Entries open on 18 July 2011 until 5 August 2011 on our admin website. Only teachers from participating schools may enter learners. No late entries will be allowed.
Please refer to the email sent to you regarding the quotas your school will be allowed.
If your school is not yet registered, read the instructions here.
Last year we had quite a few problems which we would like to prevent this year. When preparing the projects, please bear the following in mind:
Administrative considerations
- All titles must reflect the essence of your project. No fancy words, slogans or rhyming, please! The judges must know what the project is about by reading the title.
- Every project must have an abstract form (A4) on the bottom right hand corner of the project board in English (your project may be in Afrikaans, English etc.). An Afrikaans abstract might be put in your file if you prefer, but the one on your board must be in English.
- Every file must have a plagiarism declaration after the title page.
- Entries should be in the correct categories. The description of twenty words required when entering is crucial for us to categorise the entry correctly. NO category changes will be allowed after 5 August 2011.
- All electrical appliances must be safe and compliant. We will have electricians inspecting all projects, and unsafe electrical connections or appliances will be disqualified;
- No project may be wider than the 1,4m space allocated.
- While we will supply electrical plug points, we cannot guarantee power supply. Make sure you can present your project WITHOUT electricity, should there be problems with electricity. Please bring your own lead/electrical cord (if you need it for your project) and a tablecloth.
- Laptops get stolen, so please keep yours with you the whole time. We will not accept any responsibility for your aids.
Ethical considerations
- No live animals;
- No experimentation on animals (including insects, etc.) whether dead or alive. Example: NO projects on 1) bio-friendly and human friendly pesticides, 2) cancer or any illness in pets etc. Refer to the ethics guidelines.
- No alcohol, medicines, poisons or drugs will be allowed, neither will close imitations of such items;
- No human experimentation: No experiments involving the application of ANY (even harmless) substance externally OR any indigestion of any (even harmless) substances. Example: NO projects on 1) “the effects of coffee etc. on your health or concentration or energy levels” 2) herbal ointments for insect bites or 3) energy drinks for sportsmen etc. Even if you are doing the research under the supervision of a registered/professional scientist and have permission forms from experimental subjects, the ethical considerations in conducting such research remains problematic and should rather be done by professional research laboratories than schools! Refer to the ethics guidelines.
- No open fires, fireworks, crackers or exothermic chemical reactions;
- No projects with water/fluids and unsealed food/fruit;
- Due to copyright laws, no brand names or logo’s may be displayed, and no comparisons between brands will be allowed. Refer to brands as Brand A, Brand B, etc. if you really need to compare different products;
- Bear in mind that there are children of all ages participating. Projects with explicit graphic content will be disqualified immediately;
- Categories with a high risk of ethical problems are medical sciences, health sciences, animal sciences, food sciences and chemistry. Teachers should filter projects with possible infringements of ethical rules. We want to prevent the trauma and shame of possible disqualification at the expo.
DISPLAY BOARDS:
Each participant needs his/her own display board.
The Board should be 1.2m high x 2.4m wide x 3mm thick. We suggest plastic Coruboard obtainable from Maizey Plastics (George at 012-352-2000). The best option might be that the the school buy it for their participants so that the school can re-use the boards every year. See the Display Board page.
STICKERS:
- All the participants’ certificates and name stickers are in the envelope.
- The participant should wear the sticker at all times.
- During the prize giving ceremony, each medal winner receives a corresponding sticker, which should immediately be put onto the certificate. No stickers can be issued at a later stage.
Adjudication on Friday 2 September 2011:
- All the participants must wear school uniforms.
- Participants’ etiquette : No eating and drinking while being judged. All cellphones off/on silent, please.
- Each project must have an abstract form (on the board) as well as a signed plagiarism form (on file).
- Each project will be judged by at least 2 adjudicators (simultaneously or separately).
- Each adjudicator will attach a round coloured sticker to the exhibition board. If not, the participants should ask for the stickers.
- If the project has not been visited by at least 2 adjudicators (simultaneously or separately) by 17h30, please report it at the info desk.
- Any problems with adjudication should be reported not later than 18h30 at the info desk by the teacher. (Red forms). No complaints will be dealt with after 18h30.
- You must always be present at your project during judging. If you are not present, you will not be judged. This is also applicable to Saturday morning, when independent parties award special prizes. Should you go to the rest rooms, please ensure that you leave a note at your project!
- Participants may only leave the hall after their category has been judged and an announcement made in this regard. Please do not leave beforehand, as judges might want to revisit your project to confirm their assessment.
- No persons, other than participants, officials and special guests will be allowed in the hall during adjudication. Persons without a sticker will be requested to leave the hall.
Prize giving ceremony on Saturday 3 September 2011
- All the participants must wear school uniforms.
- Participants will forfeit their medals, prize money and/or place at the Nationals if they are not present in person at the prize giving ceremony. No teachers/parents may receive it on your behalf!
Winners of cash prizes must collect their cheques after the prize-giving ceremony in person at the admin office, otherwise they forfeit it. - Please ask the participants to bring their ID number, R60 and a copy of their Abstract on Saturday.
- Your school’s results will be emailed on Monday after the expo. No faxes will be sent to schools.
National Expo Ethics Rules:
Ethic Statement
Scientific fraud and misconduct are not condoned at any level of research or competition. Such practices include plagiarism, forgery, use of presentation of other researcher's work as one's own and fabrication of data. Fraudulent projects will fail to qualify for competition in Regional Expos or the Eskom Expo National Finals.
1. Plagiarism
What is plagiarism?
It can be defined as follows:
To use another person's words or ideas and to pretend that they are your own. The following are considered as plagiarism:
What is plagiarism?
It can be defined as follows:
To use another person's words or ideas and to pretend that they are your own. The following are considered as plagiarism:
- To steal or borrow another person's work.
- To pay another person to write your assignment.
- To copy directly from a source without referencing the original source.
- To use another person's ideas and build on them without giving credit to the original ideas.
- To paraphrase another person's work word-for-word.
- To present false data (fabricated, altered or borrowed without permission).
The worst form of plagiarism is to do it intentionally:
- to pretend that another person's work is your own;
- to buy a piece of written work from somebody (e.g. from the internet); or
- to pay somebody to write your assignment for you; or
- to write something word-for-word from a source without acknowledging that source (or to "cut and paste" from the
Internet).
Plagiarism can also occur unintentionally: when you rewrite another person's ideas or words in your own words, or use small sections of another person's writings without acknowledging it as a source.
Fraudulent projects will be disqualified at a Regional Expo and National Finals. It is compulsory that every participant has a signed copy of the plagiarism form in their file.
Fraudulent projects will be disqualified at a Regional Expo and National Finals. It is compulsory that every participant has a signed copy of the plagiarism form in their file.
2. Ethics
Ethics is concerned with what is right or wrong, good or bad, fair or unfair, responsible or irresponsible. Information about research on human or animal subjects including surveys. All of these need a form signed by a supervising scientist or teacher giving approval for the project to be done. Any surveys (questionnaires) need another form giving consent or permission by parents or schools. Both forms need to be filled in the project file in the appendix
Ethics is concerned with what is right or wrong, good or bad, fair or unfair, responsible or irresponsible. Information about research on human or animal subjects including surveys. All of these need a form signed by a supervising scientist or teacher giving approval for the project to be done. Any surveys (questionnaires) need another form giving consent or permission by parents or schools. Both forms need to be filled in the project file in the appendix
Make sure your project is safe and ethical
Before you start a project, it's important to know the rules - especially if you're thinking of using animals, human subjects, hazardous equipment or materials, recombinant DNA or other biotechnological materials. (By the way, "animals" include pets and livestock and humans include family members and students in your class or school.) It's heartbreaking to have your project disqualified at the Regional or National Finals because you broke the rules - or maybe even the law!
Any research or experiment on potentially hazardous biological agents, animal or human subjects must be done under the supervision of a qualified scientist/laboratory. A signed letter/from the qualified scientist or/and laboratory will be required before participating at Regional Expos or National Finals.
Before you start a project, it's important to know the rules - especially if you're thinking of using animals, human subjects, hazardous equipment or materials, recombinant DNA or other biotechnological materials. (By the way, "animals" include pets and livestock and humans include family members and students in your class or school.) It's heartbreaking to have your project disqualified at the Regional or National Finals because you broke the rules - or maybe even the law!
Any research or experiment on potentially hazardous biological agents, animal or human subjects must be done under the supervision of a qualified scientist/laboratory. A signed letter/from the qualified scientist or/and laboratory will be required before participating at Regional Expos or National Finals.
REGIONAL EXPOS AND NATIONAL FINALS ETHICS INFRINGEMENTS
Students are encouraged to check their ethical infringements before exhibiting their projects at any Eskom Expo
Please note that the following are not allowed on any Eskom Expo project:
Students are encouraged to check their ethical infringements before exhibiting their projects at any Eskom Expo
Please note that the following are not allowed on any Eskom Expo project:
- Living organisms including animals, fish, insects and plants
- Agar plates and other growth mediums for microbiology studies
- Human or animal parts including tissues and body fluids (for example blood, urine, hooves, skins etc)
- Dangerous chemicals: Poisons, drugs, medications, controlled substances, hazardous substances and devices (for example firearms, weapons, ammunition, reloading devices, knives and any other sharp instruments)
- Flammable substances
- Photographs or other visual presentation depicting humans or vertebrate animals in surgical techniques, dissections, necropsies or other lab procedures or who belittle people in any way or show animals being harmed in any way
- Brand names or any other branded products
- Food substances that are not in completely sealed containers (plastic wrap is not acceptable as it can easily be removed)
- Water except if in sealed apparatus
- Any apparatus deemed unsafe by the Eskom Expo organisers.
NB:Photographs will be sufficient for judging
In order to rectify the problem you need to take note of the suggestion below:
- Remove all living organisms and take them to a member of the ethics committee or venue committee.
- Remove all human or animal parts and take them to a member of the ethics committee or venue committee.
- Remove all dangerous chemicals and take them to a member of the ethics committee or venue committee.
- Remove photos or presentations that belittle people or animals from your poster and file. NB: you may not cover them up
- No brand names to be visible at any school, district, circuit, regional expos and national finals. Please make sure all branding is covered label with eg. Product A,B or Product 1,2 etc.
- Food must be sealed into containers and then shown to the ethics committee
- Water must be removed or enclosed into sealed apparatus
For more details on ethics please visit this website:
3. Safety
All electrical work must conform to the National Electrical Code and Exhibit Halls Regulations. Fire regulations will be strictly enforced.
The on-site electrician may be requested to review any electrical work on any project. The safety guidelines presented here are general ones and other rules may apply to specific configurations.
All electrical work must conform to the National Electrical Code and Exhibit Halls Regulations. Fire regulations will be strictly enforced.
The on-site electrician may be requested to review any electrical work on any project. The safety guidelines presented here are general ones and other rules may apply to specific configurations.
4. Patents
Innovation and Development - Patents and Registered Designs
Innovation and Development - Patents and Registered Designs
Some exhibitors display projects that show innovative thinking and provide new products. Expo encourages the development of
entrepreneurial projects, which may lead to the marketing of these products.
Exhibitors are advised to obtain legal advice about patent applications before entering their work at a Regional Expo.
Once a design or product has been on public display, it can NOT be patented. However, if an exhibit is displayed for judges only, no patent rights should be lost.
entrepreneurial projects, which may lead to the marketing of these products.
Exhibitors are advised to obtain legal advice about patent applications before entering their work at a Regional Expo.
Once a design or product has been on public display, it can NOT be patented. However, if an exhibit is displayed for judges only, no patent rights should be lost.
Refer to following website for more information on how to patent your project.
