SECME NATIONAL STUDENT COMPETITIONS GUIDELINES

2015-16 SECME NATIONAL STUDENT COMPETITIONS GUIDELINES 2015-16 updates and changes on page 5! SECME 2015-16 Competition Guidelines Page 1 of 14

Important Dates/Deadlines to Remember: January 5, 2016 Certification of Regional/District/State 1 st place winners OPENS (for Host Universities only) April 17, 2016 (on or before 11:59pm EST) Certification of Regional/District/State 1 st place winners (deadline) April 17, 2016 Certification of Regional/District/State 1 st place winners CLOSES (Host Universities only) Registration for the 2015-16 SECME National Competition OPENS (School Coordinators only) April 18, 2016 (on or before 11:59pm EST) Elementary Mousetrap Car Written Report due First place winning essays due at the SECME National Office May 3, 2016 (on or before 11:59pm EST) ALL National winners will be notified Mousetrap Car Technical Reports are due at the SECME National Office (Middle & High school) VEX Robotics Engineering Notebooks are due at the SECME National Office (All divisions) June 17, 2016 (on or before 11:59pm EST) ALL Teams must be Registered for the 2015-16 SECME National Competition Finals Mousetrap car PowerPoint presentations are due at the SECME National Office o (only for Middle and High school teams advancing to the national competition) NOTE: All announcements, changes and/or updates will be published in the monthly SECME Spotlight Newsletter SECME 2015-16 Competition Guidelines Page 2 of 14

Dear SECME Educators and Competition Hosts: Welcome to another exciting year of SECME Competitions. Our National Office Staff and Competition Task Force have strengthened and enhanced this year s competition opportunities for you and your students. This packet contains Guidelines for the 2015-16 SECME National Competitions. These Guidelines serve as the framework for local, regional or state competitions. Technical assistance is provided by many SECME Member Universities or districts, which may coordinate and host SECME workshops for teachers to learn basic SECME competitions (Mousetrap car, Water Rocket, Vex Robotics) skills or other STEM content. Please contact your SECME Program Director or Member University partner for dates and locations in your area. If unsure about this information, please contact our national office and we will be glad to assist - secme@coe.gatech.edu; 1-888-262-8307. Our STEM education competitions are aligned to National Standards, which can easily be drilled down to your state standards which means, SECME competition activities are packed with math and science required skills. It has been demonstrated that over time, the academic performance of students participating in SECME is higher than those that do not. We re off get your students geared up to start their engines, launch their rockets, and program their robots! Additionally, we encourage you to join us this summer for the 40 th Annual SECME Summer Institute where you receive state-of-the art professional development and SEE THE NATIONAL COMPETITON IN ACTION! Sincerely, Michele Williams, SECME National Interim Executive Director SECME 2015-16 Competition Guidelines Page 3 of 14

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA PLEASE READ AND FOLLOW CAREFULLY Your 2015-16 data must be entered electronically into the SECME National database prior to your Regional/State Competition. Only students active in a local SECME program are eligible to enter competitions. SECME Member Universities, Program Directors and School Coordinators are asked to distribute (or reference) these Guidelines to all (educators, parents, business/industry partners, graduate and undergraduate students) who will help prepare students for this year s competitions or serve as mentors and/or judges. It is important that all fully understand the judging criteria for each Competition and their division. All entries are expected to be neat, original, and completed by the students. Elementary, Middle/Junior High, and High School students each will compete with other students at their respective levels. 1 st place Regional/State winning student or student competition teams, as identified in these guidelines, will be eligible to compete in and/or attend the 2015-16 SECME National Competitions Finals. 1 st place Regional/State winning students and/or student teams participating in Elementary Mousetrap, Water Rocketry, ISTF and Essay DO NOT travel to compete in the SECME National Competition Finals. National winners are chosen by score elimination. Scores from 1 st place Regional/State competition winners will be submitted. The highest score from that competition will be the winning student and/or student team. In case of a tie, a tie-breaker will be in position. 1 st place Regional/State Mousetrap Car winners (Middle and High School) and all Vex Robotics teams DO travel to the National Student Competition Finals to compete. SECME school coordinators should identify a chaperone (one chaperone per team) 1 to accompany their teams to the National Student Competition Finals. Certification of Regional/State Competition Winners. SECME Member Universities (or Sponsors) that host a Regional/State competition must provide the SECME National Office information on their winning student and/or student teams. This CERTIFICATION 2 is to be submitted electronically not later than Monday, April 17, 2016. Hard copy CERTIFICATIONS and/or emails will not be accepted. Regional/State winning essays must be saved as a PDF and submitted via email to: secme@coe.gatech.edu no later than this date as well. Engineering Design (Mousetrap Car) Technical Reports and VEX Robotics Engineering Notebooks are due at the SECME National Office on or before May 3, 2016. Technical Reports are to be sent via email to: secme@coe.gatech.edu. 1 In the case of mixed gender teams, we encourage two chaperones (male and female) 2 Certification of winning students/student teams DOES NOT constitute REGISTRATION FOR NATIONAL COMPETITION FINALS. These are two separate and distinct processes. SECME 2015-16 Competition Guidelines Page 4 of 14

Financial responsibilities for SECME Student Competitions a. SCHOOLS/SCHOOL DISTRICTS are responsible for covering all expenses involved in conducting competitions at the school/school district level. b. MEMBER UNIVERSITIES are responsible for: Hosting regional/state competitions (including awards) Travel expenses to the National Competition Finals: round-trip travel, including transportation to/from the airport for up to three student teams (three students per team) and one chaperone per team 3 Competition Requirements: Specific competition requirements are identified separately for each competition. Competition Behavior: Unsportsmanlike Behavior Each student, teacher, chaperone, and parent works hard during the school year to prepare for competitions. To honor their hard work and dedication, as well as contributing to an exciting environment, unsportsmanlike behavior will result in disqualification of your team. Unsportsmanlike conduct will be determined by the SECME staff and/or competition judges. Collaboration: To foster collaboration and a knowledge sharing STEM community, all materials submitted to SECME for national competitions will become the property of SECME and may or may not be shared via the SECME website, marketing documents, presentations, etc. Materials include, but are not limited to, technical reports, engineering notebooks, pictures, technical drawings, etc. Special Note to Regional/District/State Competition Hosts 3 In the case of mixed gender teams, we encourage two chaperones (male and female) SECME 2015-16 Competition Guidelines Page 5 of 14

Thank you in advance for hosting your Regional/State SECME Competition. Please contact our office as soon as your competition date is confirmed. If you are new to hosting a SECME competition, feel free to contact our office for guidance and/or technical assistance. Remember that your CERTIFICATION of winning teams is due April 17, 2016. The certification link will be available in January 2016. After we receive all certifications, the 2015-16 SECME National Competitions scores for non-traveling teams will be posted on our website (www.secme.org) under Resources and Forms in the Student Resources section. We look forward to hosting your winning teams at the 2015-16 SECME National Student Competition Finals and working with you to enhance your local SECME program and competitions. SECME 2015-16 Competition Guidelines Page 6 of 14

www.vexrobotics.com The VEX Robotics Design System offers students an exciting platform for learning about areas rich with career opportunities spanning science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). These are just a few of the many fields students can explore by creating with VEX Robotics technology. Beyond science and engineering principles, a VEX Robotics project encourages teamwork, leadership and problem solving among groups. It also allows educators to easily customize projects to meet the level of students abilities. The affordable VEX platform is expanding rapidly and is now found in middle schools, high schools and university labs around the globe. Robotics hobbyists also appreciate the advanced capabilities of the VEX System. Since 2008, VEX Robotics has been a SECME National Student Competition. Please follow the instructions below to participate in the SECME/VEX Competition. 1. Team Registration - You are encouraged to register your team with VEX Robotics at www.robotevents.com. Registration also gets you plugged into the system and access to resources. a. Registration costs $100 for the first team and $50 for each additional team at the same school. b. Registration gets you access to the official VRC Competitions and a welcome kit that includes: i. Sample Game Pieces ii. Robot License Tags iii. Robot Flags iv. Other promotional items c. Teams DO NOT have to be registered to participate in SECME only events. 2. Robot Hardware - If you already have a robot kit - reuse it, you don't need to spend money buying another one! If you need VEX parts, we recommend getting a quote from your local reseller - costs you nothing extra, but gets you their local support. Please visit http://www.vexrobotics.com/find-a-reseller/ to find a reseller in your area or visit the VEX Robotics website at www.vexrobotics.com. You can also contact Anthony Bowser (Anthony.Bowser@coe.gatech.edu) in the SECME National office to direct you to the support representative for your state. 3. 2015-16 Game: This year's game is Nothing But Net. Students, with guidance from their teachers and mentors will aim to build the most innovative robots possible and work together to obtain the most points possible. In addition to just having a great time and building amazing robots, through their participation in the VEX Robotics Competition and their work within their team, students will learn many academic and life skills. To download the official VEX Nothing But Net Manual CLICK HERE. CLICK HERE to see the VEX Nothing But Net video. SECME 2015-16 Competition Guidelines Page 7 of 14

4. Competition Format: SECME will follow the VEX Robotics Nothing But Net Game Rules and may or may not include the following: o Alliances o Head-to-head o Autonomous Period o Robot Skills Challenge o Programming Challenge 5. SECME Team Requirements: Each SECME VEX Robotics team must be represented by three (3) and only three (3) team members. While more than three (3) students are allowed (and encouraged) to work on the project, three (3) students must be present to compete. If three (3) students are not present to compete, they will be allowed to participate in the National Competition but will be ineligible to place. 6. Member Universities & Competition Host Sponsors; Vex Robotics Competition is held at the National Student Competition Finals. We encourage incorporating Vex Robotics as part of your Regional/State Competition. SECME 2015-16 Competition Guidelines Page 8 of 14

SECME ENGINEERING DESIGN COMPETITION GUIDELINES: VEX ROBOTICS ENGINEERING NOTEBOOK One of the main missions of the VEX Robotics Competition is to help students acquire real world life skills that will benefit them in their academic and professional future. The Engineering Notebook is a way for teams to document how the VEX Robotics Competition experience has helped them to better understand the engineering design process while also practicing a variety of critical life skills including project management, time management, brainstorming and teamwork. Each team s engineering notebook should be created through a concerted effort by a team to document their design decisions. Teams should start their notebooks early and update them often. Handwritten notes should be clearly written. Engineering is an iterative process requiring students to recognize and define a problem, brainstorm and work through various stages of the design process, test their designs, continue to improve their designs and continue the process until a solution has been produced. During this process, students will come across obstacles, encounter instances of success and failure, and learn many lessons through their experiences. It is this process that students should document in their Engineering Notebook. The Engineering Notebook is also an opportunity to document everything a team does and can serve as a historical guide of lessons learned and best practices which can benefit the team and students in future years. Students may document any number of things in their Engineering Notebook such as: team meeting notes, design concepts and sketches, pictures, notes from competitions, biographies of the members of their team (students, teachers and mentors), observations and thoughts of team members throughout the season, team organization practices and any other notes that a team finds useful. REQUIREMENTS (but not limited to): Cover page o Title of the Written Report (SECME/VEX Robotics Engineering Notebook) o Team Name o Each team member s name, grade and complete address o Each team member s email address o Team's school name and complete address o School System/District name o School Coordinator's name Table of Contents Brief description of each team member o describe each team member s strengths and benefits to the team Design ideas Team meetings notes Construction of the robot Operation describe how the robot has be designed to score/de-score points Problems encountered and methods to resolve them Conclusion SECME 2015-16 Competition Guidelines Page 9 of 14

SECME ENGINEERING DESIGN COMPETITION GUIDELINES: VEX ROBOTICS ENGINEERING NOTEBOOK (Cont.) * * * HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR ENGINEERING NOTEBOOK * * * To eliminate any formatting issues when opening and printing word processed documents, sometimes caused by different software versions and/or computer settings, all engineering notebooks MUST be saved in PDF format with all pages of the document in one file. The file name should follow this naming convention: VEX engineering notebook for <School name, Team name> i.e. VEX engineering notebook for MS, Joseph A. Engineering Academy, Team Vertical. The PDF file should then be emailed, as an attachment, to the SECME National Office at secme@coe.gatech.edu on or before the due date. Engineering notebooks submitted in any other format other than PDF will not be scored and will result in a score of zero. NOTE: To save a MS Word document as a PDF file, click the File button, choose Save As, name the file in the File name field, change the Save as type to PDF, then click the Save button. RESUBMITTING YOUR ENGINEERING NOTEBOOK Teams are not allowed to resubmit their technical report. The first technical report submitted will be the one that is scored. Because resubmissions are not allowed, before submitting teams should: Make sure all required sections are included Run spell-check/grammar-check Carefully re-read the entire completed document Upon finding mistakes: o make changes/edits o resave the updated document o repeat these suggestions until satisfaction is achieved Submit the technical report on or before the due date NOTE: Engineering notebooks received after the specified due date will not be scored and result in a score of zero. SECME 2015-16 Competition Guidelines Page 10 of 14

SECME ENGINEERING DESIGN COMPETITION GUIDELINES: VEX ROBOTICS TEAM INTERVIEW WITH JUDGES As a part of the Engineering Design (VEX Robotics) Competition, each student team will be interviewed by a panel of judges. This 5-10 minute discussion will cover details of the Robot s design and testing. TEAM INTERVIEW REQUIREMENTS AND GUIDELINES: 1. Team members are interviewed as a group. 2. Each member is expected to be able to serve as a spokesperson in response to questions from the judges. 3. The team interview will be conducted before the Robotics Competition/Exhibition 4. The team interview will be one element along with Engineering Notebook--in arriving at the overall score in competition/exhibition. AT ALL COMPETITIONS, THE VEX ROBOTICS TEAM INTERVIEW WILL BE JUDGED ON: Teamwork Application of Technical Principles Knowledge of Design Oral Communication Skills SECME 2015-16 Competition Guidelines Page 11 of 14

SECME ENGINEERING DESIGN COMPETITION GUIDELINES: VEX ROBOTICS ENGINEERING NOTEBOOK (Evaluation Sheet) Please Check: Middle School High School Team Name School Name District Student Name #1 Student Name #2 Student Name #3 State Grade Grade Grade Judge s Name Date Regional/State Sponsor (if applicable): Engineering Notebook should be clear and completely documented of the team's design and build process. Tips to improve you Engineering Notebook: Laid out such that it can be easily understood Regularly updated, documenting all team efforts Information is easily found, making the notebook a useful tool to all team members Evidence of an iterative design process, highlighting the various phases their robot development DEVELOPING AVERAGE PROFICIENT EXCEPTIONAL 0-69 points 70-79 points 80-89 points 90-100 points TOTAL (The highest possible score is 100) /100 Judge s Notes: SECME 2015-16 Competition Guidelines Page 12 of 14

SECME ENGINEERING DESIGN COMPETITION GUIDELINES: VEX ROBOTICS TEAM INTERVIEW WITH JUDGES (Evaluation Sheet) Please Check: Middle School High School Team Name School Name District Student Name #1 Student Name #2 Student Name #3 State Grade Grade Grade Judge s Name Date Regional/State Sponsor (if applicable): Team is able to explain their design and strategy decisions throughout the season. DEVELOPING PROFICIENT EXCEPTIONAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 TOTAL SCORE IN TEAM INTERVIEW CATEGORY /20 Judge s Notes: SECME 2015-16 Competition Guidelines Page 13 of 14

Mousetrap Car SECME 2015-16 Competition Guidelines Page 14 of 14