Stepping Up:List of Pages to Fix for January Release
From Stepping Up
This todo list has been submitted by all contributors so that we can work to systematically improve content before the January release. Please indicate which ones of these are in progress and completed. Thanks!
General - for all pages
- References to other websites, articles, videos, or books for further reading
- More pictures and videos, even from personal collections of our participants
- More "featured anecdote/quote" boxes where pictures/videos aren't possible to break up the monotone writing layout
- Ability to contact the person who wrote the article to discuss further
- Featured articles should change every month or so - we should nominate people to do this and set up reminder emails for them to do it!
The Main Page
- needs to be more lively
- table of contents should be on the left side of the page, whereas the featured article boxes should be on the right in order to put more emphasis on the table of contents.
- “Getting Started and Stepping Up” page should be jumping out at the viewer. More emphasis using a larger font / animation / arrow.
Getting Started With Stepping Up
- entire page can be redone using a flowchart or similar graphics rather than just plain text. The flowchart,should take the form of the whole science fair process for example: starting with mentorship and resources leading to experimental design, analysis of results (letting the number talk), preparation for the actual science fair, the science fair and the aftermath.
Setting it Up
- Adil taking it on
- General
- Boost it up with the real examples of award-winning projects and how the student(s) went on in designing their experiment, the obstacles they faced, etc.
- Be Critical
- It's a very short article that should be combined with something else, or removed.
- Keeping Track: The "Logbook"
- Maybe write up a list of prompt questions to get people started on what to write in their logbooks. Do emphasize that this is actually quite a significant aspect of some regional fairs. (Ex: Essential part of the scientific method at Calgary Youth Science Fair)
- add anecdote about how important actually including your mistakes is
- Knowing the Variables: Control!
- needs a longer and better introduction about what the article describes and why this is important
- Should I repeat my experiment?
- This should also be combined with something else.
- highlight/bold parts of the introduction to make it obvious what the article says. include stats description/example of "reliability vs accuracy" and suggested numbers of experiment repetition per type of project.
- Use Random Samples for Statistical Analysis
- Combine with something else (like the "What should be my sample size?" page.)
- lots of examples of what is and isn't a random sample (a phonebook might not be!!!)
- What should be my sample size?
- explain variables a little better and/or provide examples (i.e. what's the number of samples?)
Who Can (Help You) Do Your Project
- General
- Add Natalie's SMARTS mentorship guide, or summarize it into an article.
- an e-mail or phone-call used to actually approach a mentor would be useful. Also a bit on not to take the rejection seriously would also help here.
- In your own Backyard: Research Institutions across Canada
- This needs to be extended. A lot.
- Mentor Contacts
- This needs to also be finished to be more inclusive of other provinces.
- needs to be either expanded, converted to a "general" article, or removed
- Why do you Need a Mentor?
- Need a little blurb on why someone might NOT need a mentor. (Not everybody can have one, and it's not necessary. Many successful projects are done alone. Don't discourage people!)
- Who Am I Looking For?
- expand on aknowledgement section and/or make link to Referencing article
Getting In the Know
- Mubdi will work on
- Scientific Databases
- Brief descriptions of what everything is. Reorganizing it as well.
- Useful Links
- MUCH expansion, evidently.
- add more!!!!!!!! look at regional fairs useful links websites sections or other things!
Letting the Numbers Talk
- Kartik will be taking on
- General
- Content-wise is fairly good. Just needs more graphs/diagrams so it doesn't overwhelm the newbies.
- Work to ease some off on the technical jargon or make sure that we explain well in a simpler way.
- Nice graphics for Aaron's pages (Graphs & Desc. stats)
- Different graphs for different purposes
- explain definitions (frequency, distribution, correlation); include examples for all types of graphs, expand the list of graphs; include section on annotating graphs properly (i.e. labels, titles, correlations, making notes on graphs, etc); include section on data correlations in graph (i.e. [1])
- Getting Started with Stats
- organize!!! separate into sections on different stats analysis, give examples on what that analysis would be relevant to; also, if we want students to stop using "simple stats", we shouldn't write about them. i'm sure they all know how to make bar graphs and pie charts. i think we need to write about advanced stats techniques for very specific uses (i.e. i can write about bland-altman diagrams, which are used in comparing how well two different instruments or processes measure the same thing and how much they really agree/disagree, which one overestimates in which direction, etc)
- talk about: Distribution, Population vs. sample, Estimators.
Regression
- Guide to Statistical Software: Excel
- information needs to be double-checked. for example, the excel extension needed to create histograms is actually included with excel. also, a few screenshots and such can help people follow the article along
- Guide to Statistical Software: JMP
- also add pictures/screenshots
- More than Just the Mean
- add formulas on skewdness
Lookin' Good (and Sounding Even Better)
- Lia
- Data Presentation: The Board
- Add Link to Display Board Gallery
- Display board gallery
- (just an idea) divide into good and bad board examples, analyze each one in terms of the best and worst qualities
What Up?
- Add to What Judges Want (Mubdi)
- General
- In addition to mentioning where to find what’s hot, we can all contribute ideas related to our fields. For example being in biochemistry, I can write a couple of articles talking about what’s hot in cell biology.
- Do Your Homework: Knowing What's Hot in your Research Field
- add anecdotal stories - (1) what happens if you use outdated data, and (2) what happens if you can't find any data on your topic - you might be the first one to be researching this!
What Judges Want
- Taneille. :)
- Aesthetics: The Board *has been fixed
- the article itself seems to be about presentations and not the board... confuzzled!
- Category Suicide How do we move this page to setting up?
- should this be moved to setting up? discuss
- Top 10: Mistakes People Make During Judging *D day has been combined with this page. Should D day be deleted then?
- top 10 mistakes people make and d-day are very similar, consider combining to top 10 best tips for judging day
- Practice, Practice, Practice *Where is link for the Virtual Judge?
- include reference, link (+ possible embedded option to view) virtual judge
- The Judge Wish List *This is practically done now
- should be expanded and should summarize all other part of this section, could even be converted to a top 10 things judges are looking for list
- Desired trait:Report should contain source referencing within the text of the report (numbered references)
Leaving on a Jet Plane
- Lisa-Marie
- Getting Yourself Out of Sticky Situations
- format is a little awkward and needs to be played around with
How to be Happy
- Eden
- Top 10: What We Love About Science Fairs
- needs to be expanded with a few anecdotes to make it more personal
- De-stress Therapy: The Zen of Science Fair
- it's unclear if the article is talking about making you project, going to the fair, or both. edit introduction to make clear
CWSF vs. ISEF
- Aaron
- General
- need to elaborate on the process of attending ISEF through the regional fair, specify the fairs and the forms that need to be filled out before the regional fair.
- Provide some tips on paperwork
- Samples of powerpoint presentation of team Canada candidates can be put on the guide.
- I am not sure whether YSF still asks the applicants to make a video. If so, we can ask someone to upload their video as an example.
- Making Your Project ISEF Worthy
- set-up links to all relevant articles throughout the guide
- The Canada Wide Science Fair and The Intel International Science and Engineering Fair
- (idea) include detailed sample week-schedules or those from past years to give students a good idea what happens during the week
- Things to Remember
- article title is unclear
Content to Add
- Reports: long vs short
- How a good graph should be made
- 'Language suicide': Choosing the language at CWSF
- Presenting mitigated results
- ST.err/Confidence interval (in error analysis)
- Error propagation
- Number representation
- Phrasing, link to a good editing tutorial
- How to prepare 5pg Report - Nikhita
- With Examples
- Sample Projects
- Virtual Project Tour
- Participant Profiles
- How they got there, et cetera
- Returning to CWSF with unrealistic expectations
- Continuation Project Guidance
- How to dress - Kartik
- Best Dressed/Worst Dressed List
- Dear Abbey style forum
- Mentorship
- How to write a proposal
- How to know if they're good, and how to deal with them otherwise
