TO: «CertificateName» (#«TempStudentID»)
School: «School»
Date: February 11, 2021 - noon
Title: «Title»
Division: «Division» Category: «Category»
Teacher: «Teacher»
As we are working to review and approve various components of your project (like the PDF presentation, Video, Release Form, etc), we have noticed quite a few that we had to reject and have the student redo them. Below is a summary of what we are finding so far. Consider these when you are doing the rest of your project.
1) February 15, 5:00 PM – deadline for self nomination of special awards. Make sure to review the special awards and see if any apply to you. For example, a quick scan came up with at least 9 projects that had to do with weather, yet none of those students have considered self nomination for the American Meteorological awards. Some organizations are reaching a maximum – once they are at a max, you will not be able to sign up for that particular organization. New organizations added include: National Society of Black Engineers, American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin, and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers
2) Release Form: We need the complete one page release form, signed and dated by the student and the parent. Just a picture of the signatures does not suffice. Note that if we do not have the release form by 3/1 at 5:00 PM, the project will be disqualified. If the uploaded form has issues and is not corrected by 3/1 at 5:00 PM, the project is disqualified. Make sure you get this form in – the earlier the better.
3) Abstract – part of the entry form process – is limited to 250 words and represents your results – what did you find. Is is a quick summary of what you did.
4)
PDF Presentations: Review the information on the Resources tab,
under Display and Safety Inspectors, checklist of items. Biggest offenders so far include:
- Name, School name, Grade, or
Teacher Name being on the PDF Presentation.
If any of this information is there, the document will be rejected and
you will need to redo it
- Too Long: There is a MAXIMUM of 12 pages
- Too Wordy: We do not want a 12 page report on your
project. We are looking for a powerpoint type of presentation, bullet items. Look in the Resources tab, Presentation, Project Materials
Guidelines
5)
Video Presentation: Review the information on the Resources tab,
under presentation, Video Upload Guidelines.
Biggest problems so far:
- very weak audio – hard to hear
- rotating, flashing lights (like a
disco ball) – absolutely useless in a presentation – distracting
- video taken too far away from the
source
- ‘jumpy’ video – try to hold the
camera steady
- incorrect permissions when the video
is uploaded to youtube or google drive
Very important – after you upload your video, and it shows ‘Pending’, click on
the pending button to see if the video actually plays and review it
yourself. If it does not, please delete
it and try again.
6) Optional Photos: Some implementations of a .JPEG file are causing issues. After you upload the photo and it shows ‘pending’, click on the pending button to make sure you can actually see your photo. Again, if it does not load correctly, you may need to save it in a .JPG or .PNG format.
7) Optional QUAD chart is highly liked by the judges. Although optional, if you have time, suggest you do a one page summary of your project. See Resources tab, Presentation, Quad Chart Examples for guidance
8) We are constantly approving documents. We will have over 5,000 documents to review and approve before judging occurs. You will know when we have reviewed some components of your project in a variety of ways. If the document (Video Link, PDF Presentation, optional photos, release form, etc), is approved, the blue ‘pending’ button changes to a green ‘show’. Also, you will no longer be able to upload a replacement for that document. Once it is approved, it is final. If the document is NOT acceptable, both you and your teacher will get an immediate email stating that and why the document was rejected
ALSO – all emails to students and teachers are retained in the section under resources, emails to students and emails to teachers. If you missed one, look there.
ZOOM Office hours – We will have ZOOM office hours and
help as follows: Zoom link will be on
the Entry page. Go to: www.sefmd.org
– entry form info – Online Entry – at the top
Friday, 2/12: noon to 5:00 PM
Sunday, 2/14: 6 PM to 8 PM
Monday, 2/15: 8 AM to 3 PM
Tim Fino and Kathy Kitzmann