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Research
Paper Competition
TCRSF
RULE CHANGES: TCRSF will allow either individual
OR team papers. All papers must comply with ISEF and JSHS rules
& guidelines. The research paper competition is available
for all students in grades 6-12.
No library research only papers are accepted at state.
Research papers need to have library research, but also must
include a related student experiment and results or the
student's new theory or design just as for the project exhibit
competition. Research papers entered in TCRSF may include pictures/photos in them as long as the total size of
the entire research paper (including title page through to the
last Appendix) is no more than 1.8 MB in size.
TCRSF
has two age divisions for
the Research Paper Competition.
Grades 6-8 compete in the middle school division and
grades 9-12 compete in the high school division.
Although some middle schools include grade 9, all grade 9
students compete in the high school (grades 9-12) division.
(See our Links
page for additional competitions through other organizations.)
All students register online for the research paper
competition. Research
papers and abstracts are then emailed to tcrsf@tcrsf.org.
PLEASE READ the new rules, guidelines, and size
limitations for entering your research paper. Do not mail paper
copies of your research paper. The
entry fee for research papers is $20 per person.
All
research papers in both divisions (middle & high school)
will be read and scored by judges online.
Students
will receive judge comments from TCRSF via the email address
provided in student registration.
Students will not receive scores, but will be informed
whether or not they have advanced to the next level of
competition. Awards for the research paper competition are awarded at the science
fair awards program on Saturday, 10 AM, of the fair at the Field
House, University of Minnesota, 1800 University Ave SE. Please
pick up your research paper envelope before the awards program. All students MUST
PRACTICE their paper orally BEFORE competing at the next level. Other smaller regional fairs have had oral
competitions for their students at the school and regional
level, so by symposium or state, Twin Cities students would be
at a severe disadvantage UNLESS the student practices the oral
presentation with a Power Point (or slides or overhead projector
transparencies) in front of other people. It is preferred
that the student present to adults with a science background,
but the student may also present to a class at school, or
to a panel of teachers from the school, or to their parent(s) or
relatives. The research paper
competition at TCRSF will be based solely on the merit of the
research paper readings and judged according
to the grading rubric and adherence to the rules for the paper
competition and safety rules similar to ISEF project safety
rules. The paper competition does not require the ISEF paperwork
required for the project exhibit competition, but it is expected
that the same safety protocols and supervision are followed by
the student. The research paper may only include the
research done by the student, and may not include work done by
others such as a group in a lab. Multi-year work done by the
student however is allowed, unlike the project exhibit
competition which is one year's work only.
Students
are encouraged to participate in both the research paper
competition and the project competition, if they so desire.
All research paper awards are awarded at the TCRSF
science fair awards program on Saturday of the fair.
Winners
of the high school division, grades 9-12, TCRSF paper
competition will be
invited to compete at the Tri-state
North Central Regional Symposium, which is held just before
the Minnesota
Academy of Science State Science and Engineering Fair. The number of papers that will be advanced to compete at the
symposium is determined by the North Central Regional JSHS.
The three states in our North Central JSHS region are
Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
Winners
in grades 6-8
will be advanced to compete with a symposium style presentation
(usually PowerPoint) of their paper to a panel of judges at the
Minnesota State Science and Engineering Fair. Students may
enter both a paper and a project on the same work. Beginning in
2012, state is permitting 6th grade to advance with research
papers, projects, or both, provided that they qualify from their
regional fair.
If
you have questions, please email us: paperjudging@tcrsf.org
To
submit your paper online,
first register for
the research paper competition using student registration.
Then re-name a copy
of your research paper file and abstract
file to be lastname firstname grade# paper and
lastname firstname grade# abstract. If you are submitting
a team effort, please name the paper by the team leaders's name
and put the word TEAM after the grade number before the word
paper or abstract. Please email
your research paper
as a PDF (.pdf) or as a Word
document (.doc) or as a text file (.txt) attachment to tcrsf@tcrsf.org.
Please also submit your abstract as
a second file attachment
(same extensions permitted as with the
research paper itself). If you use Word, please save
as .doc rather than .docx because many judges are not able to read the .docx
format.
For
example, if John Q.
Public in grade 9 wrote an individual research paper on Mersenne
Primes in the Mathematics category, then John would email his
paper as: "Public John 9 paper" and "Public
John 9 abstract". If Jane Doe and Suzy Que, both in
grade 7, are submitting a team paper on the Science of Growing
Herbs, then if Jane Doe is the team leader, Jane and Suzy would
both register and email their paper as: "Doe Jane 7 TEAM
paper" and "Doe Jane 7 TEAM abstract". The
title page of the attached research paper and the header of the
abstract will both clearly state the full name of ALL team
members.
Enter
the TCRSF research paper competition: Electronic
submission of both research papers and research paper online
registration is due Friday,
February
3,
2012, by 6:00 p.m. CST (actual time, not your computer time
stamp!).
IF
the online registration & submission deadline is met, then
all signed paperwork and registration fees must be postmarked
NO LATER than
Monday, February
6,
2012, at the absolute
latest. Your
registration is not complete until TCRSF has received all
paperwork and fees required. Paper registrations that are
incomplete will be disqualified with no refunds.
Please get your paperwork in on time!
TCRSF Competition papers
are read & scored
online by judges February 04-15, 2012. All research paper awards
(as in previous years) will be presented at the awards program
for TCRSF on Saturday, February 25, 2012, 10:00 am-12:30 pm.
Winners in grades 9-12 advance to the JSHS
(Junior Science & Humanities Symposium) North Central Region.
Winners in grades 6-8 advance to present their papers at
the Minnesota
State Science & Engineering Fair. (If they win with both
their projects and their papers, they will be able to compete in
BOTH competitions at state.)
Steps
in writing a research paper:
- Gather
your references and research notes.
- Pick
an interesting and informative title.
- Write
one section at a time (see a list of typical sections
below).
- Be
sure to cite the work and ideas of other people. (Credit to
the author of any statement or information which you did not
discover.)
- Add
tables and figures.
- Obtain
feedback from many readers.
- Create
a new draft.
- Find
a second round of readers.
- Proofread
the final version.
- Submit
the final paper to the science fair.
- TCRSF
is now following the national
JSHS guidelines & rules for the research paper, with
a couple of exceptions: CHANGE:
Research papers entered in TCRSF
may include pictures/photos in them as long as the total
size of the research paper is no more than 1.8 MB in size.
Also, the abstract may be the same length as for
ISEF/project rules: up to 250 words.
o
The paper should
be a minimum of 5-6 pages and a maximum of 20 pages, including appendices.
o
Photography
may be used in the electronic research paper;
photography may be used in the oral presentations
... and now in the paper as well as long
as the file size restriction is met.
o
Graphs, tables,
diagrams, charts, or other graphic representation should be
simple to allow the judges on-line access to the research paper.
o
A
maximum
size limit for the electronic research paper is 1.8 Mb.
o
The judges read
both the abstract and the research paper.
o
National rules
limit the abstract to 200 words, but at TCRSF, we will allow the
abstract to
be up to 250 words to be consistent with the ISEF rules
for project competition. Therefore, if the student is competing
in both the research paper and the project competitions, they
are permitted to use the same abstract for both - until/ if
they compete at Nationals. Abstracts for nationals MUST be
limited to 200 words.
SCIENTIFIC
CATEGORIES for RESEARCH PAPERS: (JSHS categories)
·
Environmental
science; Earth and Space Science
·
Engineering
·
Physical Sciences,
including chemistry, physics, and astronomy
·
Life sciences
·
Medicine and
Health; Behavioral and Social Sciences
·
Mathematics and
Computer Science
RECOMMENDED
OUTLINE
for RESEARCH
PAPERS
by JSHS:
-
The
title page must include the title, the student's name, the
student's school, grade and age, category, and advisor's name.
- Acknowledgement of
major assistance received;
- Table of contents;
- If applicable,
statement that "research involving non-human
vertebrates or human subjects was conducted under the
supervision of an experienced teacher or researcher and
followed state and federal regulatory guidance applicable to
the human and ethical conduct of such research";
- Introduction;
- Materials and methods;
- Results (data or
findings);
- Discussion and
conclusions;
- References, or
literature cited;
- and Appendices (if
necessary)
TYPES
OF RESEARCH PAPERS:
a.
An INVESTIGATIVE RESEARCH PAPER is the report of an actual
experiment that the student has performed. Many students
write a research paper on their science project.
b.
A LIBRARY RESEARCH PAPER is a report on other people’s work
documented by library sources. Where there is controversy,
the student should take a stand, which he or she supports, from
the library references. Winning papers will attempt to
propose a new theory, design, or concept from their library
research. This is
not intended to be a “report” on a topic.
Sections
for a typical research paper:
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Title
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A
hint of what's to come. Be brief and informative. The
title page must include the title, the student's name, the
student's school, grade and age, category (see abstract
form for categories, such as biochemistry, computer
sciences, physics & astronomy, etc.), type of paper
(investigative or library research), and advisor's name.
|
|
Abstract
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A
description of the whole project in 250 words or less. It
tells the reader about your topic and what you think is
important. (1-2 paragraphs)
|
|
Introduction
|
A
discussion of what's been done before and what you plan to
do (question or problem) including what is the source of
your idea for your project - how did you come up with your
idea(s)? (1-4 paragraphs).
|
|
Review of Literature
|
A
more in-depth review of other's people's work, documented
by library sources.
(optional, depending on details in the Introduction)
|
|
Statement of Purpose
|
This is a statement of
the purpose of the study/experiment, including clear
objectives. What are the applications of this work? Why is
this study important? Be sure that you show recognition of
the implications or importance of this work.
|
|
Hypothesis
|
Clearly
state your hypothesis, based on your background research
and knowledge.
|
|
Materials and Methods
|
A
detailed description of the experiments and the design of
the experiments. What were your variables and controls?
Did you develop any new/novel techniques? Include any
details which are important to your experiment. Use
complete sentences. (1-5 paragraphs)
|
|
Results
|
An
organized summary of your data. Provides your readers with
proof of your work. (3-10 paragraphs) Tables, graphs,
charts, and photographs are good means to communicate your
results.
|
|
Discussion
of Results
|
This
section is where you explain how you interpreted your
data. Discuss use of statistics and sources of error. (1-5
paragraphs)
- Are your results valid? Accurate? Precise?
|
|
Conclusion
|
Your
conclusion must flow from your results and relate to your
hypothesis (whether or not the hypothesis was supported).
|
|
Future
Work
|
This
would include predictions, ideas about refining your study
or increasing precision or accuracy, new questions raised,
or what the next logical step would be if you continued
this work.
|
|
References
|
A
resource for readers. Materials you read or people you
talked with while preparing for, designing, and writing
about your research. Be consistent. For each reference,
you will include some general information such as the last
names and initials of all authors and editors,
titles, dates of publication, and other publication
information. Titles of books, journals, magazines, and
newspapers are usually italicized or underlined. If
you reference a website, be sure to include the date
accessed in your reference because web pages can be edited
or changed!
|
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Appendices
|
A
place for extra information. Whatever is attached should
be short and relevant to your work. Graphs or charts that
did not fit in your paper may be in the appendices. Other
possibilities for appendices would be source code for
computer programs that you authored for your project, or
diagrams explaining life cycles or metabolic pathways,
etc. that are relevant to your work, or a few photos that
are relevant to the project. It is appropriate for some
projects to have a "definition of terms" in the
appendices.
|
Research
Paper rubrics (score sheets used by the judges) are available:
Investigative
Research Paper rubric
Investigative
Research Paper comment sheet
For
Next Level of Competition:
Oral
presentation rubric
(double check the timing rules of the next level of competition
(grade 9-12 at JSHS or grade 7-8 at state) - Below are
guidelines, not updated rules. Use this as a guideline for your
oral presentation required before the next level of competition.
- The
research presentation may not exceed 12 minutes, followed by
a maximum 5-minute question period. (Nationals allows 6
minutes.) The procedure for maintaining the time includes a
10-minute signal for the student, and finally a 12-minute
signal. At the 12-minute point, the student speaker must
stop the presentation even if he or she has not finished.
- Set-up
time for the presentation is a maximum of 2 minutes. This
set-up time is not included in the above presentation time.
- Following
the presentation, the session moderator will ask for judge
questions. (Nationals allows audience questions. TCRSF
allows questions only from the judges.)
- The
speaker may entertain questions while the exchange appears
interesting and relevant up to 5 minutes of Q/A.
- The
speaker should repeat a question before answering so the
audience may understand the entire dialogue.
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