Teacher workshop on Nov. 17th in Santa Clara

On Saturday, Nov. 17, from 9:30-11 AM, a workshop for teachers that is strongly recommended for parents involved in Parent-Sponsored Projects will be held at Santa Clara University. The workshop will focus on project requirements, process and paperwork. (See rule #13 about PSPs here.)

The workshop will be at SCU in Lucas Hall (School of Business building) in Room 208.

Directions:
Santa Clara University is across El Camino Real from the Santa Clara Transit station.
Parking in SCU lots is free on weekends.
The address of Lucas Hall is 790 Franklin St., Santa Clara, CA 95050. There is parking at the nearby North Garage [1063 Alviso St. Santa Clara, CA 95050].

Please submit applications that require pre-approval as soon as possible.

• This allows time for an exchange of email about your application, if needed, to get it ready for review by the SRC committee.
• Projects that require pre-approval often require extra forms, especially projects involving humans. Submitting at the FINAL deadline may not give us enough time to resolve issues and get all the necessary forms before the final IRB review meeting on December 1.

The next deadline for projects requiring pre-approval is receipt by November 14 or with a postmark on or before November 9. The FINAL deadline for pre-approval is November 28.

We see many applications in the pipeline and look forward to receiving them soon!

Congratulations to the Synopsys Championship middle school competitors on their success at the Broadcom MASTERS competition in Washington, DC. 

• Engineering Award – First place: Alice Feng, San Jose, The Effect of Mushroom Species and Substrates on the Properties of a Novel Biodegradable Material: Mycelium
• Rising Star Award:  Sriram Bhimaraju, Cupertino, Low-Cost Archery Assistant with an Interface for the Visually Impaired

In addition to showcasing their projects for the public, the 30 national finalists also completed a rigorous competition that tested their STEM knowledge as well as critical thinking, communication, creativity and collaboration skills. First place winners were awarded an iPad and $3500 to support their choice of a STEM summer camp experience in the U.S.

In recognition of their promise as the youngest competitors, two Rising Stars won a trip to Phoenix in May 2019 as the U.S. delegate to Broadcom MASTERS International and Official Observer at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF).

See the press release for a complete list of winners. The Broadcom MASTERS (Math, Applied Science, Technology, and Engineering for Rising Stars) program is produced by the Society for Science & the Public and encourages middle school students to participate in science fairs, continue their studies in high school and college and enter STEM careers.

The deadline for applications being submitted for SRC pre-approval in November has been changed to Nov. 14. Your application needs to be in our hands by that date – either in the P.O. box or dropped off at 1275 Martin Avenue in Palo Alto. An application that arrives later must have a postmark on or before Nov. 9. The Scientific Review Committee and the Institutional Review Board will meet on Nov. 17.

A change in this year’s table of Application Deadlines has caused some confusion. Please note that the deadlines on the linked table are RECEIPT dates not POSTMARK dates. There is a footnote about postmark dates.

This change more accurately reflects how things work – it is important that applications arrive in SCVSEFA hands by the intended deadlines. (Express Mail to the P.O. Box and hand delivery to the Palo Alto address  have become popular means to that end.) A postmark date matters only when an application arrives AFTER the FINAL deadline – if it was delayed in US postal mail, the application will still be processed. There is just one exception: any project involving human subjects that misses the November deadline for the last IRB review.

On Thursday, October 11, from 7 – 8:30 PM, there will be two events at the SCCOE offices at 1290 Ridder Park Drive in San Jose. For students and parents, the clinic will be about participating in science fair – how to find an idea and then develop, display and present the project. For teachers*, the workshop will focus on project requirements, process and paperwork. (The teacher workshop is definitely “on” for Thursday at 7 and last-minute attendees are welcome.)
*The teacher workshop may be helpful to parents who will be in charge of Parent-Sponsored Projects. Please review rule #13 about PSPs here.

The online application for the 2019 Synopsys Championship is open. Apply as soon as possible for projects that need SRC pre-approval. The deadline for the first SRC review meeting is October 17. Information about submitting an application and all the deadlines are posted here.

There is a diagram to help determine if a project requires SRC/IRB pre-approval. This will be true for most projects involving human participants, vertebrate animals, and potentially hazardous biological agents. The review committee would also like to pre-approve all projects in the Hazardous Agents, Activities and Devices category.

The WINNERS CIRCLE EVENT for invited 2018 fair winners will be Thursday September 27th, 7-9 PM at SCCOE.

Congratulations to our Broadcom MASTERS finalists! The Broadcom Foundation and Society for Science & the Public announced 30 finalists in the 2018 competition for middle school students, where finalists are selected from the top 10% of projects in affiliated science fairs across the U.S.

Four of the finalists are from the Synopsys Championship; they will present their projects in the final competition October 19-24 in Washington, D.C.:

The finalists include 14 girls and 16 boys from 14 states. California has the most finalists with nine, followed by Florida with four, and three each from Georgia and Oregon.

Congratulations to all 21 participants in the 2018 Synopsys Championship who are among the “Top 300” in the Broadcom MASTERS competition for middle school students, sponsored by the Broadcom Foundation and the Society for Science & the Public. 78 students in the Top 300 are from California. They were selected from 2,537 applicants who qualified to enter the Broadcom MASTERS by being among the top 10 percent of the participants at their Society-affiliated science fairs. View the press release and Top 300 list at the Student Science web site.