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Forms
are required for every science project, and are available on our
Forms
page. Our SRC committee is
available to help answer any rules and forms questions that you
may have. If you have a question, please email the students's
complete research plan (A. Problem or question being
investigated, B. Hypothesis, C. Detailed procedure & data
analysis plan, and D. Bibliography with a minimum of 5
references.) and the grade in school (grades 6-12) to src@tcrsf.org
Each
school creates an IRB (see )
to ensure the student's safety, proper level of supervision, and
compliance with the rules by reviewing the student's research
plan before the student begins the experimental or lab portion
of their project.
Additional
information (PDF documents):
Our all
volunteer organization is available to help answer your
questions and offer assistance as we are able. If you want one
of our board or committee members to help with a visit to your
school, please send us an email teacherinfo@tcrsf.org
or call (Contact Us page).
Teachers
and advisors/mentors play a vital role in the science fair process.
By registering as a
teacher/advisor/mentor
with TCRSF, we will be able to provide you timely information
regarding the registration and SRC processing of your students.
You will be able to access reports regarding the status of your
students, as well as receive optional email notifications when
your students register or when their SRC status changes. 
Teachers: If you have parents and students
who do not understand the educational value of doing an annual
science fair project, consider pointing them to our "Why
Do A Project" page of our website, or feel free to use
any of our materials to promote science fair with your students
and their parents. (You may download a PDF
of the "Why Do A Project" article.)
Students
are encouraged to enter both the science fair and the research
paper competition based on the same work. Many judges look for
some form of research paper with the project (exhibit)
competition. Often the information on the boards plus the
research plan and bibliography, the abstract, and a bit of
background information is sufficient for the paper (organized
properly, of course)!
The
deadline for submissions to the research paper competition
is February 3, 2012, by 6:00 p.m. in electronic form. Please see the Research Papers page and the
Rules page. Judging will take place from February
4-15, 2012 with our on-line scoring system. Awards are presented
during the awards program of the exhibit fair on Saturday of the
fair.
It
is required that the student
present their oral research paper before advanced competition,
if they advance. Be sure to help your student schedule an oral
presentation (most students create a PowerPoint to present) if their research paper is advanced to
state/symposium and time the presentation to be sure the time is
within the competition rules! Please have the audience ask the
student questions at the end of the (practise)
presentation(s). PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!
If you have questions, please ask: paperjudging@tcrsf.org
Form
1 Instructions from our SRC chair - PDF.
(This is instructional only for your assistance. Please use Form
1 from the Official Rule Book without the annotations.)
TO
ALL SCIENCE FAIR TEACHERS, ADVISORS AND STUDENTS FROM THE SRC
(Scientific Review Committee)
(printable PDF)
Please
see the Rules and Forms
pages for the current year's rules and
forms.
We
are an ISEF affiliated
Fair and must
abide by these rules.
We urge you to review these rules BEFORE starting science
fair projects. If
you have any questions please contact src@tcrsf.org.
A Science Project Primer can be found at http://www.societyforscience.org/Page.aspx?pid=311
The following
is a review of the 4 primary committees dealing with
experimental procedures, safety concerns, display considerations
and awards.
A. Institutional
Review Board (IRB)
An
Institutional Review Board (IRB) is a committee that, according to
federal regulations must evaluate the potential physical and/or
psychological risk of research involving human subjects before
research begins. This
includes a review of any surveys or questionnaires to be used in
a project.
Any
project involving HUMANS must be reviewed and approved by the
IRB BEFORE research begins.
Please check the new Humans
Subjects Form 4 and the suggested “Informed Consent” form.
All
schools must have an IRB in place BEFORE research begins.
The teacher/advisor cannot serve on the IRB for his/her
students, however, you can
use more than one teacher/advisor on your IRB to cover all your
students (so
each teacher covers the other teacher's projects without any
perceived conflict of interest).
“Educator” replaces the “Science Educator” for
Membership on the IRB. Therefore,
social studies, language, or other teachers may also serve on
the school's IRB. If you are home schooled or your school does not
participate in science fair, you may contact the Scientific
Review Committee (see below) directly.
Federal
regulations require local community involvement, therefore an
IRB should be established at the school level to evaluate human
research projects. An IRB at the school or ISEF Affiliated Fair
level must consist of a minimum of three members. In order to
eliminate conflict of interest, the Adult Sponsor, parents, the
Qualified Scientist, and the Designated Supervisor who oversee a
specific project must not serve on the IRB reviewing that
project. Additional members are recommended to help avoid this
conflict of interest and to increase the expertise of the
committee.
This IRB must include:
-
an
educator
-
a school administrator (preferably, a principal or vice
principal),
-
one of the following who is knowledgeable and capable of
evaluating the physical and/or psychological risk involved in a
given study: a medical doctor, physician’s assistant,
registered nurse, a psychiatrist, psychologist, licensed
counselor (professional, mental health) or licensed social
worker.
ALL
DATES MUST BE BEFORE THE ACTUAL DATE RESEARCH BEGINS!
(except for those which specify that they must be signed after
the work is completed... such as on the form 1C).
NOTE: Actual Start Date is on Form 1A. IRB must also sign off on Form 1B.
B. Scientific
Review Committee (SRC)
The SRC is
organized at the Regional Level and is responsible for
evaluation of student research, certifications, research plans and
exhibits for compliance with the Rules and pertinent laws and
regulations.
The Twin Cities
Regional SRC requires that any proposed projects in the
following areas must be reviewed and approved
by an IRB or SRC BEFORE experimentation begins:
Projects involving vertebrates, potentially dangerous
biological agents (molds of any type, bacteria, gene research, any
tissues, etc. ALL
such experiments must be done in a school lab or other regulated
facilities.)
Potentially
dangerous means ALL projects
involving petri dishes or culturing microorganisms (including
pure, safe strains) because of the possibility of contamination.
All microorganisms (including bacteria, viruses, viroids,
prions, rickettsia, fungi, and parasites) are considered
hazardous for purposes of SRC approval except for baker’s
yeast and brewer’s yeast (rDNA studies require prior
approval), commercially-available coliform water test kits,
studies involving Lactobacillus, Bacillus thurgensis,
nitrogen-fixing, oil-eating bacteria and algae-eating bacteria
introduced into their natural environment. (These are not
exempt from prior approval if cultured in a petri dish
environment that could potentially be contaminated).
Human
experimentation (including surveys)
must have previous school IRB approval as well as SRC approval.
ALL projects
must be reviewed and approved by the SRC after experimentation
and shortly before competition in an ISEF-affiliated Fair
competition. Projects
requiring pre-approval which were conducted at a regulated
research institution (not home or high school, etc.) and which
were reviewed and approved by the proper institutional board
before experimentation must also be reviewed by the Fair SRC for
rules compliance.
Please
review competition rules - available on the
page and on the
page.
C.
The Safety and Display Committee (SDC)
The SDC
- Safety and Display Committee - is the
final authority on display and safety issues for projects
approved by the SRC.
Please
review the display / exhibit rules.
D.
Awards Committee (AC)
The
AC - Awards Committee - is made up of members of the Fair Committee and other
volunteers with expertise in many scientific areas.
The Awards
Committee is responsible for the selection and dispersion of all
TCRSF fairs awards. The Fair Board is the final authority on all awards
issues.
ISEF/SPONSOR
AWARDS: We
have many requirements and forms that must be filled out
regarding Sponsor Winners and ISEF Finalists. Many of these are time sensitive. We must require ALL Sponsor Winners, ISEF Finalists and
Alternates to be present at the Awards Ceremony. If the Finalist or Sponsor Winner is not present the award
will be given to the Alternate/s.
ALL team members must be at the judging and at the awards
ceremony.
All decisions regarding awards are finalized by TCRSF’s
board.
AFFILIATION: We are required by our St. Paul Affiliation that any ISEF
Finalist selected from the City of St. Paul must not only live
in the City Boundaries but must also attend a school located in
the St. Paul School District. See our
website Affiliations page for complete description of our
affiliations.
SRC Pre –Approval: This can be done by e-mailing the RESEARCH PLAN ONLY
and the grade level of the student (grade 6, 7, 8. or 9-12) to
src@tcrsf.org.
If more information is needed we will notify you.
FORM
AND REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS FOR 2012:
Every
Participant:
-
Registration
Form (obtained from online registration filled out)
-
Parent Signed
Photo Release
-
Fee
$20 per participant
-
Form
1 -
fully filled
out and dated BEFORE Start Date - Form
1 Sample Instructions from our SRC chair - PDF.
-
Form
1A- ACTUAL Start Date must be filled in.
-
Form
1B – Dated BEFORE Start Date. This
includes the Parent Signature.
-
IRB
must sign Form 1B part 2a for
all human, vertebrate and biological experiments.
-
All
other forms depend on the subject of the experiment. Refer to the
forms and rule book for experimental requirements.
Again,
all dates must be BEFORE THE ACTUAL START DATE except for FORM
1C.
CHANGES
AND SPECIAL AREAS OF CONCERN:
-
Bacterial samples can be gathered outside of school but
MUST be cultured in a BSL-1 or BSL-2 facility.
NOTHING IS TO BE GROWN AT HOME, EVEN FOR OBSERVATION. If
the student collects samples at home, the student must grow
the cultures at school or other BSL-1 or BSL-2 facility.
-
All chemicals/hazardous materials must have the MSDS
sheets available for inspection. It is a good idea for the
student to add a copy to their project forms - and be sure
the student has read and understood the Materials Safety
Data Sheet.
-
For human subjects: check
the suggested consent form.
Send in only ONE sample for review/registration.
-
The IRB now has more responsibility.
NOTE THAT “SCIENCE TEACHER” HAS BEEN REPLACED WITH
“EDUCATOR”.
-
The Research Plan Instructions
have been expanded. DO
NOT send in the instruction page with the registration.
-
ANY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT WHO PARTICIPATED IN THE SCIENCE
FAIR LAST YEAR IS CONSIDERED TO BE DOING A CONTINUATION PROJECT
AND MUST INCLUDE FORM 7 WITH THE ABSTRACT AND RESEARCH PLAN FROM
LAST YEAR’S PROJECT. ANY
EARLIER PROJECTS REQUIRE ONLY THE ABSTRACT. ISEF currently LOOKS
for students with continuation forms which shows continued
effort in science research! If anything, it is a plus
to have continuation forms!
SRC Pre-APPROVAL:
Please get Pre-Approval BEFORE
starting any
project involving
E-Mail your RESEARCH PLAN, name, and grade level in school ONLY
to: src@tcrsf.org
If you have any questions please ask. Email: src@tcrsf.org
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