Executive Director's Message

Welcome to the 2012 science fair season – and the start of another half-century for the Canada-Wide Science Fair! We’re looking forward to a great year, culminating in the first CWSF ever to be held in Prince Edward Island.

CWSF 2011 introduced some significant changes to the structure of awards and judging. All projects are now judged for medals against all others in their category (i.e., junior, intermediate, senior), ensuring that the best projects receive medals, regardless of the type of science. Second, all judging takes place on one day (Tuesday), which means far less sitting around for finalists, no second day for judges, an award ceremony on Thursday, and a fair that is shorter by one day so that participants arrive home on Saturday, able to enjoy more of the long weekend. All these changes worked extremely well in Toronto and were well received by virtually all finalists and delegates.

Once again, the Invent the Future materials mailed to you (and the 11,000 grade 7-12 schools across Canada) in October feature the seven Canada-Wide Youth Science Challenges – Discovery, Energy, Environment, Information, Innovation, Health, and Resources. We are challenging youth to address these key issues facing Canada and the world through science projects. The challenges are interdisciplinary, drawing on all aspects of science and engineering for solutions. Challenge Awards at the CWSF will continue to recognize the best junior, intermediate, and senior project in each challenge area.

Holding the CWSF in Charlottetown (or any city in the east or west) means that most regions will travel by air, increasing costs significantly. The 2012 Equalized Travel Plan fee will be $950 per participant (finalists and delegates). The CWSF 2011 Travel Plan had a deficit of about $24,000; however, the Travel Plan Credit this year will be $25 per 2011 participant (excluding Ontario finalists, whose travel fees were paid for by the Ontario government). Together with a CWSF registration fee of $650, the total CWSF 2012 fee will be $1600 ($1575 for those receiving a 2011 Travel Plan Credit).

Regions continue to have the option to include Science Fair in a Box (SFIAB) hosting as part of their affiliation fee at a 33% discount. Several provincial organizations are now covering this cost for their regions. SFIAB is a web-based regional science fair management application developed for Youth Science Ontario. Having a complete online registration system hosted, backed-up and updated automatically for just $125 a year is the easiest way to implement regional online registration.

Thank you for your continued dedication. It is through the work of thousands of volunteers, in over 100 regions like yours, that Canada’s young scientists have the opportunity to be recognized for their work. I wish you all the best in your preparations for the new season.