Science and ENgineering club
Introduction
Members apply scientific and engineering processes to problems or questions that interest them.
It involves picking your own project, and working towards completing and entering it into the GHS Science Fair. Members learn how to really focus on the science and engineering process, improve technical documentation and presentations skills. It is part of a STEAM concentration on a transcript, and grows a personal project portfolio which is useful for college admission. From the GHS Science Fair it is possible to advance to regional, state, and international competitions with valuable awards.
The main MSEF website provides many useful resources: https://scifair.com/
Advancing to other fairs
Success in the GHS fair can lead to advancing to the Regional (WRSEF), State (MSEF) and even the International (ISEF) fairs. Click on the links for more information.
Other opportunities include entry into the nations largest and most prestigious science competition the Science Talent Search
Some awards may include the ability to patent your project or lead to your work published in the science journal; Journal of Emerging Investigators
project selection
A key part of a science fair project is selecting the right project for you. This presentation shows the things you should consider; from the all important safety - to how it might be transported. The type of project selected will also decide the process which would be used, the scientific method or engineering process.
Sciencebuddies has a great section with hundreds of ideas to get you started and should be changed or extended
MSEF Project Abstracts All the project abstracts from the 2017 MSEF
SafetY
rules and regulations
Most critical part is to ensure that the project is safe for yourself, those around you and the environment.
GHS and WRSEF follow the MSEF guidelines linked below. You should always consult with the Safety representative to have your proposal and anything you build reviewed for safety.
The MSEF high school manual also includes other rules and regulations which need to be followed to protect the rights and fairness of all participates. The video walks through important sections of the manual, but the MSEF high school manual should be read and understood.
MSEF High School Manual most comprehensive description of rules, roles, guidelines
MSEF Toolkit includes helpful FAQs
Proposal and
registration
Fairs require a project proposal, this includes the team members, title, project outline, and a project plan. This is required to help ensure safety and that the team are following the Rules and Regulations. It also allows a club to provide feedback on the proposal.
zFair is the system used to collect proposal and registration information by many fairs, including WRSEF, MSEF and ISEF. If you have interest in progressing beyond the GHS science fair you must register on zFair before the deadline. zFair similarly collects team members, title, project outline and project plan - but it also gathers other mentor, risk and consent information when their are higher risk projects or projects including human participants.
zFair Region II Registration site for those interested in progressing to WRSEF
zFair Step-by-step guide to completing project registration
process
You will follow either the science process, or the engineering process depending upon your project.
Hypothesis design Guidelines for Hypothesis-Driven Research from the Journal Of Emerging Investigators
MSEF Research process handbook not only describes the research process but guidance for lots of other research related topics
