Sign up for the 2013 Virtual Science Fair
Sign up by December 31, 2012, to participate in the 2013 Virtual Science Fair. To sign up, contact Dr. Whitney Elmore at wcelmore@gmail.com. The fee is $300 per school, regardless of how many students from the school participate. The program is open to NAIS member schools.
About the Virtual Science Fair
NAIS, in conjunction with the Near East and South Asia Schools Association (NESA), is piloting a program that uses e-mentors (teachers, scientists, and graduate students) to work online with teams of eighth graders, who compete with other schools in the virtual fair. The VSF is lead by Whitney Elmore, Macon State College (GA).
The Virtual Science Fair is a unique forum in which middle school teams of 1-3 students, research a topic of interest within the sciences. The work takes place in February through April.
What makes this science fair different from the rest? With the aid of an e-mentor, these students compete locally and nationally with other NAIS-member schools from around the country in a virtual platform. E-mentors are carefully chosen scientists, college science and/or education majors and professors from across the globe. Together, with the aid of modern technology, e-mentors and their student collaborators work to develop a comprehensive scientific project which students will execute and use to enhance their scientific understanding and skill set. Locally, school teams compete for the chance to advance through several "virtual" rounds with the ultimate goal of being named the NAIS-VSF Champion. The NAIS-VSF Champion will compete on an international level with student teams from around the globe. Combining student engagement in the sciences with modern technology and professional guidance, this project is an exciting journey into the world of virtual science fairs.
Follow these links to read more:
2012 Virtual Science Fair Winners
For the second year in a row, The Chapin School in New York City has won the NAIS National Virtual Science Fair competition for middle school students.
Emily Ryeom of The Chapin School won first prize for her experiments on using different agents to illuminate oil. The idea is that an illuminating agent could be added to oil spills, enabling cleanup crews to work in the dark as well as during daylight – something that would increase efficiency and speed the cleanup process. A video of the experiment is at: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/70826466/Int'l%20Team%204/vsf%20full%20v3%20copy.pptx.
Second place went to Stefanie Pousoulides from Canton Country Day School (OH), who conducted experiments on the properties and movement of banana DNA and various food coloring dyes using gel electrophoresis (the motion of dispersed particles relative to a fluid under the influence of a spatially uniform electric field). A video of the experiment is at: http://collaboration.ccdsnet.org/videos/2012/DNA%206.m4v.
Third place went to Mia Perry from Pine Point School (CT). The Fourth and Fifth Place finishers, Sofia Caro and Katherine Jovanovic, are both from Pine Crest Preparatory School (FL).
Emily and Stephanie will now compete for the International Virtual Science Fair championship against teams from 8 other countries. Emily, who is participating in a pilot program teaming students from different countries, will be working with students from international schools in Israel and Germany.
2011 Virtual Science Fair Winners
Amelia O'Donohue, Lily McCann, and Susan Yun of The Chapin School (NY) are the winners of the NAIS Virtual Science Fair for 2011. They were selected by e-judges as the top team in the overall competition for middle schools, which involved 8 schools and more than 300 students. The winning project explored the relationship between the circumference of a balloon and ambient air temperature.
Questions? Contact Whitney Elmore, director NAIS-VSF, at wcelmore@gmail.com, or Paul Miller, NAIS senior director of global initiaties, at miller@nais.org.
