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| Who Will Benefit |
Each Starter Kit submitted for the contest that meets our quality requirements will be published on the Science Buddies website and will be viewed by thousands of students. Our most popular Starter Kits are used by 10,000 students per year. |
| Official Rules |
In case of any discrepancy, omission, or other inadequacy of the above rules and guidelines, Science Buddies, in its sole discretion, will make a decision to resolve the issue. Science Buddies is the sole operating program of the Kenneth L. Hess Family Charitable Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, EIN #94-3216541 |
Download a PDF copy of the contest flyer here: Autodesk Best Starter Kit Contest Flyer
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