Stepping Up:Calgary Focus Group 2008

From Stepping Up

Jump to: navigation, search

Stepping Up Calgary Focus Group

November 1, 2008, University of Calgary

Contents

General Discussion

What would have been useful as a participant?

  • Structure and how to write 5pg report
  • Guidance on how to start
  • What does a science fair project look like, really?
    • Broken down in different categories, since engineering project looks VERY different than a life science project
  • Where are they now? If you’re investing much time on science fair, then where can this lead?

What misconceptions should be broken down about Science Fair/Science Fair projects?

  • Nerds/Geeks – not the case, great diversity in science fair participants
  • Clique-ish
  • Capability of students to do research, especially among judges
  • Mentor/Parent doesn’t generally do project, and if that does happen, easy to tell

Would it have been useful to you to have had a mentor? Would it have changed your experience/outlook?

  • Overwhelmingly yes
  • What makes a good mentor vs. a bad mentor?
    • Bad: Takes over project; manipulates students to do their own work, at the expense of their own; doesn’t recognize the difference between science fair participant vs. grad student
    • Good: Breadth of help; flexible; patient
  • How does one tell the difference between good and bad mentor?
    • Can’t generally when starting; intimidating to approach someone with a PhD at the age of 14
    • Need to know when to talk to mentor about the process, and when to dump mentor if things aren’t working

What did you see that made you go “Oooh, I should have thought about that?”

  • Large-format printing for poster board


What took you to the next stage? How did you make the jump from the regionals to the CWSF/ISEF?

  • Hard work, but once getting there, realized had to go again
  • A lot of the smaller things, rather than the larger things

First Breakout Group: How can we do better?

  • How to prepare a report
    • Contents, appendices, references, real examples
  • High School access to Journals
  • Sample Project(s)
    • Virtual Project Tour, Film
  • CWSF related scholarships: where to apply
  • Distinguishing between a study/innovation/experiment
  • Participant Profiles
    • How winners got there (interviews); day in the life of a CWSF participant
  • More SMARTS linkage/integration
  • Online Help Chat
    • On/offline status + have IM/MSN like interface
    • Feedback/comments from non-editors to provide input
  • How not to rest on your laurels
    • CWSF incest and cliques
    • Returning to CWSF and having unreal expectations
  • Ombudsperson: What’s not fair at the regional level
    • Explain what may fall under not fair
    • Who to comment to
    • Regional Censorship
  • More info on how ISEF works
    • Forms, what ISEF looks for
  • Judging Top 10 needs work: more detail/explanation
  • Example Judging Form (a “real” one)
  • Continuation project guidance
  • What we love about Science Fair blog/comments
    • Like CBC website
  • How to dress – like an entertainment show
    • “Best Dressed” and “Worst Dressed” list
  • “Dear Einstein/Abbey” forum for concerns and how to fix
  • Mentorship
    • How to get one
    • How to write a mentorship proposal
    • How to know if they’re good and how to work it out if they’re not
    • What they can do

General Discussion: Stepping Up Webcast – what do we want?

  • Main Objective: Get people to upgrade their project
  • Secondary Objective: Get people excited about CWSF and ISEF
  • What to expect? Judging and activities
  • Things to look forward to at CWSF 2009
  • Alumni Panel
    • Advice; Keep them focus on concept; get, think of questions just in case
      • Use to set the tone, can use to get req’d messages across.
  • Bring in Key People, especially judges to introduce them and set the stage for the fair
    • But not too casual so people don’t get too laid back
  • May want to ensure that people on screen are dressed and set to make it appear professional
  • SMARTS in webcast
  • Run through of the first little bit of the fair
    • What’s expected, where you’ll stay
  • Possible to have IM help immediately after the webcast
  • Suggested not to advertise on letter sized paper, but rather something different (plastic foldy-thingy or stress ball)

Second Breakout Group: How do we improve Web Navigation?

  • Timeline similar to MIT Admissions website
  • How does featured article change? Should be automated
  • Main page needs more interesting features, such as an ever changing picture
  • Watch not having a focal point – too many boxes, use images
  • Site Map
  • “Getting Started with Stepping Up” should be integrated and embedded with main page
  • Keep Contents boxes
    • Watch content overlap (i.e. where you click on a link and it takes you away from the section where you were)
  • Featured article should be relevant
  • Can Table of Contents be removed? Not really needed
  • Can we have user history/path? (Like Vista or XP)
  • Need to improve board gallery
  • No navigational talking head, please
  • IM interface on each page
  • Remove “Latest News” if no news
  • Can’t talk aesthetics without pics
  • Judging section jumps around too much
    • Should focus on judging
    • May need separate section for board/display
    • Could use judging form to guide articles and layout
  • Use mouse-over pics so as you move mouse over spot or form/pic, pop up windows give details/links
  • Any tab you can’t access shouldn’t appear when logged out
  • Main page to direct students to content related to CWSF, ISEF, General and/or language?
  • Help navigation link needs to direct people to help
  • Should be a “simple” version of the website for slower connections
  • Randomize featured articles, consider using a tracker to lead to articles not being used and/or aren’t as popular
  • Should consider more practical/less cute titles
  • Featured top 10 instead of article
  • Under navigation, make random page disappear
  • Recent Changes needs to be way more user friendly
  • Change “Development” to “Getting Involved”
  • From main page, move links “SMARTS”, “CWSF” etcetera to sidebar
  • Should not be more than one contents page on a page
    • could use subfolder setup
    • articles should link to only one section
  • For mentorship list, having a + or – sign to indicate if people have gotten a mentor and have a note to respect if company have tons of mentored people already
  • Prioritize/order articles under context to reflect chronological or importance to make it easier
  • “What up” should be made more current (link to external websites)
    • Should have different categories so people can be up to date in their fields
    • Video clips should be short (i.e. not 9 mins) and should have an explanation of content so users know what they’re seeing
Retrieved from "http://steppingup.ysf-fsj.ca/index.php/Stepping_Up:Calgary_Focus_Group_2008"