Dear all, Timely and appropriate feedback can make a big difference to a student's project quality in addition to their confidence and sense of belonging. If it is through self-reflection, peer-to-peer conversation, or from a trained adult, a feedback loop allows for the iteration that is key to learning and improvement. We know that especially with a long-term project, having a structure for support -- especially when we're stuck -- can be just what we need to get us through. This newsletter focuses on some resources that are available in the Science Fair Ready framework and on our YouTube channel, as well as opportunities that are available to teachers, classrooms and individual students. Also see below for an opportunity to sign-up for a free DataClassroom Teacher License! Opportunities start November 15th! Sign up at the links below!

But first.... Teacher zFairs Account Creation Teachers must create an account before students can create their account and submit their project for SRC review. You can share the High School zFairs Student Guide and the Middle School zFairs Student Guide to assist students in creating their accounts. Make sure students create an account in the correct regional zFairs page. Your region can be found here. Please provide your school address when the address is requested. Be sure to take note of your username for login purposes. To ensure students qualify properly, students that need pre-approval must obtain that by regional SRC BEFORE they begin experimentation.  For more information, watch these videos on HS SRC and MS SRC process Please add noreply@zfairs.com to your email contacts so that your mail does not go to SPAM.

Opportunities to Engage with Volunteers

Feedback Sessions for Classrooms & Groups We have volunteers from industry and academia on board and eager to support Middle School and High School classrooms at key stages of their project work. We will be offering special one-shot opportunities for groups that focus on: Background research support Project plan review Data analysis and representation Practice presentations If you would like to schedule a session with 1-3 volunteers to join your class virtually, please fill out this form with your program need, class size, desired schedule and any focus area requests. Mentor Matchmaking for Individual Students MSEF supports High School students in finding connections to STEM professionals. If you have a student who would benefit from this program and find it valuable, please encourage them to fill out this form. We will work to pair students with professionals in a field that is the best fit for their project area. Meetings will be primarily virtual and are not intended as an opportunity for lab or resource access. Priority will be given to students in higher-need districts.

Updated information about the BIPOC Coaching program can be found here.

Additional Resources from MSEF

Peer Mentoring In September, we held a virtual discussion group with Middle School and High School teachers across the state to discuss opportunities for peer-mentoring in their Science & Engineering Fair program. This video covers highlights from that conversation.Including: an example setup for HS and MS collaboration strategies for managing time and building relationships expectations about mentoring

Design Process Guides Design Process guides in the Science Fair Ready folder can be used to help students plan the stages of their project. These guides will also help them be prepared judges feedback. This document provides a comparison for review with more details in the Science Fair Ready framework. Project Feedback There are several supports in the Science Fair Ready framework to help guide students along the steps of their project. This document provides prompts for self-reflection, peer check-ins or for use by teachers or adult mentors.

Apply for a free 12 month DataClassroom Teacher License, Sponsored by MSEF Apply by Nov 15, 2021 Current DataClassroom customers are not eligible. DataClassroom is a web-app for graphing, statistics, and data analysis in the grade 6-12+ science and math classroom. The tool runs on any device that can access the internet. The tool has been designed by teachers to provide the opportunity to integrate next-generation data skills seamlessly with the learning experiences they are already creating. Science fair teachers around the country have found it especially useful as it directly supports students in choosing appropriate graphs and statistical tests for their own datasets.  LEARN MORE & APPLY HERE

We're excited to share these opportunities and supports for you and your students. We hope it helps them visualize how the work they are doing may lead to future academic and professional opportunities.

Rebekah Stendahl Program Director

Donate

‌ ‌ ‌