Course Description

Science Research Program – Grades 9, 10, 11, 12


Full Year – Level H: Incoming freshman and sophomore students must apply for admission to this program in January of the prior academic year. Acceptance into the program will be based on a science teacher recommendation, a written essay, and excellent academic grades.


This is an ongoing program that is taken in conjunction with the student’s regular science course. There are several tiers to the program. During Year 1 students learn the components of scientific research including the scientific method and apply these concepts in various settings including designing and conducting an authentic science research project and communicating results by participation in at least one local science fair. Students also explore various applications of science topics through field trips, guest speakers and class projects. Advanced students (Years 2-4) select their science research topic, locate an out-of-school mentor (either in industry or at a local university) and compete in a variety of science fairs including the CT State Science Fair, Southern CT Invitational Science and Engineering Fair (SCSEF) and the CT Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (CT JSHS). Advanced students pursue their selected research in depth, perform statistical analysis and compete at a number of local and/or national science fairs and competitions. In Years 2, 3, and 4 students are grouped together in a non-traditional classroom setting and are required to meet individually outside of class with their Science Research Instructor biweekly to review individual goals and assess progress. All students participate in the culminating annual activity, Amity’s Science Symposium.


Monday, February 9, 2015

2015 SCSEF Feedback

Please reflect on the following (each question in detail):

1.  What was your overall impression of the 2015 SCISEF Fair? Specifically, what things did you enjoy about the fair? Did the fair meet your expectations? In what ways was it similar or different to what you anticipated or experienced in the past?

2.  What was the judging process like? Were the judges fair and helpful? Be specific.

3.  What was the most helpful comment from the Judges? Least helpful?

4.  How was the food (breakfast and lunch)?

5. Did you enjoy the Keynote presentation by J. Alan Clark, Associate Prof of Conservation Biology at Fordham University? Explain. 


6. In what way(s) do you think the Mock Science Fair helped prepare you for the fair?

7. Did you learn anything new about your project? If so, what can you do to improve it for the next fair? 


8. Did you have time to view other student projects? Which project(s) left a lasting impression? why?

8. Did you talk to students from other schools? Explain.

9. What can we do to better prepare students for upcoming science fairs, if anything?


10. Overall on a scale of 1 (terrible) to 5 (amazing) --> How enjoyable was your SCSEF experience?


Thank you

64 comments:

  1. 1. I think SCISEF went well. I enjoyed going around to the other posters and discussing our experiences at the fair. I also enjoyed the short kahoot game we played. This year the fair was a bit more hand on in the discussion in comparison to the past years. However, I enjoyed the guest speaker from past years more than this year’s—it went a bit too long.
    2. Three of the judges were a bit narrow minded in that they could not grasp our limitations. However, the engineering judges were more understanding of our limitations and purpose of the project.
    3. The most helpful comments were about researching alternative ways of water transportations and researching the expenses of water transportation. The least helpful comments were that our project was just for fun and that we should focus only on expenses.
    4. The breakfast was good but the lunch was meh. The lunch was a bit soggy and did not represent Paneera material.
    5. I enjoyed the keynote speaker’s presentation but it was a bit too long. Also parts of the presentation lost my attention.
    6. The mock science fair helped organize the poster and helped practice in front of the poster.
    7. I learned that we should talk more about how the water transportation but plane is only temporary, immediate action. This is something I would remember to talk about in the future.
    8. I was able to glance at other projects. The one’s that grabbed my attention were the ones that had bright colors and props.
    9. Well, at breakfast this group of students just sat next to me and then proceeded to say “Hi, where are you from.” I replayed by saying “Oh, I am from Amity”—keep in mind I was in the midst of chewing my bagel and was covering my mouth so they don’t see my half chewed bagel. While I looked at them awkwardly they replied “Cool, we are from Staples.” After this they just continued with their conversation and I went back to eating my bagel and watching my friends try to normalize their water bottles.
    10. I think the preparations we go through are already helpful. Maybe showing students how to make the posters or what to put on the posters would better help the students prepare for the fair (more physically than mentally).
    11. I would say SCIESEF was an overall 3 out of 5

    ReplyDelete
  2. 1. What was your overall impression of the 2015 SCISEF Fair? Specifically, what things did you enjoy about the fair? Did the fair meet your expectations? In what ways was it similar or different to what you anticipated or experienced in the past?

    Overall, a good science fair experience. I enjoyed the judging process, which went more smoothly than in other years. Also, the keynote was engaging and fun. The fair met my expectations. It was quite similar to last year, but also improved in terms of the keynote speaker and the food.

    2. What was the judging process like? Were the judges fair and helpful? Be specific.

    The judging process was very helpful. Our judges were attentive and responsive to our presentation. They asked engaging questions that allowed us to defend our project and also enter into related topics having to do with our research area.

    3. What was the most helpful comment from the Judges? Least helpful?

    Most helpful: Explore security and different threats to your new LVAD system.
    Least helpful: Criticism of data, saying that the project was not feasible, despite our presentation of solutions.

    4. How was the food (breakfast and lunch)?

    Both great, improved from last year.

    5. Did you enjoy the Keynote presentation by J. Alan Clark, Associate Prof of Conservation Biology at Fordham University? Explain.

    I very much enjoyed the keynote! Clark surprised me by making penguins interesting. I loved his life journey, and exploration of both the arts and law before research. The game before his presentation was also fun (though I think too easy).

    6. In what way(s) do you think the Mock Science Fair helped prepare you for the fair?

    Practicing my presentation with Noah prepared us for SCSEF. Allowing people to listen and ask questions as well gave us an idea of what was coming with the actual judging process.

    7. Did you learn anything new about your project? If so, what can you do to improve it for the next fair?

    No, I did not. However, I was pleasantly surprised of the opportunity to discuss many different avenues of research that we have just begun working on. I did, however, learn what judges are most interested in regarding our project, and therefore have a better idea of how to present for CSEF.

    8. Did you have time to view other student projects? Which project(s) left a lasting impression? why?

    I saw a few projects, most interesting of which was a portable seismic monitor designed using Raspberry Pie. The project had similarities to ours (Arduino is quite similar) and therefore left a lasting impression.

    8. Did you talk to students from other schools? Explain.

    No, with so many Amity students, there was little motivation to meet new kids.

    9. What can we do to better prepare students for upcoming science fairs, if anything?

    Prepare presentations!! More practice with audiences and questions.

    10. Overall on a scale of 1 (terrible) to 5 (amazing) --> How enjoyable was your SCSEF experience?

    4.5, very positive experience.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Owais Khan

    1) My overall impression of SCSEF was that it ran quite smoothly. I ended up getting very hyped about the Kahoot game (I was in first place for 2 rounds). The fair didn’t seem to have any problems, besides that one bad judge. Overall, it met my expectations and ran just as well as the previous fairs held at Newtown and Amity.

    2) The judging process was also quite fair. The judges’ questions were relevant to the rubric, so my partner and I were very prepared. Furthermore, the judges asked very interesting questions that actually helped Arvene and I strengthen our presentation. Unfortunately, by the last round of judging, the judges seemed to be tired and uninterested. My second batch of judges kept looking away. However, even in that scenario, they asked fair questions and I think that they graded fairly as well.

    3) The most helpful comment was how my project would be applied to a different scenario under other circumstances. This helped broaden the scope of the project and also improved the implications. The least helpful comment was probably how we got interested in graphene. The answer was a longwinded, time-wasting response involving watching something about it on TV and then researching the electrical properties independently and more in depth.

    4) I didn’t eat breakfast, but the lunch was quite good. I was glad that the vegetarian option wasn’t too bad.

    5) I enjoyed the keynote presentation, mainly because of the presenter’s diverse background. His experience in acting, litigation, and science gives him a great perspective of how the world works. It’s inspiring to see someone pursue so many different interests.

    6) If I had not been sick the day of the mock science fair, I’m sure it would have helped me refine my presentation skills. I stumbled over my words once or twice during the first actual presentation at SCSEF, and this might not have happened if I had been able to prepare during the mock science fair.

    7) I didn’t learn anything new, but I did figure out a better approach to presenting my research. There were some unanswered aspects of the experimentation in the first round of judging, but I figured out how to explain them using the molecular geometry of ammonia. I can now apply this at the next science fair to strengthen my presentation.

    8) I did a look around a little, and the project that caught my eye was the very technical project about improving the efficiency of many different renewable energy resources. The reason it caught my attention was because of it’s huge scope and its great implications.

    9) To improve student performance, we can advise students on what they need to cover in their presentation. By having a holistic perspective of the project, students will know what to focus on. Students need to be prepared to address the “iffy” aspects of their projects.

    10) 5

    ReplyDelete
  4. 1. Overall, SCISEF was very enjoyable. I enjoyed the guest speaker. I liked it much better than last year. There seemed to be less of the boring talking before the guest speaker, so that was good.

    2. My judges were very helpful. They gave me a ton of advice on how to improve my project, like more statistics and graphs.

    3. The most helpful comment was to do a better graph representation of data. The least helpful was about my papers being out of order in my binder.

    4. The Panera bread was really good. The bagels in the morning were pretty standard, however, the lunch sandwiches were REALLY good. The food was so much better than last year.

    5. I did. He was pretty funny and entertaining. He might have gone on a little bit too long.

    6. It helped to practice in front of someone I was comfortable with. That way, I could just focus on what I need to say without being nervous.

    7. I learned that I need more statistical analysis and to better represent the data in graph form.

    8. I had a little time. The only one I really remember was another girls project on autism, which was very similar to mine.

    8. Some of the students from other schools chatted me up near my poster. Other than that, I didn’t really get a chance to.

    9. Nothing really. I felt very prepared.

    10. I would give SCSEF a 4.

    ReplyDelete
  5. VICTORIA LIU

    1. Overall, I enjoyed the fair. I liked the environment of the gym, as it was very open and bright (like last year). The schedule of the fair seemed like the exact same thing as the past few years, so it met my expectations. It wasn’t much different from past years, but Kahoot was pretty fun (I will come back to judge in the future for Panera and Kahoot).

    2. The judging process went very well, or so I thought. The judges appeared fair, but they didn’t offer me any really helpful advice, albeit their lack of questions made me confident.

    3. I expected the judges to ask me a multitude of difficult questions that I even questioned about parts of my project, but instead they asked me simple questions about the methodology and application of the project, and asked me if I could do it in New Haven. They also thought I got the drugs form the street (no, no…).

    4. THE FOOD WAS SO AMAZING. I WISH WE COULD HAVE GOTTEN PANERA EVERY YEAR. IT SADDENS ME THAT I MIGHT MISS THE PANERA NEXT YEAR. BREAKFAST WAS GLORIOUS; THE BAGELS AND MUFFINS WERE A 10/10. LUNCH WAS EVEN BETTER, although giving out single oreos was a tad strange. If I could rate the food on a scale of 1-10, I’d give it a 34.

    5. Yes! I enjoyed it, mostly because I love penguins too. I liked hearing about Dr. Clark’s change of direction in life and thought it was valuable to hear about. He was pretty funny, and his penguins were so cute! (I want to adopt a penguin now.) His research is definitely unique, but also inspiring in that it promotes that fact that you can essentially research really whatever you have a distinct interest in.

    6. I always find the Mock Science Fair very helpful. I thought that presenting to my peers gave me the opportunity to make sure that my presentation was adequate and that my poster was well-formatted.

    7. I learned the most logical and coherent way to present my project in that short amount of time. I definitely need to adjust it a little for the next science fair, which I have to do anyway since I want to get it printed.

    8. I briefly saw some other posters when I walked around, and just thought that the topics seemed more familiar this year (few autism projects especially).

    8. Not really

    9. Personally, Ms. Day, I believe that you did a great job preparing us. The round robin and mock science fair are both genius and don’t ever stop doing it please! AMITY SCIRES FOREVER.

    10. I’d give my experience a 4.5. I liked the fair this year! And honestly, Kahoot was a great extra touch! Food was great! Judges were nice! I’ll miss it next year!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jimmy Bi

    1. My overall impression of the fair was good. I enjoyed the food most, but not the waiting and presentation as much. The fair met my expectations. It was different from the last fair in that there was less stress from presenting before.

    2. The judges were fair and helpful. They didn’t over criticize or praise my project, giving me valuable feedback. They gave me recommendations on next year’s project as well.

    3. The most helpful comment was to create a “code template” so future application projects similar to this year’s can be done more quickly. The least helpful comment was about the connection between my background and actual study.

    4. The breakfast was really good, but the bread for the lunch sandwiches weren’t very good.

    5. I thought it was pretty interesting. I liked it more than in previous years because it was shorter and about penguins.

    6. The Mock Science Fair helped me prepare by giving me poster feedback to make revisions as well as help me practice to actually presenting in front of my poster.

    7. I learned that my project is pretty common, and creating a template to make the process faster would be very useful, although they already exist. For next fair, I can try to compress my code to make that possible.

    8. I viewed a few other projects, but not too many. No individual ones left me with a lasting impression, but it was easy to see the gap between freshman and advanced SRP projects due to how the posters looked and the project design.

    9. No, I spent most of the time with Amity students and didn’t know anyone else from the other schools.

    10. To better prepare students for upcoming science fairs, it would be necessary to do more background research in order to be able to present more project implications.

    11. My SCSEF experience was a 4 out of 5.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sarah Saxe
    1. I thought that except for the judges, SCISEF did an incredible job with the fair. It was very organized, with the breakfast, presenter schedules, lunch, Kahoot.it game, keynote speaker, and award ceremony. The breakfast and lunches were better than last years. I appreciated Panera catering the event. The judging experience was far worse than my experience last year, as my judges were much friendlier and more willing to listen to me last year. The fair exceeded my expectations with the Kahoot.it game, however, as this was the highlight of the day. I paired up with Haya on a team and at one point out team "Shaya" was number one on the big screen. I have never felt more proud. The keynote speaker was not as fun as last year with David Pogue, but still very interesting and enjoyable. The fair met my expectations, as the bar was set high from last year.
    2. Compared to last year, the judging process was horrible. During my first round of judges, I was supposed to have two judges. Only one showed up at first and when I asked if I should wait or start, I was told to start presenting. The second judge then came while I was already discussing my results. When I asked if I should restart, he responded that he could read and that I should keep going. While I kept going he was on his phone and looking away. After, while responding to questions (that I had already addressed in my initial presentation), the judge simply cut me off and responded with personal statements about the impracticality of my project, and how he knew it would never work. He also said that I could not even discuss any conclusions I had presented because it was all insignificant work. Essentially, he refused to acknowledge my presentation, did not listen to my suggested usage of robots, and did not allow me to answer questions. He simply stated his personal beliefs on what he thought I had done, and laughed at me. After being shaken up by that experience, I was warned about the harshness of the second round of judges coming. They were extremely serious and uncomfortable to present to, however, they did at least listen to my presentation and my responses to their questions. This was not a positive experience compared to the helpful and friendly judges I had last year.
    3. The most helpful comment from a judge was when he asked me if I had run any statistical analysis on my data (such as a t-test) and I had not. It truly told me that it was a necessary component of my project that I left out. I will run a t test for the upcoming CT Science Fair. The least helpful comment came from one judge (who had ignored me the entire presentation) who simply told me (while laughing and smiling) that my work was impractical, impossible, and would have no use in the real world.
    4. The food was overall really good. The breakfast was good, and I ate a bagel with cream cheese. I appreciated that there was orange juice, but wished that it could have been chilled. Lunch was better than last year. Except, I got a steak sandwich, but then could not eat it because it had weird sauce on it. So, I got a turkey sandwich instead.
    5. I did enjoy the keynote presentation, although I was not expecting myself to do so, especially compared to last year's exceptional presentation. I thought it was going to be boring. I was pleasantly surprised, however, as the presenter was humorous at times, and he spoke about his work in a simple manner that I could comprehend. I also appreciated his emphasis on the fact that he was never too old to switch careers, and truly wanted to do something he enjoyed. It was inspiring.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Sarah Saxe (Blog Post Continued)

    6. Personally, my initial presentation was around 14 minutes. So, the mock science fair really helped to give me feedback on what I needed to cut out of my presentation. Classmates suggested what examples I could leave out, how to change wording to get directly to the point, and what I could spend a little less time explaining. I was able to get my presentation down to 9 minutes.
    7. The most glaring thing I learned about my project was my lack of a statistical analysis. It is truly something I need to include, and will do so in the future (next year, and the upcoming CT Fair). It was not enough to simply report various averages about quizzes and questionnaires involved with my project.
    8. I only viewed one other student's project. It was "Cooking with NAO" which was interesting to me because this project utilized the same NAO humanoid robot, which I used to teach a classroom lesson, in a very different way from me.
    9. I only briefly spoke to one other student from a different school because he photobombed a picture of Kelsey and I once. I simply asked him about his project. He responded by saying it wasn't good.
    10. I felt that the mock science fair truly helped me to cut down the initial presentation of my project. It was helpful getting student feedback about what was over explained or under explained. However, it would be beneficial to better prepare students for the rigorous questioning period of the presentation. Classmates could be encouraged to ask unusual or unexpected questions about each other's projects to better prepare. Classmates could also prepare presenters by creating an unpleasant atmosphere while presenting so that students will understand how to handle themselves if this occurs during the actual fair.
    11. I would rate my experience a 3. The judging put a large damper on my day, but I still really enjoyed spending time with my friends on the bus, at meals, and throughout the fair. I also really enjoyed the Kahoot.it game. I think SCISEF did an exceptional job putting the fair together. I feel like they should have judges only judge one category of projects, however, so that if there is a particularly difficult of easy judge, various projects in the same category are judged the same way. This way comparing the projects to each other is alright. I don't think it makes a lot of sense comparing a medical project who might have gotten a difficult judge to another medical project who may have received an easy judge. It also might help the judges understand the general caliber of project in each category when scoring students.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Joseph Neumann

    1. What was your overall impression of the 2015 SCISEF Fair? Specifically, what things did you enjoy about the fair? Did the fair meet your expectations? In what ways was it similar or different to what you anticipated or experienced in the past?


    I enjoyed the fair this year, outside of an accident that was entirely my fault. Despite some complaints about the judges, mine were fair and were accommodating when I needed to get some tissues (which was very often). The main venue was very clean.


    2. What was the judging process like? Were the judges fair and helpful? Be specific.


    The judges were fair for me. They asked relevant questions and actually knew a fair deal about nanotubes beforehand.


    3. What was the most helpful comment from the Judges? Least helpful?


    All the judges asked mostly questions, and the few comments that were said weren’t very constructive (ex: “good job”). That being said, the best question was probably how higher sonication frequencies would be a better approach to breaking nanotubes than just using the resonant frequency. There weren’t really any vague or irrelevant questions/comments.


    4. How was the food (breakfast and lunch)?

    I can’t say exactly how the food was. I only had a coffee and some orange juice. I didn’t eat much else because I was struggling with some allergies.


    5. Did you enjoy the Keynote presentation by J. Alan Clark, Associate Prof of Conservation Biology at Fordham University? Explain.


    I can’t really say. I left as soon as the judging process was complete for health reasons.

    6. In what way(s) do you think the Mock Science Fair helped prepare you for the fair?

    The mock science fair definitely helped because it let me practice presenting, and it let me reflect on what parts of my presentation were worded too complexly.

    7. Did you learn anything new about your project? If so, what can you do to improve it for the next fair?

    I did not learn anything new about my project.

    8. Did you have time to view other student projects? Which project(s) left a lasting impression? why?

    I had time to view other student projects. Unfortunately, I was so distracted by my allergies that I couldn’t focus on the projects that much.

    8. Did you talk to students from other schools? Explain.

    No; I was soo busy struggling with my allergies.

    9. What can we do to better prepare students for upcoming science fairs, if anything?

    The biggest parts of these types of fairs can’t really be prepared for. There’s no way to prepare for the diverse types of judges that can be faced, for example.

    10. Overall on a scale of 1 (terrible) to 5 (amazing) --> How enjoyable was your SCSEF experience?

    I’d give it a 3; it’s an average between the 5 I might give because I did well and the 1 I’d give it for how sick I felt at the fair.

    ReplyDelete
  10. 1. I enjoyed my time at the 2015 SCISEF Fair. Although there was one judge that may have lowered my enjoyment, the food, presentations, and friends made it an enjoyable time. The fair exceeded my expectations in the aspect of how many people came to the fair. I never thought that this may students would come to a science fair with all unique projects. In the past, projects were split up into different rooms, but at this science fair, all the projects were in one room.

    2. As stated before, one of the three judges in the first round completely grilled Jacob during the question process. The other two judges were fair and made suggestions, while the other judge asked questions that were completely irrelevant to the project, and at points personal.

    3. One of the judges in the second round suggested that we use words related to STEM and othes related to non-STEM. She was really nice and looked very interested in our project and she used to love psychology before majoring in neurology.

    4. The food was quite good. There were muffins and bagels for breakfast and a variety of sandwiches for lunch.

    5. I enjoyed the Keynote presentation by J. Alan Clark as he was very knowledgeable about his field of study. It was also interested to see that he never had a complete focus on something in his life, and chose later in life.He taught many students that its okay to not have a set path at this stage in life as opportunities will always be available.

    6. The mock science fair allowed to present and gain a feel for what the real science fair would be like.

    7. I learned that my project still needs a lot of work. WE need to collect more participants in the coming month and be able to have it analyzed too. Our mentor has given us several dates to come and collect data!

    8. Since we were standing near Noah and Daniel's project, I was able to gain a better feel for their project. Their project is definitely incredible and very interesting.

    8. I did talk to another student from another school after our judgingand they found is very rude how the judge treated us too.

    9. I believe that the mock science fair is a very good experience and that the whole science research program already prepares students for upcoming science fairs.
    10. My experience at SCSEF was a 4, everything was great, except one of our judges.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Kelsey McCormack
    1. I liked the science fair a lot. I had good experiences with judging and liked being able to spend time with friends who aren't just in my class. I thought it was a lot like last year and what I expected except the food was better and I really liked the game they added before the presentation.

    2. My judges were all good and respectful. They asked helpful questions and gave me good tips that I can use. I thought that out of the judges there, I ended up with two very good groups.

    3. The judges gave me some tips that I can use when I start doing my research. Although a few of these suggestions may not be applicable to my research, I thought that most of it would be helpful to include.

    4. The food was very good this year. The breakfast was very good and I was glad they had coffee. The lunch was also very good and was much better than last year. I liked the sandwiches a lot.

    5. I did enjoy the presentation. I thought that he was a very good speaker and made interesting. Usually environmental science isn't one of the areas that interests me most, but I ended up enjoying the presentation much more than I thought I would.

    6. I think the mock science fair was helpful to practice presenting with my poster instead of just with the powerpoint. It also helped me to get closer to the time I needed it to be.

    7. My judges suggested new ideas for my project that could be good to look at, especially because I haven’t started research yet. This gave me new ideas for things to analyze and test for.

    8. I didn’t have time to view many other student projects, but i was able to see some projects of my friends’ projects that are not in the same class as me which was interesting. Also, I looked at the project of the girl next to me researching tumors in rats.

    8. I talked to the girl whose poster was next to me when I was waiting for my judges to come. She was very nice and we talked about our research and the programs at our school. She went to school in Westport and was the only one from her school there, but did research over the summer for her project.

    9. I think that practice with questions that the judges may ask would be good because I felt slightly unprepared for some of the questions I got.

    10. 4.5

    ReplyDelete
  12. 1. Overall, I had a good experience at the science fair. Specifically, I enjoyed the portion of the fair where I could walk around and learn about other students’ projects. It was very interesting to see the type of research other students were conducting. This was my first time going to SCISEF and it was what I expected it to be. However, it was smaller than I expected it to be.
    2. I had an overall very positive judging experience. My judges were very nice and they seemed very engaged in my presentation. They all listened intently and very friendly. They seemed to understand and agree with my conclusions. They said that I had very good background information about my project and they said it was very applicable. Specifically, the second set of judges had very helpful feedback about analyzing statistics.
    3. The most helpful comment from the judge was about statistics. He commented about analyzing standard deviation and a bell curve. I do not think I had any comments that were particularly not helpful.
    4. I had to leave the science fair early because I had a clarinet audition so I only ate breakfast, but it was pretty good. It was pretty basic but I liked it.
    5. I did not hear the keynote presentation because I had to leave the fair early.
    6. I think the Mock Science fair helped me prepare for the science fair because I was able to practice presenting in the time limit and practice the question and answer session. I presented to Julia who asked me very good and possible questions that I was able to practice answering.
    7. I learned something new about statistics about my project. From the judges I learned about analyzing standard deviation and bell curves.
    8. I did not really talk to any students from other schools. I mostly visited the posters of my friends.
    9. I think that to better prepare students for SCISEF, there should be a question and answer session for each student that is more in depth. I think that this would be most helpful because in my opinion, this is the most difficult part of the science fair.
    10. My SCISEF experience overall was a 5 out of 5. I had very nice judges, a good presentation experience, and the food was very good.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Haya Jarad
    1. What was your overall impression of the 2015 SCISEF Fair? Specifically, what things did you enjoy about the fair? Did the fair meet your expectations? In what ways was it similar or different to what you anticipated or experienced in the past?
    Overall, I really enjoyed this years scisef fair. I felt that it was very organized, and well planned. One thing that I REALLY enjoyed was the kahoot game that we played in the auditorium. That was a great idea that they should repeat. Other than the game, my experience was very similar to last years.

    2. What was the judging process like? Were the judges fair and helpful? Be specific.
    Judges were on time, kind, attentive and very helpful. My first round of judges was a group of three. They all asked good questions and gave me time to answer properly. They seemed genuinely interested in my research. My second round only had two judges, but they were equally as helpful.
    3. What was the most helpful comment from the Judges? Least helpful?
    Most helpful was their suggestion that I have my citations more prominently displayed on the board. They only other comment was that I should talk louder and slower.
    4. How was the food (breakfast and lunch)?
    It was delicious, and there was enough for everyone which is obviously a plus. Personally I think the sandwiches are a great idea because they are quick and easy lunches.
    5. Did you enjoy the Keynote presentation by J. Alan Clark, Associate Prof of Conservation Biology at Fordham University? Explain.
    He was very well informed and tried to make his presentation comical. I feel that he adapted the presentations to better suit the lax environment. This was appreciated.

    6. In what way(s) do you think the Mock Science Fair helped prepare you for the fair?
    It helped me organize my presentation with the board, because until then I had only presented with my PowerPoint.
    7. Did you learn anything new about your project? If so, what can you do to improve it for the next fair?
    No, I didn't learn anything new. I just enjoyed presenting.
    8. Did you have time to view other student projects? Which project(s) left a lasting impression? why?
    I was able to see one particularly interesting presentation that basically looked at how race affected perception of other races..... That didn't seem to have any real purpose other than confirming that some people are racist. I thought it was mildly comical.
    8. Did you talk to students from other schools? Explain.
    No I kept with the amity kids, other than a few hello-s I didn't really talk to them.
    9. What can we do to better prepare students for upcoming science fairs, if anything?
    Maybe have them present more than twice at the mock science fair, using the SCISEF rubric.

    10. Overall on a scale of 1 (terrible) to 5 (amazing) --> How enjoyable was your SCSEF experience?
    5

    ReplyDelete
  14. James He
    1.Overall, the science fair this year was fairly engaging. The two judging groups did ask a lot of questions about my project, so they were semi-interested at least. I enjoyed the breakfast, and learning about some of my classmates’ projects was very interesting, especially Rohan Patel’s. I felt as though I could have done a better job presenting to some of the judges. Overall, the experience was very similar to last year.
    2. I learned how to answer and anticipate some of the judges’ questions after the first judging session, which was very good. The judges were fairly fair and helpful; the first round judges did get into their own discussion without me, but they began to include me at the end. They exposed some of the flaws in my experiment, specifically the fact that I didn’t work with the children directly, but I was able to work around it.
    3. The most helpful comment from the judges was that they weren’t experts in the field, but they understood the project well and recognize its relevance. The least helpful was that they seemed to be in doubt of my project. For example, they questioned the phrase, "When one first starts to read, they are already fluent in spoken language." I don't mind that they question the phrase, but they said it in a doubtful manner, and didn't believe my answer.
    4. I thought breakfast was excellent. Lunch wasn't as great. Some of the sandwiches were respectable, but others weren't very tasty as the combination of meats and bread wasn't well prepared.
    5. I wasn't able to listen to the Keynote presentation by J. Alan Clark since I had to leave early to attend my All-State audition at North Haven High School.
    6. The Mock Science Fair helped me anticipate the experience I was going to receive at the actual fair. When some of my classmates or instructors came to ask questions, I thought they were all logical and would come up again during the judging sessions. They also provided helpful feedback as to how I might modify the poster.
    7. I learned that I understood a lot of the tests and the concepts evident in my project, but my information of the actual data extraction from the children and the children themselves was fairly limited. For the next fair, I can ask my mentor to clarify some of the questions I may have struggled to answer at SCSEF, and that should prepare me for the questions that might come up at CSEF.
    8. I did have some downtime to take a look at other students' projects and listen to their presentations. Specifically, Rohan Patel's project concerning patients with vasospasm stood out as the title of his project included few words that I knew, but when I asked him to explain some of the concepts, he was able to do so very clearly and accurately in a logical manner. I realized that the data collection phase of his project was fairly simple, but it would rely a lot of background knowledge and mastery of the background knowledge.
    8. No, I didn't really find many opportunities to talk to students from other schools since I had to prepare for my second judging session after the first one had ended. Also, I practiced presenting with some of my friends to get a better grip of exactly what I was going to say during judging. Lastly, I had to head out to my All-State audition after my second judging session, so there wasn't much time available after that.
    9. I thought the Mock Science Fair and the Round Robins were great activities to engage us and anticipate the SCSEF experience. Something that might seem more unlikely would be to have one of the judges or one of the organizers come and inform us of what they look for in a project and what they do not want to see in a presentation.
    10. Overall, my SCSEF experience was a 4. It was very enjoyable and engaging throughout, with some low points being the lunch and the ample down time. I feel as though providing some additional activities that are optional for students to participate in when they aren't judging would be a nice addition.

    ReplyDelete
  15. DANA CHUNG

    1. I thought the 2015 SCSEF was very successful. Unlike previous years, all of my judges were very kind, attentive and interested. The food available was delicious (catered by Panera!). The guest speaker was also very interesting and engaging! Also unlike previous years, entertainment was provided between lunch and the guest presenter! All the students had the opportunity to play a science trivia game that was very fun and helped pass time before the guest presenter. Overall, I thought this year’s SCSEF was the best one yet!

    2. The judging process was very straight forward. All the judges I had were fair, helpful and attentive. They asked many questions all of which I was able to answer. They genuinely seemed very interested in my project.

    3. All of the comments from the judges were very helpful and informative. They helped me think of ways to improve my project for the future. The most helpful advice I received was their opinions on how I should continue my project in the future.

    4. The food was delicious! A huge improvement from last year. I definitely appreciated the food because it was catered by Panera!

    5. I enjoyed the Keynote Presentation by J. Alan Clark very much. It was very interesting to learn about how he found his passion in science after trying many professions. It was great to see how passionate he was about his study on penguins and conservation biology. He was very engaging.

    6. The mock science fair forced me to practice presenting in front of my poster. Presenting my poster/topic multiple times helped me immensely. By practicing multiple times, I was able to identify areas to focus on, explain and analyze. Also, receiving feedback from fellow students was extremely invaluable.

    7. While at the science fair, I found different ways to improve my project. Not only should I increase my sample size, I would expand my subject population to the parents of high school students. Because parents are deemed to be the sole reason for students to not be vaccinated, it would be interesting to analyze their levels of knowledge of HPV and the vaccine.

    8. I indeed had time to view other student’s projects. One student’s project involving the trigmeninal nerve greatly interested me because I also conducted a project on the trigeminal nerve last year. I thought it was very interesting to the direction she took her project, which was different from mine.

    8. Yes, I had the opportunity to talk with other students from other schools. There were students from other schools situated around me and I had the opportunity to look at their projects as well.

    9. To prepare for upcoming science fairs, I would recommend going over your poster and practice presenting with your poster many times. It is important to know exactly which points/facts you want to emphasize and where they are on your board. The mock science fair is a good way to prepare, therefore I would recommend practicing at home.

    10. I would rate my overall SCSEF experience as a 5. It was definitely the best one yet and I enjoyed seeing and learning about other student’s projects from both Amity and other schools.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Vinnie Silverman
    1. SCISEF this year this year was very enjoyable. I enjoyed the judging process, as the judges for my project this year were relatively friendly compared to judges from previous years. The presentation portion of the fair was also enjoyable, and was more interactive than presentations in previous years. In my opinion, the fair is heading in the right direction.
    2. All of the judges were very helpful in their feedback. The first group of judges asked many specific questions about the process of our project in order to gain a greater understanding of what we did. Conversely, the second group of judges asked a lot of questions that were more related to the application of our research. Both of these genres of questions were very useful in preparing for future science fairs.
    3. The most helpful comment from the judges was about the organization of our presentation. One of our judges commented on how we didn’t really refer back to our research question throughout our presentation, which we changed for the second presentation. Although there was no specific comment that was least helpful, many of the questions based on details of the application were outside the scope of our project.
    4. I did not eat any of the food at the venue.
    5. The keynote presentation was interesting. I especially enjoyed how the fair organizers use the game we all played to transition into the speaker’s presentation. The presenter made the presentation not only interesting in terms of his research, but relatable in terms of young researchers trying to discover what they want to do.
    6. The mock science fair was useful in helping me prepare for the details of my oral presentation. I had never practiced presenting this version of the project before, and the mock science fair gave me a chance to do this and get feedback on the weak areas of the presentation in order to improve them before SCISEF.
    7. We didn’t learn anything new about our project through the judging process, but we realized important points about are presentation. Giving the presentation to people who had never seen this project before made it more clear to us as to which details of the research were most interesting and should be emphasized in future presentations.
    8. I did not get to talk to students from other schools because I spent most of the free time talking with my friends from Amity.
    9. To better prepare students for SCISEF, it would be helpful (especially to 1st year students) to present in front of other teachers. This way, students will get used to having to thoroughly explain their project in its entirety to people who don’t know anything about it.
    10. I would give this year’s fair a 4.5.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Barak Davidi
    1. My overall impression of the 2015 SCISEF Fair can be described with the following two words; pleasantly satisfied. Some of the things that were enjoyed during the fair were the food choice and the Keynote presentation. Having established expectations from last year’s fair, this fair was superior in both of the aspects. The judging process and the general timing was very similar to last year.
    2. The judging process was very similar to last year. I received the first and last shifts so I presented at 9 and then at 12. The time between these two events was spent, as usual perusing about the fair and school. The judges seemed interested and fair, and their comments and questions helped me note the flaws and strong points of my presentation. For example, one judge complimented my prototype and suggested I spend more time discussing it.
    3. The most helpful comment was from one of my female judges who said that my project had significant real world applications in a field that is often overlooked. The least helpful comments where presented in the form of compliments, the simple statement that my presentation was interesting.
    4. The food when we arrived, breakfast, was great. I ate a muffin and some fruit. It was pleasant and light. The lunch presented was a selection of sandwiches and chips. I selected a vegetarian sandwich, which was wet because of my late presentation time.
    5. The Keynote presentation was superb. The presenter was engaging and comical. Rather than focusing only on his research he discussed the journey into varying fields and how he found his passion. His discussion of changing one’s mind about the future and about the self was more significant, to me, than his discussion of penguin mating calls.
    6. The Mock Science Fair provided me with valuable insight as to the quality of my presentation and critical comments regarding my presentation technique. One of my classmates suggested distributing the time more towards the latter steps in the procedure and to limit my background output. This helped me negotiate with the restraint of time.
    7. My project, I found requires some more information in the background region of the presentation. I found that my audience was often confused upon inception due to the strangeness of my topic. To improve this I might provide a brief summary, or an overview, of my project first.
    8. I had ample time to view my peers’ projects. I was astonished at the length of time allowed for other schools to complete a signal project. Where we would spend one school year per project, they spent about three years for a signal project. The difference in duration per project might have adverse effects, though.
    8. I spoke briefly with my project neighbor. Though I found that I tended to gravitate towards my existing friend group more during downtime. This is predictable and logical, and to a certain extent should not be manipulated.
    9. We here at Amity Science Research Program representing the great Amity Regional High School of Region 5 are the most prepared, the most impressive, and the most successful school at any, and all, occasions. When the Amity buses arrive, fear overtakes our competition’s mind. A sense of nervousness and self-doubt floods their minds, and they marvel, uncontrollably at the extent of our scientific swagger.
    10. I would rate this science fair experience as a 4 out of 5. One point is deduced for the extensive wait period betwixt the first and last judging period.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Matthew McKenna
    1. My overall impression of the 2015 SCISEF fair was good. The judges came at about the right time for the most part unlike previous years, and they very nice and knowledgable. The fair did meet my expectations because it felt exactly like the last SCISEF fair, except the food was slightly better this time.

    2. The judging process was better than previous years. As I mentioned before, the judges did a better job of coming at their assigned times (for my project at least) and this put less stress on us knowing when the judges were going to come. The judges were also more fair and helpful this year. We had less incredibly specific, meaningless questions and more questions on the overall purpose of the design.

    3. The most helpful comment from the judges was when one of the judges asked us how we could make our current design even better. This question was very though provoking, and could help the RWDC team when we present at states or even nationals. The least helpful comment was when they asked the area of crop which needs to be infected to get a reading. If there is so little of the crop infected to get a reading, then the farmer does not have to worry about spraying pesticides at all.

    4. The breakfast was much better than previous years. Previous years only had bagels for us, but this year there were also muffins, fruits, and yogurt. The lunch was just ok. The sandwiches were ok, but the chips were pretty good.

    5. Yes, I enjoyed the keynote presentation this year. I mainly enjoyed this presentation because Dr. Clark discussed his very random path towards becoming a respected scientist, which pleases me because I know that even if my first option does not work out, I can still succeed. Also, he talked about penguins, and I’m Birdman so I love penguins.

    6. I think the mock science fair helped me prepare for the fair because there were typos on some of my slides, and I realized this because of the mock science fair. Also, some of my slides did not stand alone, as in I needed to explain them for the viewer to understand, so I changed that afterwards. Finally, during the mock fair I realized that I was taking way too much time, so I was aware of that when I presented at SCISEF.


    7. No, I unfortunately did not learn anything new from my project. I have presented the National Challenge with the rest of the RWDC team so many times I know it by heart and have heard every possible question, so nothing from SCISEF was new really.

    8. No, I did not have time to view other students projects. Before Levi and I had gone twice we stayed at our poster so we would not miss our judges, and afterwards we went to lunch until the keynote. I actually would not be able to tell you the title of a single non-Amity project.

    8. Only a little. Because Levi and I were wearing incredibly fashionable bow ties we got many compliments from students from other schools, and the extent of my communication with these students was to thank them for the compliment. Any other communication is against the rules, because students from other schools are the enemy.

    9. There is nothing Amity could do to better prepare its students. We are already the best at the fair, no need to change a winning formula.

    10. 5

    ReplyDelete
  19. 1. What was your overall impression of the 2015 SCISEF Fair? Specifically, what things did you enjoy about the fair? Did the fair meet your expectations? In what ways was it similar or different to what you anticipated or experienced in the past?
    My overall impression of the 2015 SCISEF Fair was very good. I enjoyed the judge’s feedback along with the overall logistics of the fair. The fair met my expectations. The overall flow of the fair was the same, but I believe that the judging was better organized. All of the judges I had were very professional and attentive. I also enjoyed the game that everyone played during the presentation in the auditorium.
    2. What was the judging process like? Were the judges fair and helpful? Be specific.
    The judging process was great. All of the judges I had were very nice. They asked very relevant questions to my project as well. I thought the judges I had were fair and helpful. They were interested in my project and their questions showed this. One of my judges asked me if other labs at UCONN were using the nanoparticles that were being fabricated in my project.
    3. What was the most helpful comment from the Judges? Least helpful?
    The most helpful comment was regarding the implications of the project. The least helpful was regarding a concept that I had explained earlier in the presentation.
    4. How was the food (breakfast and lunch)?
    I thought the food at the fair was above average. I saw a definite improvement from last year. For breakfast I enjoyed a wonderful blueberry muffin. Although the muffin was great, the orange juice that was provided had a sour taste to it. Lunch was also good. The chips that were provided were good and they paired well with the sandwich.
    5. Did you enjoy the Keynote presentation by J. Alan Clark, Associate Prof of Conservation Biology at Fordham University? Explain.
    I did enjoy the keynote presentation. I found it to be very interesting. I thought it was interesting that Prof. Clark explained how his life was a long and winding journey and how it didn’t have a straight path.
    6. In what way(s) do you think the Mock Science Fair helped prepare you for the fair?
    The mock science fair helped me practice my presentation skills along with making me more confortable answering questions about my project.
    7. Did you learn anything new about your project? If so, what can you do to improve it for the next fair?
    I noticed some minor spelling mistakes on my poster. I will fix these before CSEF. The judges also allowed me to find out what I need to stress more for my next fair.
    8. Did you have time to view other student projects? Which project(s) left a lasting impression? why?
    I did have time to view other students projects, but no project stood out in particular.
    8. Did you talk to students from other schools? Explain.
    I did. I talked to the person next to me. I even told them that their judge had come early.
    9. What can we do to better prepare students for upcoming science fairs, if anything?
    I thought that I was well prepared for the fair!
    10. Overall on a scale of 1 (terrible) to 5 (amazing) --> How enjoyable was your SCSEF experience?
    Overall, I would rate my experience at SCISEF a 4.5. I enjoyed the entire fair.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Harika Lingareddy

    1. What was your overall impression of the 2015 SCISEF Fair? Specifically, what things did you enjoy about the fair? Did the fair meet your expectations? In what ways was it similar or different to what you anticipated or experienced in the past?
    My overall SCISEF experience was positive. I found every aspect of the fair extremely well organized and the judges were timely. As this is my third year attending SCISEF, I went to the fair knowing what to expect. The judging process remained largely the same as in previous years. The main differences I experienced were in the food and the game we played while waiting for the ending ceremony/presentation. Both experiences were positive.

    2. What was the judging process like? Were the judges fair and helpful? Be specific.
    For the most part, the judges were okay. However, I had one judge who rudely and unjustly questioned the purpose of our project. Despite attempting to explain the Sikorsky Stem Challenge itself, he still was not able to grasp the concept. He asked us questions such as “so, are you guys just doing this for fun?”. Since he could not get past that point, he did not provide us with any helpful comments. The other judges, however, were far more just.

    3. What was the most helpful comment from the Judges? Least helpful?
    As aforementioned, the least helpful comments came from the individual who did not understand the Challenge itself and its implications. Thankfully, other judges were able to provide helpful comments. One judge compelled us to consider other methods of transporting water.

    4. How was the food (breakfast and lunch)?
    I must say, the food was far better than last year. However, I still did not love it. Breakfast consisted of the standard foods: bagels, pastry, etc. For lunch I ate a smoked turkey sandwich with a side of potato chips. The sandwich was average. The chips, on the other hand, were simply phenomenal.

    5. Did you enjoy the Keynote presentation by J. Alan Clark, Associate Prof of Conservation Biology at Fordham University? Explain.
    I enjoyed this year’s presentation, but it’s hard to top David Pogue. It was interesting to learn about a topic I have little knowledge on. In my science research career, I have been able to complete engineering and psychology projects. Learning about a whole different field was enriching. Not to mention, the penguins were very cute.

    6. In what way(s) do you think the Mock Science Fair helped prepare you for the fair?
    The mock science fair helped me iron out the kinks. I was able to utilize the comments I received from both Ms. Day and my classmates in the final presentation. It’s a little different for me because I only need to present one section of the poster. In the mock science fair I had to present various other parts in order to provide background information. This helped me when I was answering the judges questions.

    7. Did you learn anything new about your project? If so, what can you do to improve it for the next fair?
    In order to improve the presentation for the next fair, my team members and I will explain the parameters of the competition better, instead of just diving into the project itself.

    8. Did you have time to view other student projects? Which project(s) left a lasting impression? why?
    Unfortunately I was not able to go around and look at other projects.

    8. Did you talk to students from other schools? Explain.
    Again, unfortunately I was not able to speak with students from other schools.

    9. What can we do to better prepare students for upcoming science fairs, if anything?
    I think it would be beneficial to present to more people, other than those in science research.

    10. Overall on a scale of 1 (terrible) to 5 (amazing) --> How enjoyable was your SCSEF experience?
    I would give this year’s SCISEF a 3/5. Overall the fair was mediocre.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Victoria Li

    1. The science fair ran smoothly, and everything went without any problems. The fair was also really fun, and I was able to talk with other students from other schools. I enjoyed the fact that the judges actually knew a little about the research I was doing, and were able to understand what I was doing in my project. The fair definitely met my expectations, and was much like last year, except the food this year was better than last year.
    2. The judges were very helpful and offered constructive criticism on how to better organize my poster, and also pointed out some mistakes that I could improve on if I were to conduct my project again.
    3. All of the comments from the judges were helpful.
    4. The food was much better than last year’s. Could definitely have used more cookies.
    5. I thought it was extremely interesting that he went through so many different career options before pursuing a career in science, studying penguins. I also thought it was interesting how he was able to combine the science of penguins with another one of his interests, music, which goes to show how science can apply to all fields and that it can sometimes be a winding road before you find the right career.
    6. The mock science fair helped me prepare for the science fair because it gave me an opportunity to present to others before the science fair, and also allowed people to give me constructive criticism on how to improve my presentation.
    7. I learned that there were better controls I could have used to compare my independent variables with, and that I will consider in improving my project.
    8. I did have time to view other presentations, and found them all very creative.
    9. I did not have an opportunity to talk to many other students, but I was able to talk with one other student, and we discussed our research.
    10. Definitely more practice – we didn’t get to do PowerPoint presentations this year, which would have helped us prepare more for SCSEF
    11. I would give my experience SCSEF a 4.5

    ReplyDelete
  22. Kimberly Liang

    1. My overall impression of the 2015 SCISEF Fair was positive. Specifically, other than the science, I enjoyed the breakfast food the most. It was very beneficial to have a large selection of good-quality food to jump-start the long, but enjoyable, day ahead of me. The fair met my expectations; they provided adequate food, a fairly organized judging process, and proved to be a wonderful host for the 2015 SCISEF Fair. The fair was almost exactly the same as last year. The only difference is that the food as a whole was much better.
    2. The judging process seemed slightly disorganized; however, this does not differ from the usual. For the past three years of my high school career, the judges have always been unpredictable; the presenter would never know when the judges would come despite the time assignments. For example, my first wave of judges gave ten minutes early, while my second wave of judges came fifteen minutes late. In terms of helpfulness, some were more helpful than others. Very few judges gave feedback to my team member and me in terms of the project. Sometimes, I was not sure if the judges fully understood the presentation. For example, one of my judges asked many questions focusing on a very specific detail of the poster that was not significant to the project as a whole.
    3.The most helpful comment from the judge was about the real world applications of my project. He suggested considering actually applying to UAS system to a real apple orchard. The least helpful comment had very little relation to my project as a whole. The judge was very concerned with a specific picture on the poster, so he asked why the team chose the graph was square, even though it was specified that it was given to us by the Real World Design Challenge.
    4. The breakfast food was phenomenal. However, the lunch food was mediocre. Regardless, the food was much better last year’s fair.
    5. Yes, I did enjoy the keynote presentation. Dr. J. Alan Clark’s interesting path to science demonstrated to the audience that you do not need a straight path in life to end up happy. I feel this lesson is especially important for high school students because we are planning for our futures, and many of us feel very uncertain. In addition, his presentation about penguins attempted to engage the audience by playing recordings of the penguin calls. Overall, it was wonderful listening to Dr. J. Alan Clark.
    6. The Mock Science Fair helped me build confidence in regards to presenting the new poster and project. In addition, the feedback from my classmates and Ms. Day helped greatly, no matter how small the details.
    7. Yes, I learned the various potential real world applications for my project. I can possibly contact local businesses to try out my project for the next fair.
    8. I did not have time to view other student projects. 
    8. Yes, I did. However, I had met them previously at a summer program, and we were planning to meet at SCSEF since.
    9. I think everything Amity’s Science Research Program currently does to prepare students for upcoming science fairs is very helpful and vital for success. For example, the mock science fair was very helpful in showing the students what the fair will be like, while still receiving useful feedback.
    10. 4

    ReplyDelete
  23. Rachel Marcus
    1. This year, SCSEF left me with a good impression. This year, the food was actually edible, the speaker was engaging, and the judges were respectful. The board did a great job getting the kids engaged with the Trivia Crack like game, which then segued perfectly into the speaker’s presentation. I also highly appreciated the fact that the speaker was not another environmentalist that would make everyone’s eyes glaze over.
    2. My first round of judges was great at listening and seemed to understand my concept fairly easily. They were engaged during my presentation and asked questions that weren’t difficult. The second round however, did not fully understand the connection of the main areas of the study, which was the increasing amounts of protein and the effects it has on schizophrenia. Both rounds of judges seemed to find my presentation interesting and little criticism.
    3. There were no actual helpful comments from the judges, but they did give me great compliments such as complimenting me on my hard work and presentation. The least helpful comment from the judges was one that thought injecting the protein into the brain of animals/people would be useful.
    4. The food at breakfast was about the same as last year, which was decent. At lunch, the food was much better than last year’s wrap selection. It was exciting to know that the food came from a credible business.
    5. I thought Dr. Alan was a great presenter and kept the audience engaged. He made sure that he had an interesting topic (because who doesn’t want to know about penguins?) and related the topic back to our society. It was fascinating to know that a man so passionate about his field of work originally was an actor and then lawyer. It was a relief to see that people don’t always have an exact plan for the future, and that plans change yet a person can still have a successful result.
    6. I think the Mock Science Fair helped me fix the kinks of my oral presentation and have the proper timing for each section of the presentation. It also helped me get used to my poster layout and hearing critiques from others.
    7. I think for the next fair, the data analysis can definitely be improved so then I can fully support/not support my hypothesis.
    8. I had some time to view other student projects. The projects that left a lasting impression were ones that were similar to either mine or my friends’ projects (past or present). I believe these left a lasting impression because I wanted to see the competition and believe that the Amity students performed better than the other schools with similar projects.
    8. I did talk to a couple students from other schools, mostly from Staples. There was one girl who I gave a pep talk to since it was her first time presenting and seemed nervous. The other kids I talked to were friends of mine from the UConn summer program I went to.
    9. I think more people watching presentations outside of the Science Research Program would be helpful so that kids can get used to presenting people outside of their comfort zones.
    10. I would rate SCSEF a solid four out of five for the overall experience.

    ReplyDelete
  24. 1. I really enjoyed SCISEF this year, the kids were nice and all of my judging went smoothly. I had a good time interacting with the students at other schools and learning about their research. The fair met expectations. The food was not as mediocre as years before

    2. The judging process went well. They asked important and reasonable questions.

    3. The judges became very passionate about finding a way to patent our technology and it was actually very beneficial to the project as a whole.

    4. Food was excellent this year. Muffins were great for breakfast. Asiago Steak sandwiches were incredible.

    5. I enjoyed the presentation this year. I thought it was meaningful in terms of life passions but also had its fair share of scientific content;

    6. The mock science fair gave me some constructive criticism on our presentation and helped us to refine it.

    7. Not really.

    8. I did have time to review some of the other students' projects. Ben Ewing's project had a big impact on me, and it seemed to have very large implications.

    8. Yes, the students from Newtown High School were extremely nice and talked to us a lot. They seemed very passionate about science research and were impressed by the program here at Amity.

    9. Make sure to remind them to print their poster like a week in advance and to practice their presentation.

    10. 4

    ReplyDelete
  25. Harsha
    1. What was your overall impression of the 2015 SCISEF Fair? Specifically, what things did you enjoy about the fair? Did the fair meet your expectations? In what ways was it similar or different to what you anticipated or experienced in the past?
    a. I think the science fair went well. I learned how we were able to view other people project not in our school or our class. It was different from the 2 years ago, in that it was in Newtown.
    2. What was the judging process like? Were the judges fair and helpful? Be specific.
    a. The judges were very rude and inconsiderate. They could not stay in the scope of the project and were asking irrelevant questions about the project.
    3. What was the most helpful comment from the Judges? Least helpful?
    a. Don’t use old plain for you transportation and cost is everything.
    4. How was the food (breakfast and lunch)?
    a. Good
    5. Did you enjoy the Keynote presentation by J. Alan Clark, Associate Prof of Conservation Biology at Fordham University? Explain.
    a. Yes he was kind of interesting, but the topics need a change from animals and environment. They need to be more like David P.
    6. In what way(s) do you think the Mock Science Fair helped prepare you for the fair?
    a. It allowed us to practice presenting and also correct any flaws in our posters that we had.
    7. 7. Did you learn anything new about your project? If so, what can you do to improve it for the next fair?
    a. That cost should be a much bigger factor when deciding and how to explain the parameters and regulations of the project.
    8. Did you have time to view other student projects? Which project(s) left a lasting impression? why?
    a. Yes, the project about gum was very interesting.
    9. Did you talk to students from other schools? Explain.
    a. Yes I talked to some kid from Danbury.
    10. What can we do to better prepare students for upcoming science fairs, if anything?
    a. Do more mock science fairs.
    11. Overall on a scale of 1 (terrible) to 5 (amazing) --> How enjoyable was your SCSEF experience?
    a. 3.5

    ReplyDelete
  26. Arvene Golbazi

    1. Overall, I thought the fair was an incredible testament to the values of scientific research and conduct. I enjoyed the food, the people, and of course the large concentration of science research which surrounded me. It definitely met my low expectations, and I think it was very similar to previous years in terms of scheduling.

    2. The judges were beyond fabulous, they loved listening to my golden voice carry the imperative findings of our study across the vast expanse of the gymnasium. They were pretty fair.

    3. Most helpful: They told us we should talk more about graphene’s properties to adsorb other deadly particles. Least helpful: They tried to teach me how resistance worked.

    4. Scrumptious beyond a doubt. The bagels were cooked to perfection.

    5. I loved the keynote presentation, because he really hit home to some of the most important values I strive for, like a love for penguins.

    6. In now way at all, because everyone laughed at my poster and understood my deeper meaning behind the ‘ugly’ (as defined by our society) layout.

    7. Yes, I learned that most people don’t know much about graphene, and that for the next fair we should go more in depth.

    8. I didn’t have time because my judges took forever, and because of this I couldn’t really get a chance to look around much.

    9. Yea, for sure I did. They were very nice and listened to my project.

    10. Do more mock science fairs.

    11. It was a 2.975. Round that how you must.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Kevin Dardik
    Overall, the science fair was pretty good. I didn’t expect very much, and it exceeded those expectations.
    My judges had little criticism for myself and Vinnie, however they did ask good questions. For example, one judge asked asked about the effect of the chemical probe used in our project on humans. We had not considered this before, and were therefore prompted to find out.
    We did not receive any specific comments. The judges said they enjoyed our presentation, but nothing else.
    Breakfast was good. I didn’t like lunch as much, but only because I don’t like rye bread, lettuce, or tomatoes.
    I thought the presentation was mildly interesting. Professor Clark is interesting, but something broader than just his life would probably be better.
    The mock science fair helped me practice my presentation with the actual poster, which was useful.
    No, I don’t think so.
    I had the time to look at others’ posters, but I didn’t realize at the time.
    I think we were very well prepared for the science fair. It may have been nice for my partner and I to have had presentation time together, but he’s in a different class, which can’t really be helped.
    I would give a 3.5 or 4.

    ReplyDelete
  28. 1) The fair was overall pretty good. I liked how everything was set up very neatly and accordingly. Everything was easy to find. I didn’t really have expectations for the fair, but it turned out to be as good as I thought it would. I was hoping that judges would be paired up with projects based on expertise so the students could let all their ideas out, but unfortunately that did not happen.
    2) The judges for me this year were very nice and attentive towards my project. I could tell that my first round of judges had a hard time understanding what my project was all about, but I could also tell that they made an effort to fully understand the scope of the project. This helped them by asking relevant questions, and they wouldn’t get frustrated after I would try and explain something. My second round of judges included a doctor, so she understood my project very well, compared to the other two. What I liked about having the doctor was that I was able to talk to her about the topic even more in depth, and both of us were communicating well about the results thus far, and what the future results should bring me to conclude.
    3) I don’t remember what they told me. The presentation would end with some questions, and then they would leave.
    4) Panera seemed a bit better than last year, but they can step up the coffee game for the students who are actually trying to stay awake.
    5) The keynote presentation was okay. It seemed like interesting research that the guy conducted, but I was hoping for something more exciting than penguins, but he did present it very well.
    6) The mock science fair helped me present in front of an audience. I got to present to Mr. Filip, and it felt like I was presenting to a judge. He helped me with what I should add to the presentation, and what I should leave out.
    7) Not really. I presented all the information that I knew of, and the information I read in all journal articles that I had read before the fair.
    8) I did go to look at others’ projects. I did see someone who had something on cancer cells and its identification, but I liked most of the medical projects.
    9) No, I did not talk to other students from other schools. I talked mainly to the students from here.
    10) You can give a checklist to the students of what they should cover during the fair, then it is their responsibility to practice it themselves, as it is their own project.
    11) I’d rank my experience a 4. It was a pretty fun experience to present and hang out with my friends. However, I still feel like something was missing from the whole event.

    ReplyDelete
  29. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Overall, I did enjoy this year’s science fair. The judges were somewhat hard to work with, which I will explain further in the next question. The catering was much better this year compared to last year, especially the variety of sandwiches offered by Panera restaurants.
    It seemed as though the judges could not understand the sole purpose of the Sikorsky project for this year. Last year, the Sikorsky team helped in landing Corsairs on aircraft carriers, an objective to help the “betterment of humanity” as opposed to transporting a miniscule amount of water utilizing a Corsair. This proved to be the source of confusion when our project was analysed.
    The few comments that the judges had for improvement was to always factor in alternative methods of transporting water, not associated with the project. Many of the comments were inquiring about the purpose of our project rather than the progress we made.
    The catering was much better this year compared to last years, especially the variety of sandwiches offered by Panera restaurants. The dessert was also on point.
    I did enjoy the keynote presentation this year. I found it interesting of his extensive studies in New Zealand as well as Australia.
    The mock science fair allowed the Sikorsky team to incorporate our tablets in aiding our presentations as well as provided a more fluid presentation practice session. This time proved to be exceedingly beneficial.
    We learned that a stronger background knowledge on water transportation would be helpful in presenting our project, however there was little to no criticism on our actual progress in the challenge.
    I did not converse with students from other schools this year, yet observed many projects that students from other schools created.
    The Kahoot idea was a great improvement from last year, and one more aspect to take into consideration would be to have a shorter transition time in between the keynote speaker and the award ceremony. Otherwise, the fair progressed efficiently.
    I would rate the science fair a 4.25 this year, since many improvements were made since last year.

    ReplyDelete
  31. 1. Overall I think it went well. I enjoyed being able to converse with fellow Si Res students and presenting in front of judges. It met my expectation as it was almost identical to previous years.

    2. Overall the judges were kind and helpful. They brought up some ideas for future research and one even offered the help of her daughter who works in the field. Only one judge which happened to be Matt’s mentor was rude and unkind.

    3. The comment that was most helpful was the idea of using words specific to the field of study for the participants. If for example both were given a survey with words like brain and neuron would Psych students do better because the words have more meaning to them.

    4. I enjoyed the beagles provided but I eat lunch from home because I am a picky eater.

    5. To be honest I found him boring. Although penguins are interesting at that time of day I am fatigued and want to go home. It is hard to concentrate no matter who the guest speaker is

    6.I don’t think it helped because my partner wasn’t with me. I had presented my project enough times to be confident with it but I had never presented it with him in front of others.

    7. We need more participants for the future, which is something I knew but was reinforced by the feedback.

    8. I didn’t few any projects from other schools. I did however help others from Amity out by listening to them practice.

    8. No, I spent my time talking to people from our school. I felt more confortable talking to them and also didn’t have to much time because my presentations took a while.

    9. I think we did a good job preparing everyone. But maybe presenting more in front of other adults would help.

    10. About a 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582097494459230781640628620899862803482534211706798214808651328230664709384460955058223172535940812848111745028410270193852110555964462294895493038196442881097566593344612847564823378678316527120190914564856692346034861045432664821339360726024914127372458700660631558817488152092096282925409171536436789259036001133053054882046652138414695194151160943305727036575959195309218611738193261179310511854807446237996274956735188575272489122793818301194912983367336244065664308602139494639522473719070217986094370277053921717629317675238467481846766940513200056812714526356082778577134275778960917363717872146844090122495343014654958537105079227968925892354201995611212902196086403441815981362977477130996051870721134999999837297804995105973173281609631859502445945534690830264252230825334468503526193118817101000313783875288658753320838142061717766914730359825349042875546873115956286388235378759375195778185778053217122680661300192787661119590921642019893809525720106548586327886593615338182796823030195203530185296899577362259941389124972177528347913151557485724245415069595

    ReplyDelete
  32. 1. The fair was very good, I enjoyed myself very much. The food was tasty, the judging times were speedy and the keynote speaker was decent. The fair this year was personally a letdown because this year Sikorsky didn’t place: / but that wasn’t the fault of the fair, they did a very nice job overall.
    2. For me the judging process was alright. The engineers in our judging group understood our project to the letter and asked us very prudent questions. However, other judges did not grok how our project would assist humanity and we spent much of our time with those judges explaining our project
    3. The feedback was very limited. Either the judges didn’t get it or those who did complemented how extensively we had researched and calculated.
    4. The food was good but if I had another cup of coffee, I would have been able to fly home. So maybe something less sugary.
    5. The presentation was eh, but the presenter did a very nice job with it. He was amusing and he understood that not everyone would find penguins as interesting as him and he made it a presentation. Overall, it was good.
    6. The Mock Science Fair helped us with our layout and gave us the idea to use iPads for pictures, one of the most quintessential parts of our presentation.
    7. Not much as of yet. After discussing the results and actions of judges with my father, he suggested that we could make the project much easier to understand but until we can get our results back, we don’t know.
    8. I did not view any other student’s posters. I spent much of my time practicing relentlessly for my presentation beforehand and afterwards, I was trying not to pass out from exhaustion and stress. But I did get to hear a bit about Dan and Noah’s LVAD Bluetooth, which I truly found to be fascinating.
    9. No. I was too busy practicing and stressing with my team which is too bad. I would have enjoyed meeting more students with similar interests.
    10. Nothing round robins and mock science fair left little wanting. The rest is up to the students.
    11. 4.56

    ReplyDelete
  33. 1.) Overall, I thought the 2015 SCSEF Fair was very nice. I thought everything ran very smoothly and there was little confusion as to what was going on when. The fair met my expectations, and seemed to be about the same as last year. The lunch was better this year, and the game Kahoot was very fun! (Until Kelsey and I started getting questions wrong☹)

    2.) I though the judges were very fair in what they talked to me about. Overall, they seemed to be genuinely interested in my project. They raised some interesting questions about factors that I should take into account, however, a lot of them just mentioned that I didn’t have any statistics, and I already knew that.

    3.) The most helpful comment from my judges was regarding different factors that could be affecting the scavengers. They suggested looking at the time before the pictures that I looked at to see what was happening with at that time. Another judge also wondered how the camera was set up – if it was hidden or something. The least helpful comment was just that they mentioned I didn’t have any statistics because no judge really gave any suggestions on what statistics to do. And the best comment was that my second round of judges recommended I see the movie Beasts of the Southern Wild because it is all about wildebeests.

    4.) The breakfast this year, supplied from Panera, was very good. I enjoyed the yogurt parfait and granola, however the bagel was rather plain. (haha- I had a plain bagel) Lunch was much better than last year, however it still was up to par. By the time I had arrived all of the good cookies were gone. And the main problem with lunch was that I didn’t get to eat with Kimmy, so I couldn’t influence her opinions on the food. (symposium food was amazing!!)

    5.) I really enjoyed the keynote speaker this year, Dr. J. Alan Clark. The transition from the game Kahoots we were playing into the presentation was seamless and showed that the following presentation would be good. I thought Dr. Clark’s life’s path was really interesting to hear about, and the range of things and areas he had experienced impressed me. His research with penguins and their mating calls was fascinating to me, and I thought it was really cool how he connected his past music experience with his childhood love for animals. Overall, I thought Dr. J. Alan Clark was a really good speaker with a really interesting presentation. Although last year’s speaker set the bar high, I thought Dr. Clark surpassed him.

    6.) I think the Mock Science Fair is really helpful in preparing for SCSEF because it gives us the opportunity to iron out the wrinkles in our posters and presentations in general. The feedback students and visiting teachers give us are helpful and interesting to take into consideration.

    7.) I did not learn too much new things about my project, however, the judges made it clear that I should include statistics and they added some insight on other variables/factors to look into when conducting statistical analysis.

    8.) I had a brief change to look around at the other projects, but that was for a very brief time between judging cycles and lunch and the key note speaker. I liked looking at the pictures of dolphins and sea turtles on two of the projects. I couldn’t quite understand what they were researching though.

    9.) No, I didn’t get a change to students from other schools. Whenever I wasn’t with my friends, the people around me would be in their groups, or vice versa.

    10.) To better prepare students for future science fairs, I think small classes on statistics would be very helpful, because I was stuck in a rut with my mentors in Kenya and me having no knowledge of statistics. It would be very helpful to teach the basics for a statistical analysis.

    11.) On a scale of 1-5, I would say my experience at SCSEF was a 3.9.

    ReplyDelete

  34. 1. Although I attended the SCISEF fair last year, it still felt like a new experience! I did not get to look at other students’ project as much as I did last year, however all the ones I saw were all interesting.
    2. My judges were generally nice and very helpful. Most of my judges expressed interest in my project and asked relevant questions.
    3. The most helpful comment from the judges were about my statistical analysis. As they complimented me on some of my analysis, they also gave helpful advice to keep in mind in the future, such as about more connections that could be made between the different charts and the different values and what they exactly mean. The comment that was least helpful to my project was a personal comment about addresses. Although this was least helpful to my project (and a little too personal) I understand that this was just to make small talk(:
    4. For breakfast, I had a apple crunch muffin. This was very tasty. Along with this, I drank some orange juice. I was not as excited about this drink because it was too warm for my taste. For lunch, I chose to eat the angus steak sandwich, however I personally did not like it. The bread was very hard and I did not enjoy the steak. I had water (which was nice and cool) and a couple of golden oreo cookies (which I thoroughly enjoyed).
    5. Yes, I enjoyed the keynote presentation! Starting the presentation with the game of kahoot was a good introduction because it caught everyone’s attention. Then, the presentation was interesting because it was about different penguins (I like penguins:D)
    6. The Mock Science Fair helped me practice my presentation a little bit and I also received some helpful feedback. I also discovered some errors/typos/improvements that I made just in time for the science fair.
    7. I learned some other implications that can be made. I also learned a little bit more about statistics and other connections that I could have made. For the next science fair, I will redo my poster and use a paper cutter to cut my powerpoint slides. (I can’t cut straight lines :D)
    8. I barely had any time to view other people’s posters. I remember that the ones I did see were interesting but I don’t remember exactly what the projects were about.
    9. I did not talk to the other students from different schools.
    10. For upcoming science fairs, we can try to find time to present our whole powerpoint in front of the class in order for other students to be able to give suggestions. This will also further practice presenting in front of people.
    11. My SCISEF experience was a 3.5 or a 4. It was fun because I got to be with my friends but the food was not as great as I expected…

    ReplyDelete
  35. 1. I think 2015 SCISEF went well. I enjoyed visiting other posters and talking about my project. I also enjoyed playing the app game thingy that we played before the speaker. It was pretty much what I expected coming in after going to the fair two years in the past. I was far more confident entering the fair which definitely played into my experience this year. Winning $75, second place, and a berth into CT Science Fair was definitely a bonus too.

    2. The judging process was very helpful. Our judges were attentive and responsive to our presentation. They asked engaging questions that allowed us to go into more detail regarding our project and also enter into related topics having to do with our research area. Most importantly, the questions forced us to think a demonstrate an actually knowledge of the subject matter

    3. The most helpful comment, at least in my opinion, was all comments regarding the poster and presentation. The subject matter had been essentially perfect up to that point due to numerous edits before the national challenge a few months back. My favorite comment must have been the many comments from practically everyone regarding my bow tie, which was the focal point of my day. A comment/question about information that was clearly provided during the presentation was most certainly my least favorite and least productive comment of the day.

    4. The breakfast was amazing! There was a lot of different options and a lot to eat in general. Lunch was a little small and the sandwiches still fell short of a high expectation I had going into the fair.

    5. I didn’t particularly enjoy the keynote presentation this year. In general, forcing me to sit down for an extended period of time is not a good idea. School, therefore, is absolute torture day in and day out. The subject matter was okay I suppose. Penguins are kind of cool, but the presentation was simply too long.

    6. The mock science fair allowed me to figure out what to say and what not to say. As far as poster feedback, my poster wasn’t really set up so I got little helpful comments helping there.

    7. I didn’t learn anything new about my project. I had presented it so many times up to that point that I knew the whole thing inside and out.

    8. I did not talk to any kids from other schools during the fair. I’m not the most social person.

    9. Doing edits and representing are the only way I feel we can prepare students for other fairs.

    10. I thought SCISEF would earn a 4.


    Levi Santos

    ReplyDelete
  36. 1.
    Over all, I think this was the best SCSEF so far. The judging much more smoothly than it did last year, and the judges were all very attentive and engaged. A lot of them were also very supportive of my project, which was encouraging!

    2.
    For both rounds of judging, it was clear that there was one judge who had a robust science background and thus actively understood the presentation, one judge who had enough of a science background to follow along with the project, and one who struggled with anything past basic understanding. Because of this, the judge with the least knowledge often had very few comments to make to improve the project. However, all judges were attentive and at least tried to follow along with the presentation, and the other two judges often asked enough questions to make up for it. All of the judges were very kind and friendly, and almost always gave me enough time to answer the questions and didn’t cut off my responses with questions of their own.

    3.
    One of the most helpful questions asked was whether any of the potential sources of error could have been eliminated through different experimental design. None of them really could have because they were factors outside of my control, but it was interesting to think about. Another helpful question was about how large the genomes of the organisms I was looking at were, which, again, I really had to think about, because my knowledge focussed more on the sequences within the genomes that I was studying. It brought up an interesting concept to look into further! I actually felt like there was no comment made that wasn’t helpful, which was a nice experience.

    4.
    Both meals were good! I enjoyed the variety of the breakfast. I think it would have been nice if there was a salad or fruit option for lunch.

    5.
    I enjoyed his presentation. He made it very engaging for the audience by talking about his own experiences with jokes mixed in, rather than focussing solely on his research. Even when he was talking about his research it was very interesting, because penguin mating calls are something you can conceptualize without any real background knowledge on the matter and are a fun topic! I also liked how he hadn’t always been a scientific researcher. Learning about his life and understanding the thought process behind his move from law to science was inspiring and really drove home the message of exploring many options and settling on one you are passionate about.
    (1/2)

    ReplyDelete
  37. 6.
    The Mock Science Fair helped primarily as practice. It was especially helpful that we were using the poster boards, because even though my poster followed pretty much the same format as the powerpoint that I was accustomed to presenting on, presenting off the poster for the first time was different and a bit off-putting. I’m glad that that first time was in front of people I knew from Amity, and not the judges at SCSEF!
    The Mock Science Fair also really served to highlight the places in my presentation in which I was a little bit shaky or that I needed to practice some more. It ensured that my presentations at SCSEF were polished and well thought out.

    7.
    I think for next fair I’m going to elaborate on the implications of this project. I think I need to discuss that more, rather than just have a quick one to two sentence mention of it. Also, I think it would be a more cohesive end to the presentation.

    8.
    The project that left the most lasting impression was about the relationship between torque and balance (I think). His poster was visually appealing and very understandable, but more impressive was the model that he had brought in to demonstrate his project. He had built a machine that would balance itself in real time as the slant of the ground beneath it changed.

    8.
    I did this year’s project at UConn during the summer as part of the UConn Mentor Connection program. Many other students from Connecticut were part of that program, and I got to meet two of the friends I made there at SCSEF! It was nice to reconnect and talk about their projects and their experiences with the fair.

    9.
    This year it wasn’t feasible to fit the oral presentations in before the fair, but I think it would be nice for next year. Input from the entire class may have been helpful. Other than that, I thought we were all pretty well prepared!

    10.
    4.5
    (2/2)

    ReplyDelete
  38. 1) I enjoyed SCISEF a lot this year! I didn’t attend this fair last year, so I could only compare it to Norwalk, but I was pleasantly surprised by the overall experience. I was able to present really easily because my judges were nice, the food was good, and the guest speaker was really interesting. I also thought the game we played, Kahoot, before the key note speaker was entertaining; I told my chemistry teacher about it so we could use it for test preparation. (Turns out he’s played a Christmas version of it)

    2) As Ms. Day knows, I was very happy about my judging experience, particularly the first round. Unfortunately I had to go first and then sixth round, so I was nervous that I wouldn’t be so lucky with my second round, but they turned out to be nice also. They actually seemed interested in my project and followed along, which I can imagine must be hard for judges considering they are viewing A LOT of different posters. They asked questions like furthering my research in the future as opposed to re-explaining what I already said, and I was able to answer the majority of them confidently because my research seemed to suffice for most of the questions. The first group was there for about 20 minutes and the second for a little less.

    3) My judges didn’t give my many suggestions, but some of their comments were interesting. For my first group of judges, the third judge came later and asked a lot of questions because he had missed my presentation…But one question that I was embarrassed I didn’t know was what is 23 degrees Celsius in Fahrenheit? After admitting that I wasn’t sure, they informed me it was about 72 degrees! So now I know that I should probably figure out how to convert Celsius to Farenheit! The least helpful comment was probably to flip around one of my pictures. None of the judges really said negative comments, they all were constructive so I thought all their feedback was relatively helpful.

    4) The food was really good! (Not that I expected anything less from Panera) Of course I ate breakfast before hand and brought along my own lunch but I just took advantage of all the food they had there. The blueberry muffins were my favorite out of the breakfast foods(very moist but I was unhappy I missed out on the fruit cup); surpassing Dunkin Donuts’ and comparable to stop and shops’ muffins. ( They are surprisingly good you should try them I would actually recommend the chocolate chip and then corn and probably blueberry after that.) For lunch, I have to admit I took more than one sandwich because I was starving, but they were good! Obviously the bread was good, and the chips were a nice addition.

    5) YES! I loved his presentation. I was expecting to fall asleep during the presentation, but I didn't realize an hour had gone by, yet it only felt like 10 minutes! He was engaging and what he had to say was unique. I always hear about successful people that knew what they were going to do since they were five years old, but he noted that he really jumped around a lot-from opera to penguins, he enjoys what he's doing and is still considered an extremely successful individual.

    ReplyDelete
  39. 8) Although I certainly had time to view other projects in between my judging sessions, I mostly spent my time talking about our judging experiences with fellow science research students. I looked at their projects and some things stuck out to me that I think I should use for my project as far as the actual poster and set up. Some of these are: a video which I can use instead of my small chronological pictures, print my powerpoint on photo paper so it looks more professional, add a different color paper behind my powerpoint slides, and the project that left a lasting impression for me was my friend from a different period. Her binder was extremely well organized including an "included in this binder" piece on the front. I was just admiring how well done it was. I wish I had looked at other people's projects a little better; I realize now it could be helpful for future project inspirations? I did see one student from a different school taking full advantage of this. I saw her running around checking out all the competition she had in her category...

    9) I didn't talk to students from other schools because I was having so much fun talking to my classmates! At the next science fair I'll be sure to talk to other students and check out their posters.

    10) I think my biggest problem was organization. To prepare other students for upcoming fairs, I think we should take some more time to get posters perfect, organize a binder, and figure out all the small details that are often overlooked. I got home very late the night before, so hopefully my schedule works out better next time, and I prepare WELL before the actual fair.

    11) I think my experience at SCSEF could be rated a 5. I actually had fun! My presenting, the food, and the guest speaker all went really well, and I wasn't expecting to have that much fun at a science fair! I can't wait for next year!

    ReplyDelete
  40. 6) The repetition of practicing was essential. I found that I could talk about my project for hours but Ms. Day's unbending adherence to the time restriction helped me pick out some of the most important information. I wish I had time to edit my poster more in between the mock science fair and SCISEF, but I can do that for CSEF, and by then hopefully I'll have even more information to work with.

    7) One thing that definetly stands out to me about my project was one of my graphs. Both judges seemed to be confused by what I meant which is a good indicator that I need to update it to make it clearer. However, I'm still in the process of analyzing, so hopefully my analysis will be even better at the next fair!

    ReplyDelete
  41. 1. What was your overall impression of the 2015 SCISEF Fair? Specifically, what things did you enjoy about the fair? Did the fair meet your expectations? In what ways was it similar or different to what you anticipated or experienced in the past?

    Overall, this SCSEF was pretty regular. Honestly, it wasn’t anything special or significant, because it was just another SCSEF to me. It pretty much met my expectations. It was very similar to what I have experienced the last two years; you know, the regular procedure (Breakfast, present, wait for 10 years, present, lunch, keynote, awards that I don’t win, go home, sleep, come to school, blog about it, etc.). It was pretty basic to me.

    2. What was the judging process like? Were the judges fair and helpful? Be specific.

    My judges were really cool actually! They were all very fair and helpful. In the first round, out of two judges, only one wasn’t really sure what my project was because he wasn’t familiar with twitter and the purpose of tweeting (he’s older, as you can tell), but the other one was cool and into it. In my second round, the judges were a bit TOO into it. They were very excited about my project, almost moreso than I was. However, they gave great advice as to where I could go with it, like on the socioeconomic level.

    3. What was the most helpful comment from the Judges? Least helpful?

    Honestly, the different ways I could approach the tweets in Ferguson and the depth that they wanted me to go in (socioeconomic, etc) were really great! They weren’t really UNHELPFUL in any particular way.

    4. How was the food (breakfast and lunch)?

    The (coffee) breakfast (coffee) was great (coffee)! ALSO PANERA SLAYED MY VERY EXISTENCE TO BE QUITE HONEST. So, I guess you could say it was alright.

    5. Did you enjoy the Keynote presentation by J. Alan Clark, Associate Prof of Conservation Biology at Fordham University? Explain.

    I loved the keynote speaker! He was hip, quirky, relatable, and just super interesting for a hip, quirky, relatable teen like me!! No, but in all seriousness, he was very interesting, and I learned a lot from his presentation. It also didn’t hurt that he cracked a few jokes here and there.

    6. In what way(s) do you think the Mock Science Fair helped prepare you for the fair?

    Honestly, the feedback is arguably the most valuable aspect of the Mock Sci Fair. Mr. Musco gave me feedback that I knew the judges would nitpick, and I’m glad he did, because the judges liked that I included that.

    7. Did you learn anything new about your project? If so, what can you do to improve it for the next fair?

    I really didn’t learn much about my project. However, I do have things to do to prepare for JSHS. For example, bring all my tweet logs together.

    8. Did you have time to view other student projects? Which project(s) left a lasting impression? why?

    Ryan actually pointed out that another student had a very similar project to me. His was regarding twitter, and he used Ferguson as an example. At first glance, I got a bit intimidated because it looked a bit complicated, but really it wasn’t. (He spelled Ferguson like “furgison” which made me feel self-assured. I felt like Beyoncé, essentially.)

    8. Did you talk to students from other schools? Explain.

    I did! I made a friend, but I forgot her name. I’m really classy, I know.

    9. What can we do to better prepare students for upcoming science fairs, if anything?

    Honestly, I feel like more mock science fairs would do the trick. Other than that, I don’t think there’s much else you could do. Experiencing it is the best way to prepare, in my opinion.

    10. Overall on a scale of 1 (terrible) to 5 (amazing) --> How enjoyable was your SCSEF experience?

    Overall, I would rate SCSEF a 3. I would give it a 4, but THEY REMOVED THE HASHTAG FROM THE TITLE OF MY PROJECT IN THE BOOKLET. My heart broke. Sorry ‘bout it.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Neha Pashankar
    1)My overall impression of the SCISEF Fair was lovely. I really enjoyed it this year because I knew what I was doing, from last year’s experience. Judges are usually the scariest part, but mine were pleasant and polite. The fair exceeded my expectations because when I went, I wasn’t expecting much, but winning third for completed behavior definitely made all the stress of my project worth it. It was definitely a lot better than last year because I knew how the process worked and what to do. Also, my judging experience last year wasn't amazing (one judge didn't understand my project) , and this year, it was so pleasant. Last year, as a freshman, I was petrified the entire time, and I definitely think that affected my judging. This year, I was so much calmer, and I think that helped with a smoother presentation.

    2)My judges were so kind and attentive. One judge had read my abstract and conducted his own research on the topic of neurocognitive function and bipolar patients, which was such a compliment to me! The judges asked me questions that were easy to understand and showed understanding of my project. I could easily answer all of them, which was definitely a confidence boost! They took some time to read through my poster and look through my binder,and then asked me to begin presenting, so that definitely bolstered their understanding. The time they took reading my poster actually helped me calm my nerves a lot, otherwise I would’ve been shaking while presenting. One judge looked a little skeptical of my project at first, but at the end, she seemed to understand it.

    3)Most helpful comment from one of my judges was probably about what hospital the patients came from because I assumed that all my patients came from Yale, but I wasn’t positive, so I’ll definitely ask my mentor about that. Honestly, there was no least helpful comment from my judges; they all were very polite and kind. Both rounds of my judges asked me what p-values mean, which I was a little surprised about, but I guess they just asked me to see if I understood what I was talking about.

    4)The food was delicious; it was so much better than last year. It had my favorite sandwich from Panera (Mediterranean Veggie), so I was very ecstatic to see that; as a vegetarian, sometimes vegetarian sandwiches are lacking. I didn’t eat breakfast because I had already eaten, but the bagels looked delicious!

    5)I really enjoyed the Keynote presentation, even though I thought I wouldn’t. He made it really interesting, and he went through so much to do what he loved, which I though was really inspiring. I was amazed that he went to college almost four times for every major possible! His work with penguins was really cool, and he’s so lucky he gets to travel around the world for his work! He made each slide concise and easy to understand for his audience.

    6)The mock science fair helped with my presenting because I had to present about three times just in that hour, so it got easier each time. I also learned to keep my presenting concise because I did have a slight time problem before. Also, Ms. Day’s comments helped a lot otherwise I would have kept my name and my mentor’s name on the board. It also helped me see other students’ projects and evaluate my board based on theirs to see if I should change anything.

    7)I didn’t learn anything new about my project, but I did learn that for the next science fair, I should put my abstract on my board and print my poster out because it looks more professional. I also learned to make sure everything was clear on my board, so even if the judges miss something I say, they can still understand the concept. Next science fair, I’ll be sure to make these changes (or continue to do them), so it turns out as successful as SCISEF!

    ReplyDelete
  43. 8)I did have some time to view other student projects, and they were mostly wonderfully done. A lot of the projects were so complex; it was hard to understand anything on their board without someone explaining it to me. Projects that left a lasting impression were projects that directly applied to me, like Julia Nadelmann’s. She is studying friendship paradoxes in high school, and I could easily relate and understand how different trends become popular socially. Also,projects relating to GPA or grades caught my interest, as I obsess about both topics everyday.

    8) I didn’t talk to any other students from other schools this year
    because I had friends nearby from Amity to talk to, also I was always paranoid my judges would either come too early or late, so I wanted to stay by my poster most of the time.

    9)Showing upcoming students an ideal presentation and poster would definitely be helpful. We practice presenting a lot, so I think that SR students from Amity are always ready for that. Possibly, if scheduling works out, we could formally present in front of the class before science fairs because, for me, that’s so intimidating, so it will really prepare me for judging. Maybe more question and answer practice would be good because the questions can be the most intimidating part.

    10)5, it overall a great experience.

    ReplyDelete
  44. 1.
    My overall impression of the 2015 SCISEF Fair was that it was very enjoyable. I loved playing Kahoot with everyone in the auditorium and I really enjoyed the speaker. Both times I have attended the Fair they had very good speakers. The fair met up to my expectations the only thing that wasn’t so enjoyable was my last round of judges because they were quite harsh. The fair was a lot different than I expected in a good way because the food was much better this year.
    2.
    My first judging experience went really well the judges seemed really interested in what I was doing and really did want to learn more about horses after hearing my presentation. Although the second round of judges said that I used wrong material for my brace but he didn’t have any suggestions and then he proceeded to laugh at me with the third judge. To say the least, it wasn’t a pleasant experience.
    3.
    The most helpful comment from my judges was the comment about getting a patent which I should have done a while ago. The least helpful was the one about my material just because it was kind of an empty statement.
    4.
    The food was very good I enjoyed both breakfast and lunch, it was much better than last year it I was very pleased to see they were serving tea instead of just coffee.
    5.
    I enjoyed the Keynote presentation very much. I liked that the presenter was very real and he had an abstract way of looking at things. People who see things in many different lights interest me a lot. I also like that he challenged us to question our surroundings, I found that pleasantly intriguing.
    6.
    I think the mock science fair this year helped a lot more than last year because our posters were set up in semi-similar fashion as they would have been at the fair and we were able to present to some of the other teachers who came down.
    7.
    I learned that I definitely need to do more broad background research so I can improve that by spending so time looking at broad topics that could have any relation to my project at all. When I was looking for articles I tended to search very specific topics instead of broad ideas.
    8.
    One of the projects that left a lasting impression on me was a project close to mine. I don’t exactly remember what it was about but it left an impression on me because it was so poorly put together. The poster was very unprofessional and half the wording made no sense at all. After seeing this project I realized how lucky Amity Science Research kids are to be so well prepared by our teachers for our fairs.
    8.
    I didn’t end up talking to anyone from other schools unfortunately.
    9.
    I think we did an excellent job of preparing especially this year with the very realistic mock science fair.
    10.
    5

    ReplyDelete
  45. Julia Nadelmann
    1. What was your overall impression of the 2015 SCISEF Fair? Specifically, what things did you enjoy about the fair? Did the fair meet your expectations? In what ways was it similar or different to what you anticipated or experienced in the past?

    Overall I enjoyed SCISEF. I thought that using panera as a caterer was very nice addition, also the fair was well organized and I did not need to wait too long for my judges. The fair was quite similar in the setup to last year, and as I expected it would be. I also really liked the addition of Kahoot to the fair, entertaining fair participants in that awkward waiting period.
    2. What was the judging process like? Were the judges fair and helpful? Be specific.

    I thought that my judges were very fair and helpful. I enjoyed talking to them about my research and communicating my results. The judges seemed interested in my research, and although I was really concerned with timing prior to the fair the judges never cut me off. The judges asked me many questions about the future implications of my project, and possible outlets of future research for my project. In my second round of judges(I think the judges were getting tired), my judges started making jokes about “trivia cocaine” and Gandhi doing yoga.

    3. What was the most helpful comment from the Judges? Least helpful?

    The most helpful comment from the judges was when the judge asked me if I had gathered any information on the demographics of my participants that could be further factored in my analysis. The least helpful comment was probably when the judge told me “before trivia crack was famous it was just trivia cocaine”.
    4. How was the food (breakfast and lunch)?

    As I life long panera lover, (seriously though I have so many points on my my panera card), I loved the food. I thought that the food was a great improvement from last year. I really liked how they had many options for breakfast. There were muffins, bagels, fruit cups, and yogurt parfaits. The only thing that could have been added were doughnuts. While the lunch was obviously amazing, I typically prefer panera soups and salads to their sandwiches. But, I do understand that serving soup to a large group of people is like asking for a disaster.

    5. Did you enjoy the Keynote presentation by J. Alan Clark, Associate Prof of Conservation Biology at Fordham University? Explain.

    Yes, I greatly enjoyed the Keynote presentation. I thought that Professor Alan Clark was a very dynamic speaker. I liked that when he spoke to us, he did not exclusively talk about his research, but he talked about his life experiences in general and his personal story.
    6. In what way(s) do you think the Mock Science Fair helped prepare you for the fair?
    At the mock science fair, I was way over on timing and my presentation was a mess. After I practiced I was able to determine the most logical order in which I should present my project, and what information was necessary to the understanding of my project.

    7. Did you learn anything new about your project? If so, what can you do to improve it for the next fair?

    I learned that I can take my analysis another step farther by monitoring the popularity of the trends over the next time period. For the next fair, I would like to begin distributing surveys to the entire school wide population, so that way I can include information on how accurate the prediction of trends were within the high school population.

    8. Did you have time to view other student projects? Which project(s) left a lasting impression? why?
    The project that left the most lasting impression on me was SARAH SAXE’S. That girl has true talent and potential. First of all, her project was extremely well designed, and innovative. Also, her effort to organization was incredible. Her poster looked perfect and was easy to follow, and her binder was just beautiful. She had pretty graphics and a table of contents and included EVERYTHING about her project.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Julia Nadelmann continued

    9. Did you talk to students from other schools? Explain.
    I spent most of the time when I wasn’t presenting speaking to students from amity. While the students from other schools I’m sure were very nice, I just felt more comfortable with students from my own school. Prior to my presentation I noticed that some students from another school were looking at my project, but when I came up to my poster they left. In the future I will make more of an effort to speak with the students from other schools.
    10. What can we do to better prepare students for upcoming science fairs, if anything?
    I think that the more students practice presenting in front of people who they are not familiar with that are not familiar with their project the better. While the mock science fair is amazing, all of us know one another and have heard each other present before, so there is a level of comfort and understanding that does not exist in a real judging experience.
    11. Overall on a scale of 1 (terrible) to 5 (amazing) --> How enjoyable was your SCSEF experience?
    Overall, my scisef experience was a 5, the fair was well organized and the additon of panera food and kahoot made it even more enjoyable.

    ReplyDelete
  47. 1. I thought that the science fair this year went quite well for me. The fair definitely met my expectations and overall I left feeling that it was a good experience and a fun time. I enjoyed the judging process, as all my judges seemed quite engaged in my project and asked thoughtful questions. I also enjoyed the keynote speaker a lot and thought he did a great job of speaking about his research with penguins. I feel that in a lot of ways the fair was very similar to last year but with a few improvements such as the food.

    2. I thought the judging process was very good this year. Most of my judges seemed to be interested in my project and paid attention during my whole presentation. They were also on time to my presentations which I thought was a great improvement over last year. The judges also asked good questions and politely offered suggestions for future work.

    3. The most helpful comment from the judges was a suggestion to integrate my application with research articles searched off of google scholar. The least helpful comment was probably a question one of my judges asked. Right after I had finished talking about my future work and wrapping up my presentation one of my judges immediately asked me “So, what is the next step?” Take into account that this was right after I had finished discussing future plans for the project. I answered his question by rephrasing some of my future work and adding on to it, but I thought it was quite weird that he asked the question right after I had discussed my future work.

    4. The food was very good. I didn’t choose to eat breakfast because I wasn’t hungry and just wanted to run through my presentation a couple of times. However, the lunch was very yummy. I really enjoyed the different choices that were available to me and overall thought it was a great improvement over last year.

    5. I thought the Keynote presentation by Prof. Clark was quite interesting and I did enjoy his talk about the research he was doing. I also enjoyed the quick game (Kahoot.it) that we played before the presentation started and thought it was a fun addition to the fair. However, in my opinion I felt that last year’s presentation with David Pogue was more interesting. Overall though it was a good presentation and a fun part of the overall science fair experience.

    6. I think the mock science fair really helped give me some more presenting practice and become adjusted to the feeling of presenting next to many other posters and projects. It was good practice for engaging the audience with the poster and being able to articulate the main points about my study.

    7. I did learn some new things about my project. One of my judges was actually a researcher who said that the application I developed seemed very interesting and helpful to him. He was familiar with ontologies and many of the things I had mentioned about my project and told me about possible ways to improve it so that it would be even more helpful and user friendly.

    8. I did enjoy walking around the fair and viewing projects from other students. One that I found very interesting was the use of machine learning in reducing compile time. I thought the idea was very cool and seemed like an original project.

    9. I didn’t really engage in conversation with students from other schools.

    10. I think that having a checklist of things to bring to the Science Fair would be pretty helpful. We are told to bring our journal and research paper along with our poster. However, having a checklist with things like research paper, journal articles, poster, and science journal would probably help alleviate pressure the night before the science fair when students are scrambling to get everything together.

    11. On a scale of 1 – 5 I rate this year’s SCSEF experience a solid 4.5. There wasn’t much that needed improvement in my opinion and overall I really did enjoy presenting and receiving feedback from the judges.

    ReplyDelete
  48. 1. I thought the 2015 SCISEF Fair went pretty well. I thought the judging process was well organized and it was a very educational experience. I really enjoyed the guest speaker as well. The fair was pretty similar to those of past years and it definitely met my expectations. It was nice to be back at Newtown High School because they run the fair very well.

    2. Both rounds of judges for our project seemed interested and engaged. They asked good questions that indicated they were listening and understood our project. They were very polite and courteous.

    3. The judges did not really offer us that much advice, they mainly just asked us questions. The most helpful questions were probably those that asked for clarification, which indicated we should present the background to the study more clearly. A few of the comments were suggestions for other variables we should look at and ideas for future projects so they were not really helpful to our current project.

    4. I thought the food was pretty good. I enjoyed breakfast but I thought the sandwiches were a little bland.

    5. I actually really enjoyed the Keynote presentation. I thought Mr. Clark did a good job of making his research understandable and interesting for the audience. He definitely has had a very unique life and it was fun to learn about it.

    6. The mock science fair helped me figure out how I was going to explain each point to the judges while making it understandable and not just reading off of the poster.

    7. We mainly just learned that we have to update our project when we get EEG results and results for participants with schizophrenia.

    8. I did walk around and look at the other projects but I only skimmed them briefly because I was tired and anxious to present. I did not really get a chance to look at any in detail.

    9. I did not really talk to students from other schools because I just never really came into contact with any.

    10. This year we did not really get to present our PowerPoint to the entire class due to school cancellations and I think that would have been helpful. It would have been good practice for the presentation at the fair.

    11. I would give it a 4.5 - I had a good time and it was a great experience to present our project. I really enjoyed the guest speaker and getting an award definitely made the experience a lot better.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Please reflect on the following (each question in detail):


    1. What was your overall impression of the 2015 SCISEF Fair? Specifically, what things did you enjoy about the fair? Did the fair meet your expectations? In what ways was it similar or different to what you anticipated or experienced in the past?
    I enjoyed the science fair. I loved the food, keynote speaker, and it was interesting looking at everyone's projects. The science fair met my expectations of a good all around experience and average judging. It was different that last year because I had a viable project. Although it didn't work, it was a lot more fun presenting it then a project about moldy bread. Other than that, it was relatively similar except for the food which was different, but good each time.
    2. What was the judging process like? Were the judges fair and helpful? Be specific.
    The judging process was interesting. In the beginning it was very loud so they could not hear well. Because of this they asked either repeated questions or meaner questions that could possible disprove the project. Overall it was helpful though, it gave me a good experience of what I should clear up when presenting again at other science fairs.
    3. What was the most helpful comment from the Judges? Least helpful?
    The most helpful comment from the judges was when they told me other implications and said how my project was good in that way. The least helpful was when one of the judges had me define causation versus correlation and explain why if it were correlation then my project would be pointless. He then wanted me to look into it further.
    4. How was the food (breakfast and lunch)?
    The food was very good. I enjoyed all aspects of it, but the bread was a little hard. Other than that, all of it was good and I got to take a few sandwiches home at the end.
    5. Did you enjoy the Keynote presentation by J. Alan Clark, Associate Prof of Conservation Biology at Fordham University? Explain.
    I enjoyed the keynote presentation. It was very inspiring in that he found what he loved and followed it. He was also entertaining, both comedically and content wise. I learned a lot from his presentation.
    6. In what way(s) do you think the Mock Science Fair helped prepare you for the fair?
    The mock science fair prepared me for this science fair because it gave me a lot more practice presenting. It also gave me an idea of what the judging would be like through both the judges and students point of view.
    7. Did you learn anything new about your project? If so, what can you do to improve it for the next fair?
    I did not learn too much about my project from the judges, but they did give me some good pointers. Some one told me to look up causation versus correlation to see which one it was for my project but I could not disprove his thought since my data was negative. When I continue my research, if it works, most of the critical comments will not be valid.
    8. Did you have time to view other student projects? Which project(s) left a lasting impression? why?
    I had time to view the others projects. No one really wanted to present another time though. One project that had a lasting impression was the project about curing cancer. It was very interesting and I thought that I might want to look into the category cancer next year. The project was very in depth and had very good implications.

    ReplyDelete
  50. 8. Did you talk to students from other schools? Explain.
    I talk to some student a from other schools, but most of them were when one person knew someone from another school and I was talking with them. I had a nice conversation with a kid from Darien about his presentation and then we talked about sports and other different stuff.
    9. What can we do to better prepare students for upcoming science fairs, if anything?
    We could have the mock science fair be more critical like what we would experience with the actual science fair. Also, we could also do the power point presentation before the actual science fair since it would give us more experience with criticism and presentation skills.
    10. Overall on a scale of 1 (terrible) to 5 (amazing) --> How enjoyable was your SCSEF experience?
    I would rate the overall SCSEF experience a 4. I enjoyed the overall experience including meeting new people, Panera food, and a good keynote speaker, I did not enjoy the judging that much, especially when they could not hear anything.

    ReplyDelete
  51. 1. Overall, I enjoyed the fair. It was a good experience for me and the rest of the AAA Team. Although we didn’t win anything, it was good practice for our future presentations (at Sikorsky, hopefully at the EXPO, etc.). Most aspects of the fair met my expectations for what it would be like. The bus left a few minutes after 7:30 and returned at about 3:45- it was good that the timing and agenda of the fair were upheld.
    2. For the AAA Team, the judging process was rather harsh and inconsiderate. The judges didn’t seem to understand that our project was restricted to the F4U-4 Corsair and that other methods of transportation (e.g. pipelines) were not allowed. One judge was more polite than the others when questioning, however the other 4 we encountered were dismissive and misunderstood the limitations on the scope of our project.
    3. By far the most helpful judge was in our first round (he’s an engineer, go figure). He asked us not just about our project like the others, but also inquired about how we handle and plan with such an interesting team dynamic. This was very helpful for us because it led to a discussion on how to effectively work together. The least helpful comments (from the remaining judges) were those that blindly suggested alternatives outside the team’s limitations, like the use of a pipeline, a newer plane, and the much heavier weight of cost in our decision making (all of which are limited by the administrators of the challenge).
    4. Breakfast was good. They had a variety of bagels, as well as an assortment of drinks. The one thing I didn’t like about breakfast was the orange juice. Lunch was not as good as breakfast. I tried the Asiago steak sandwich but didn’t especially like it. But the potato chips from lunch were good.
    5. I think the presentation was okay. He was very funny and did a great job presenting what he had. But frankly, for me personally, penguins can only be so interesting. While I believe he did a fantastic job with his keynote and has had a very unique journey to becoming a field biologist, I didn’t find the topic very intriguing.
    6. The Mock Science Fair was important to preparing for the fair for one main reason: practice. Repeating the presentation over and over, while it may become tedious, was critical for being able to effectively portray my information about the trade study. Because we had a team project, the Mock Science Fair didn’t allow us to practice together, but it was still a large help individually.
    7. Honestly, I didn’t really learn anything new about my project. If anything, I learned that the Corsair, relative to all of the modern transportation methods, is not efficient at all in water transport. Because of challenge limitations, there is unfortunately not much we can do to avoid this issue in next year’s SCSEF.
    8. I only briefly walked around to view other students’ projects. One that stood out to me was Owais and Arvene’s project with graphene. As friendly competitors in our category, I was disappointed that we lost, but happy that, if we had to lose to somebody, that we lost to them. Their project seemed very complex, and graphene could have a large impact on our lives in the future.
    9. I didn’t talk to students from other schools. Our team stayed right next to our poster for presentation sessions 1-4, and then proceeded to the café for the remainder of the time, where we also sat with Amity students.
    10. I think the Science Research Program holistically was very prepared for the fair. We got lots of practice with our round robins and mock science fairs. One change that could improve projects and presentations is more questions for the presenters; the SCSEF judges spent lots of time inquiring about projects.
    11. 4- Everything was great except for the judges and the fact that we didn’t win.

    ReplyDelete
  52. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  53. Part one
    1. I’ve been to SCISEF last year so I’ve established a good impression from the fair last year and the impression is still the same after going this year. I enjoyed the fair; there were a lot of volunteers around so I could ask where facilities were etc. and where to set up my poster. The experience was what I expected and I enjoyed the KaHoot It game at the keynote presentation.
    2. The first rounds of judges were attentive but I felt like they weren’t into my project as much as the second. There were two people in the group and they were in the first round, so I was surprised that both weren’t attentive because it was only the first round…They didn’t give me much feedback which is what I expected because they weren’t interested, so there wasn’t really much I could do. The second round of judges had three people in the group, and luckily, one of the judges worked with Brian Scholl from Yale’s Psychology Lab so I was happy there was someone to direct the other two judges. This group was more interested because of the same judge’s interest. He suggested to mention a statistical fact of how many people die from car crashes because of change blindness, and “to hook people in with that statement”. The judges were in the last round of judging so I expected them to be tired (they were also 15 minutes late), but they held on and I tried my best to keep them attentive. Overall, my judges were nice and the last round was the most informative.
    3. The most helpful comments came from the one judge who worked with Brian Scholl, as mentioned above. There weren’t any least helpful comments from my experience, as most asked either questions, or suggested improvements (last group).
    4. The food was great, and the options were different from last year. I didn’t have breakfast because I had the first round so I went to practice. However, lunch was really good, however, I suggest putting the drinks at the end where the coffee is because I didn’t know where they were and there wasn’t a sign or anything but that’s just my opinion.
    5. I enjoyed the keynote presentation a lot. The topic was fairly interesting with the penguins and the pictures were adorable [insert exclamation point]-(my number one key is gone, and I only have the key pad ones which don’t have the symbols ). I have to admit that it wasn’t as interesting as last year because I had a high expectation coming from last year but Pogue can’t be everywhere…

    ReplyDelete
  54. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  55. 6. I think the mock science fair helped me present to my peers and fix upon that. I also think that it helped up get used to the environment, and account the pauses and questions into our presentation time. We also displayed our poster so I got feedback if text to too small etc.
    7. I learned that my project needs to be completed a couple of days before the science fair [insert exclamation point] My printer always seems to have problems when it comes to science fairs and again, it ran out of toner, so I had to use my old pages of the powerpoint that did not match with the new pages of the powerpoint. Another thing is to not put everything on the poster unless you will be mentioning it in the presentation. Other papers or side info could be kept in the binder to view.
    8. I got to view other projects but not as much as last year. This year I just walked around but I didn’t pay attention to the titles; some of them were really long… However, I was surprised that many of the posters were all printed, and personally, I don’t like to get a printed poster but I was just surprised. I thought it didn’t look attractive because I love colors but I think they look professional. Some posters were really intense and full of information and I loved how there were so many projects of different topics [insert exclamation point]
    9. I talked to the students next to my poster and they were nice. To my left from spectators POV was actually Eli and George and they were busy most of the time. Gabby Totten was across from me and I knew her from last year. To my right, I met a girl who was in the same grade as me and she was really nice I think from Sacred Heart. We presented to each other so that was really helpful. We also talked to the guy next to her because we noticed he had really intense and “mean” judges, as one of them kept interrupting.
    10. For future science fairs, maybe more mock science fairs and round robins. We should also have a poster session on how to design the posters etc.
    11. I would have to give my experience a 4 overall. The first round of judges brought the rating down, but the second round made it up. The speaker was interesting although I wished there was more interaction like last year, because at some parts I started to lose focus. The KaHoot It was the only interaction that occurred besides the question time.

    ReplyDelete
  56. 1. My overall impression of the 2015 SCISEF Fair was that I thought everything went very well. I really enjoyed the keynote speaker this year. I also thought that the Kahoot game we played before awards and the keynote speaker was really enjoyable. The food compared to last year was much better and there were so many options to choose from. The fair did meet my expectations, although one of the judges I had was not very interested in my project while I was presenting, which I thought was rude. The others judges were wonderful and my overall experience was great at this year’s fair.
    2. The judging process was good this year, my judges all arrived on time or early. The first set of judges I had were all very interested in my project and had a bunch of questions that I was able to answer and receive feedback from. The first group of judges stayed for a good 25 minutes and I continued to discuss my project with them. My second round of judges did not go as well. I had two judges this time and one of the judges was really friendly and paid-attention to the presentation and when he asked questioned he addressed me by my name, while the other judge was really hard to understand and rude. At one point he started laughing…but I wasn’t sure why he was laughing, and during my presentation he was kind of removed and disinterested, paying more attention to the surrounding people and projects.
    3. I thought all of the comments and questions from the judges were really helpful. The most helpful comment would be that to make sure in the future, for my project specifically, to make sure that the participants were to be gathered from more than one area or town. I did not have a least helpful comment from my judges.
    4. The food from breakfast and lunch was really good. The variety was large and really nice; there was something for everyone to eat. For breakfast, I had a plain bagel and for lunch, I had the smoked turkey sandwich which was very good. Overall, the food was much better compared to last year’s food options.
    5. I thought that the keynote speaker, J. Alan Clark, had a really interesting presentation. I personally thought the presentation was really good compared to last year’s keynote speaker because of his topic which I think appealed to more people. I thought that his presentation on penguins was really interesting and fun to watch/listen to, and it wasn’t too long or too short.
    6. I think the mock science fair helped me a lot in preparing for the SCISEF fair. By participating in the mock science fair, I was able to work on my presenting skills and work out some of the problems that I had or any uncertainty I had about presenting in front of judges.
    7. I did learn new things about my project. One of the suggestions made by one of the judges was a way in which we could regulate the participants when they take the survey to make sure they are answering honestly and not just randomly clicking. Specifically, one of the judges said to ask each question twice and to see if the persons answer changed or not, if it did it may indicate they were not actually reading the questions being asked.
    8. I was able to view some of the other students’ projects, specifically my friends from other science research classes because I hadn’t seen them this year. I then practiced presenting with friends until it was time for my judging session.
    9. I did not talk to the students from other schools because I did not have enough extra time to do this.
    10. To help prepare students for upcoming fairs, I would continue to have the students participate in the mock science fair, it was really helpful. By having students present more, it will help them when they present during a fair to be prepared and less nervous.
    11. Overall on a scale of 1 to 5, I would rate my experience at SCISEF a 4 out of 5. The food was really good and I really enjoyed listening to the keynote speaker, but on the other hand I think the judges should be chosen more carefully.

    ReplyDelete
  57. 1. Overall, the 2015 SCSEF Fair ran very smoothly. I thought the online quiz/competition preceding the keynote presentation was a good way to engage the student body, as well as continue the spirit of friendly competition throughout the fair. SCSEF definitely met my expectations - most of the judges seemed to be interested in the projects, and had intelligent questions to offer. The fair was similar to what I experienced in the past - though the judging rounds seemed unnecessarily harsh for most students (many including myself had rounds 1 & 6, a grueling set of time slots).

    2. The judging process was a good one. Though the judges came a few minutes before both my presentations were slated to start, I was prepared. The judges were very objective and fair, and on the whole were engaged with my presentation. They took time to look at my poster beforehand and followed along as I presented (asking for clarification as needed). The questions the judges asked were relevant (ex. further steps for my proposal, resources I would use if I had unlimited time/facilities, etc.) and helped me give them more necessary information.

    3. The judges’ most helpful comment was asking about how refractive indices played into the AR effect of my ZnO nanostructures - it allowed me to refine my presentation and provide greater detail on a major aspect of my project. Their least helpful comment was asking how the antireflection nanostructures I grew could be manufactured similarly to nanostructured antimicrobial surfaces - though both are nanostructures, the methods for fabrication are very different (though it wasn’t a bad question to consider out of curiosity).

    4. The food was generally very good (I thought breakfast was better than lunch), and I enjoyed the yogurt-granola-strawberry item in the morning.

    5. The keynote presentation was definitely interesting, especially learning about the path Prof. Clark took to get to his position, or his work with penguins. I thought he spoke very well in general. However, I think his presentation could have been a little more engaging - many students were not interested in the presentation.

    6. I was actually able to refine my presentation skills at the mock science fair (improving upon what I had done at the round robin). The mock science fair also gave me an incentive to finish my poster early, so I had adequate time to make a few adjustments before the fair.

    7. I learned the best way to explain the methodology for my project to judges. I should also finish my collection of data for the fair, but I can also ensure my methods are slightly clearer.

    8. I spent a good amount of time viewing other posters at the fair - a couple that stood out to me was a cylindrical energy-producing cell engineered by one student, or a project dealing with calculating the locations of distant star systems.

    8. I did not get the chance to talk to students from other schools, except for congratulating a couple of winners.

    9. To prepare better for upcoming science fairs, we should invite more people to the mock science fair (so we have more chances to refine our presentation skills)

    10. My SCSEF experience was a 5 for sure.

    ReplyDelete
  58. 1. I was very happy with this science fair. I thought it was the best SCSEf I’d been to because of the accuracy of the time of the judges. Also, they judges I had were fair and conversational.
    2. In the first round of judges, one of them asked questions for a few minutes before the presentation, which was odd but not bad. Other than that both groups were respectful listeners and asked questions that were extensions, not repetitions.
    3. The judges did not comment on my presentation, just asked questions to sate their curiosity.
    4. The food was great. I really liked the muffins in the morning. I’m pretty certain that the turkey in the turkey sandwiches was actually ham, though.
    5. Yes, he was really animated and the subject of his presentation was engaging. He spiced it up with the penguin noises.
    6. I really wasn’t familiar with my poster before the mock science fair. The fair made me realize that and practice a better order to present.
    7. I didn’t learn anything new about my project other than better ideas for future work, which I can use in the questioning session in other science fairs.
    8. I viewed many other projects throughout the duration of the fair. A few of them were surprising to me because they were projects I had considered doing this year, which would have been interesting.
    8. I briefly discussed things with someone from a different school.
    9. I thought the preparation for this science fair was all that was necessary. I wouldn’t add or detract anything.
    10. 5

    ReplyDelete
  59. 1. Overall, I quite enjoyed SCISEF. Specifically, it was a fun time to present the research I did for so long. I also liked hearing the other projects and hanging out with my peers. Like in the past, the fair met my expectations. It was an enjoyable experience, similar to the past years.

    2. The judging process this year was very helpful. In each group of 3 judges, one judge worked in the field of chemistry, therefore I learned a lot about my project. At times, after a judge asked a question, the judge working in chemistry would proceed to answer that judge's question! I learned a lot about hydrocarbons, fracking, and diesel fuel production.

    3. The most helpful comment from the judges was to look more about why I chose my experimental conditions. The least helpful comment I received was to clarify a statement I previously mentioned.

    4. The breakfast was delicious! I enjoyed my first scone, and I loved the muffins. Lunch was scrumptious as well, I loved my sandwich.

    5. I was unable to listen to the keynote this year as I had to leave early. But, I heard positive comments from my peers.

    6. The Mock Science Fair helped prepare me as I practiced what information I was going to present with my actual poster. Also, I was accustomed to how other students presented simultaneously.

    7. I learned a lot of new information. I must work harder on my experimental design and try to create a stronger hypothesis.

    8. I was able to view my friends's projects. One project that left a lasting impression was a project across from me on receptors and cancer. It was a proposal but a lot of work was put into it and the student rehearsed her presentation often.

    8. No, unfortunately, I was unable to converse this year. I was able to tell other students great job though.

    9. To better prepare students for upcoming fairs, we should have another mock science fair as it was helpful. Or just in general, to practice presenting and receiving feedback.

    10. My SCSEF experience is definitely a 4.5.

    ReplyDelete
  60. 1. I thought that this year’s SCSEF Fair was okay compared to the previous two I have attended. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I hoped to. I enjoyed looking at all the other projects students attending the fair conducted this year. Many of them were interesting and fairly well done.

    2. In the first round of judging, I found that my judges were fairly disinterested and not really paying attention to what I was saying or even what was on my poster. After I finished, they asked a few generic questions and left. In the second round of judging, the judges were more attentive. I thought that I did better in the 2nd round compared to the 1st

    3. The most helpful comment a judge left me was to be more specific on my methods of analysis. The least helpful comment from the judges to me was asking me to elaborate on a very minor aspect of my presentation

    4. I ate a banana for breakfast. It tasted fine. The Panera sandwiches for lunch were fairly tasty. I enjoyed the tuna sandwiches

    5. I actually fell asleep early on in the presentation. All I really remember is that the beginning of his presentation was funny.

    6. I was out of school the day of the Mock Science Fair. However, by practicing with my poster at home, I made my presentation better and learned what I should limit myself on and what I should elaborate on while explaining my project to the judges

    7. I learned that I should be more specific on my methods of statistical analysis. For the next fair, I should include more graphs presenting my analyzed data

    8. After the final round of judging concluded and everyone went to eat lunch, I walked around the gymnasium and looked at many different projects. There was a wide variety, ranging from star systems to analyzing very tiny bacteria. No specific project created a lasting impression in my head, although it did seem to me that there were many projects regarding biology and specific species.

    9. I did not talk to other students

    10. To better prepare students for upcoming science fairs, the physical posters should be due a solid 1-2 weeks before the actual fair instead of on the day of the Mock Science Fair (i.e. the day before SCSEF). By doing so, many students would have much more time to practice a poster presentation at home and school.

    11. I would rate the fair as a 2.5. I didn’t really enjoy the fair very much, though there were some fun/enjoyable moments.

    ReplyDelete
  61. Katie Meehan

    1. SCISEF was great this year and definitely met my expectations. The food was edible finally and the people were great. The people and judges were similar to other years, but lunch and the Keynote speaker were very good and much better than years before.


    2. The judging process was slightly better than normal. My first set of judges were very kind and helpful. They asked many questions and were very encouraging. My second set of judges were not as helpful. They were kind but did not seem as interested in my research and did not ask very many questions.

    3. The most helpful comment from the judges was to relax and to not be nervous. For my first presentation, I was very nervous and the judges could tell, but they were very reassuring. The least helpful comment is always when the judges suggest to get more data. I am already aware that I do not have a lot of data collected yet, and them reminding me of this was not helpful.

    4. I did not have any of the food at breakfast, but the coffee was very good. (Caffeine can never be bad) The Panera catering was also very good, but next time, more cookies are a must.

    5. The Keynote presentation was fantastic. Professor Clark was very funny and I loved his obsession with penguins. Also his research was very interesting and his path to his career was very reassuring and comforting, considering I still am not sure what I am doing with my life.

    6. I believe the Mock Science Fair helped prepare me for SCISEF by allowing me to become more comfortable presenting my new data. I got new data after the PowerPoint presentations and had not presented it to people yet. The Mock Science Fair gave me the chance to rehearse talking about that and also to make sure that I didn’t run out of time.

    7. I did not learn anything new about my project, but for next fair I plan to have more data and more results to discuss.

    8. I had a little bit of time to view other student projects, but none left a lasting impression because nothing compares to Amity’s projects.

    8. I did not talk to any students from any other schools because I am very antisocial and am not good at talking to other people.

    9. To better prepare students for upcoming science fairs, I suggest more than one mock science fair. Especially for Freshman, since they have never presented to judges or with a poster before.

    10. My SCISEF experience this year was a 5.

    ReplyDelete
  62. 1. What was your overall impression of the 2015 SCISEF Fair? Specifically, what things did you enjoy about the fair? Did the fair meet your expectations? In what ways was it similar or different to what you anticipated or experienced in the past?

    I thought that the fair this year was a success, though it does have some flaws. I thought there were a lot less people this year and that the gym wasn’t as crowded. I also think the fair should be shorter; there was a lot of time wasted doing unnecessary things.

    2. What was the judging process like? Were the judges fair and helpful? Be specific.

    I do not like the judging process at SCSEF. The judges are judging something that is often not in their field of study, so its hard for them to understand both magnitude and the purpose of various projects. They are not helpful because they often don’t give helpful feedback. I also feel like much of the judging is on the presentation and not the content.

    3. What was the most helpful comment from the Judges? Least helpful?

    I didn’t really have any helpful comments from my judges, the just asked questions and I was there to answer the questions. I was able to answer most of their questions. I thought it was least helpful when the judges applaud your project, say it is really good, but then end up scoring you low. I think they should be up front with their feedback.

    4. How was the food (breakfast and lunch)?

    Both breakfast and lunch were amazing.

    5. Did you enjoy the Keynote presentation by J. Alan Clark, Associate Prof of Conservation Biology at Fordham University? Explain.

    I enjoyed the presentation but I think it got way too long. I was interested in what he was doing and what he did in the past. I thought it was totally unnecessary to talk about what his graduate students were doing, and that definitely could have been cut out.

    6. In what way(s) do you think the Mock Science Fair helped prepare you for the fair?

    The Mock Science Fair allowed me to fix my presentation and also fix up my poster a little before the fair. It allowed for my to smoothen out the wrinkles.

    7. Did you learn anything new about your project? If so, what can you do to improve it for the next fair?

    I learned that I need to make my implications section longer, since the whole point of my project is its implications. For the next fair, I will definitely make the size of this section bigger and talk about it more in my presentation.

    8. Did you have time to view other student projects? Which project(s) left a lasting impression? why?

    I always do a quick run through with students projects and I never really like what I see. A lot of the projects are way beyond a high school level, to the point where it is apparent that the students aren’t really doing any of the work.

    8. Did you talk to students from other schools? Explain.

    Not really. There were a lot less people this time and my area was completely surrounded by Amity kids.

    9. What can we do to better prepare students for upcoming science fairs, if anything?

    I would say presentation skills. I feel like so much comes down to the presentation that we should focus on that a little more.

    10. Overall on a scale of 1 (terrible) to 5 (amazing) --> How enjoyable was your SCSEF experience?

    I would say 1. I feel like there is way too much “woo”ing the judges with overly complicated projects at these fairs. Also, if the judges have a problem with the presentation or project, they should bring it up and talk about it. The judges are not helping us if they are not being critical. By applauding us and saying good job, we aren’t learning.

    Matt Whitehill

    ReplyDelete
  63. Gabrielle Totten

    1. What was your overall impression of the 2015 SCISEF Fair? Specifically, what things did you enjoy about the fair? Did the fair meet your expectations? In what ways was it similar or different to what you anticipated or experienced in the past?
    My overall SCISEF experience was extremely positive. The fair was well organized and all of my judges were timely. As a senior, I have competed in SCISEF three times before this one. Therefore, I went to the fair knowing what to expect. The whole process was exactly the same as in the past. The only differences were in the food and the game we played while waiting. I greatly enjoyed both of these changes.

    2. What was the judging process like? Were the judges fair and helpful? Be specific.
    I had a very positive judging experience. As opposed to science fairs in the past, I do not have any funny or bad stories about my judges. Each of my judges was extremely respectful. They asked questions that I found to be fair and legitimate.

    3. What was the most helpful comment from the Judges? Least helpful?
    The most helpful comment I received was that it would be interesting to collect the participants socioeconomic status. Unfortunately it is too late to add that, but it is an interesting point to consider. Most of the other comments/ questions were about my participants and my methods for recruiting.

    4. How was the food (breakfast and lunch)?
    The food was much better than last year! Breakfast was pretty standard. I ate the vegetarian sandwich and it was okay. I tried someone else’s, however, and it was very good! My favorite part was definitely the chips!

    5. Did you enjoy the Keynote presentation by J. Alan Clark, Associate Prof of Conservation Biology at Fordham University? Explain.
    I greatly enjoyed this year’s presentation. The man was inspiring in terms of career choices and changes in his course of action. I liked learning about a topic that was so foreign to me. I had no idea such research was being done. The presenter also was very funny, which made the presentation far more enjoyable.

    6. In what way(s) do you think the Mock Science Fair helped prepare you for the fair?
    I, quite frankly, was not prepared at the time of the mock science fair. Luckily I could get some graphs onto the board so I could practice a rough version of my presentation. The most the mock science fair helped me was seeing Ryan’s project, as it inspired me to get mine printed at the school.

    7. Did you learn anything new about your project? If so, what can you do to improve it for the next fair?
    In order to improve the presentation for the next fair, I will gain more participants and complete more statistical analyses.

    8. Did you have time to view other student projects? Which project(s) left a lasting impression? why?
    I was not able to go around and look at other projects.

    8. Did you talk to students from other schools? Explain.
    I talked to one girl from Joel Barlow High School who was standing across from me. We both were waiting for our judges. We talked about our past experiences at SCISEF.

    9. What can we do to better prepare students for upcoming science fairs, if anything?
    This year was a bit different than the past years, in that we didn’t have much time to present. I would have liked to present to the class and have gotten their feedback.

    10. Overall on a scale of 1 (terrible) to 5 (amazing) --> How enjoyable was your SCSEF experience?
    I would give this year’s SCISEF a 5/5. Overall I think the fair ran very smoothly and the judges were helpful and fair.

    ReplyDelete