Computing Technology Fair

New for 2019, CFA is organizing a Computer Technology Fair (CT Fair), along the lines of the popular Science Fairs that most students in the United States are familiar with. The competition is open to students in grades 5 to 8 residing in the state of Washington.

The CFA CT Fair builds on the Original Design Project (ODP) competition that CFA has organized since its inception. It is a competition where student contestants present their project that require them to use computer technology. They present their project in the form of a one-page report, a display board, and a live demo. In addition, a video of the system they developed is highly encouraged. THe CFA organizers will add the video demo to their YouTube site for other students to take inspiration from.

The primary inspiration behind the CFA CT Fair is to provide a forum where students can showcase the problems they identified, not from a textbook, but of their own volition, something they were curious about and wanted to solve. CFA CT Fair provides a forum for students with intense interest in solving problems that exercise and show their real-world computational thinking skills.. If the questions or tasks spark a true interest in the student(s) they should be able to create an interesting, eye-catching project that can be portrayed on a display board.

Parents, grand-parents, friends and family will be able to mingle and see the various student exhibits on display. A panel of judges will also visit each project on display.

One-page report (required)

Individuals or teams must register their Original Design Project (ODP) as part of the registration process. At check-in, these contestants must hand in 6 copies of a single-sided 8.5″ x 11″ report describing their project. The contest includes two phases. In Phase I, contestants will present their project, as part of the CT Fair, to a panel of judges. Projects will be judged on originality, technical merit, good programming practice, presentation, and authenticity. We encourage you to place emphasis on aesthetic appeal as well. Contestants should be prepared to answer technical questions about their project. In Phase II, the top few (3 or 4) contestants will be selected for a final 3-min. presentation in front of all attendees.

Display Board (required)

Every CFA CT Fair student contestant will need to bring a display board with a detailed description of their project. You will have a station with a flat surface area where you can place your display board and set up your computer. You will stand next to your station ready for judges and other CFA CT Fair attendees who might visit and want to know what you have project is about.

Requirements:

  • The board must be a standard 36” (h) by 48” (w) three-panel display board.
  • You must include the title of your Original Design Project and your name underneath it.
  • You must include the following details about your project:
    • Problem Statement: Crisp statement describing the problem (the question you asked).
    • Motivation: What inspired you to pursue this particular problem (the why?).
    • Implementation: Your solution. the technology you used, the program flow etc.
      • Brief sketch/description of your solution including the assumptions you made.
      • Computer language(s) you used (e.g. Scratch, Java, Javascript, PHP, C#, …)
      • How your code works. A control flow graph is a great way to describe the logic.
    • Discussion: Challenges you overcame as you completed this project. Any sub-problem you did not solve or left for the future
    • Conclusion: What you learned from completing this project.

RESOURCES
You can find tutorials online on how to create a Science Fair style display board. For example check out Science Buddies and WikiHow’s How to make a Project Display Board

Grading Rubric

Want to understand how your poster/demmo/video will be graded. Check out these guidelines wr provide to our judges. We hope this will help you prepare for this event.

Video demo (optional)

You may optionally create a 90 to 120 second screen recording showing a demo of your technology in action with a voice-over.

Requirements:

  • Anywhere from 90 to 120 seconds long.
  • Screen recording with voice-over explanation.
  • Demonstrates your poject (e.g. if you built a game, show your game being played).
  • Uploaded to YouTube, with the link submitted (details will be posted soon) to CFA

If you create a screen recording of your project (e.g. game demo), we will link to your YouTube video on the CFA website, and will play everyone’s recordings in the main room during the CFA CT Fair. This is a great opportunity to showcase what you have done to share with the public.

RESOURCES
You can use any screen recording or video editing software you prefer to create your video. If you haven’t used a screen recording software before, consider using the built-in options:

Awards

In addition to earning bragging rights, plaques or medals will be awarded to the top three contestants. All students will receive a certificate for participating in this event.

Invitation to attend

We encourage everyone — parents, grand-parents, siblings, coaches, and friends to attend the CFA CT Fair. The Fair is a fantastic way to encourage and celebrate your students and friends. It’s a knowledge building experience, which, among many other good things, teaches participants and attendees how to communicate their ideas effectively, a skill necessary for future success in all fields. It inspires and motivates contestants to develop their unique ideas and build social skills, while pursuing and honing their technology building and computational thinking skills.

It’s a lot of fun

CT Fair 2019
Young Scientists