'Tis the Season for the Science Fair   

You've got to love Google. They are always up to something good for our students. If you have already done the science fair with your students this year or are still in the planning stages, Google now has its own online Science Fair! Google's Global Science Fair is a full service FREE site for your students to compete on a global level. The 2013 winners have already been chosen, but getting your students interested for 2014 is the goal. Just think, if you had some exemplary projects this year, your students can be given an even greater audience than the school and local competitions. Google is looking for the brightest, the best and creative young scientists from around the world who will submit projects that have relevance to the world today. The competition is open to 13-18 year old who can work individually, in pairs or up to three on one project. They have even created a dedicated site for students to collaborate on their project and it must follow the standard scientific method. They have all the rules and procedures laid out beautifully in an uncomplicated and concise manner through 7 buttons: Enter, Judging, Prizes, Blog, Socialize, Resources and Teachers. The prizes are pretty sweet. The Grand Prize winner(s) will be going to the Galapagos Islands! Never underestimate your students. Who knows? If they win, you may get to go too!

Creating projects is something we have all done and truthfully they are them most memorable part of my learning experience as a student and teacher. Anything that I had to make and put into my own words helped me to understand the content and gave me a great sense of accomplishment. If you haven't tried a digital project with your students in class yet, I would really like to encourage you to consider taking a week to explore this form of learning with the students. Science Fair projects are one of the greatest experiences because the students still have to go through all the procedures as a backboard project, but instead document their steps digitally through video, images and voice. The best part is that they spend very little money in comparison to a backboard project and have lasting proof of their findings. Teachers also have a great arsenal of learning objects to help other students understand scientific concepts through the voice of their peers.

How do you enter the Google Global Science Fair? It's a total online experience that is thorough and well thought out. Students will need to create a Google account and complete a sign up form. Afterward, they will receive a confirmation link to a project submission site. The students plan, conduct and write up the results of the experiment and submit everything by April 4, 2014. The written submission must be accompanied by a 2-minute video or a 20-slide presentation that gives an overview of the project. A panel of teachers will judge all experiments and in May 60 global semi-finalists will then be narrowed down to 15 global finalists later in May. These 15 will fly to Google's HQ in California to present their projects before a panel of Nobel Laureates, tech visionaries and acclaimed scientists. One will be named the Grand Prize Winner will receive a $50,000 scholarship! Please, please, please let your students know. If you are really interested, be sure to sign up for their notifications. You never know!

"Science is organized knowledge."

Herbert Spencer

Science Fair Display

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