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District 2 Ag Science Fair Details

Sent to District 2 Ag teachers

District 2 FFA AgriScience Fair - Thursday, March 7, 2019 - Set-up by 4:30 pm at the JJC Weitendorf Ag Education Center

Click here to register prior to March 1st. RSVP requested but not mandatory; if you have special circumstances please contact Luke Allen.

Sponsorship has not yet been secured, so only Top 3 student projects overall will receive cash prize.

Illinois Agri-Science Fair Resource Guide: http://www.illinoisffa.org/convention-downloads.html

Three parts of the written project and display:

1 - Project Research Application   Not required at District- but is required for competitions above the District level. All completed through www.TheAET.com  (click for AET help guide)  Visit the AET Application Manager page (located in Reports tab) to begin an AgriScience Application if you have kept records in AET.

• i. Registration Form
• ii. Research Plan Approval Form
• iii. Adult Sponsor Checklist
• iv. Hazardous Materials Waiver Form
• v. Human Vertebrate Form
• vi. Non-Human Vertebrate Form
• vii. Research Funding
• viii. Project Extension Form (when applicable)

2 - Complete Project Report  (resources to assist) (REQUIRED)

• i. Title Page
• ii. Abstract(Brief summary with hypothesis and purpose)
• iii. Introduction (Why was the work done?)
• iv. Literature Review(Information about the topic)
• v. Materials and Methods
• vi. Results
• vii. Discussion and Conclusions
• viii. References
• ix. Acknowledgments

3 - Tabletop or free-standing display not to exceed a 4'x8' area.  You may also bring a printed Research Poster as per Illinois and National rules.

          -Topic/title should be boldly displayed
          -Show pictures, data tables and graphs
          -Show student name and school.

Best Practices:

-7-12 grade FFA members are eligible.
-Break the entire project into several small tasks.
-Spend quality time researching topics.
-Share the benefits of research...careers, new products, etc.
-Complete application in AET as a class in the computer lab.
-Provide pocket file folders to keep student papers organized and all together.
-Use the agriscience fair project as a SAE with record books.
-Involve agribusiness leaders and FFA alumni as sponsors and judges, and to assist in identifying quality topics.
-Show the projects in a hallway or prominent area of the school.

How do you have your students get started?
-Find a Solution to a Problem  (ideas attached)
-Review Literature and Websites - connect to agriculture
-Develop a Hypothesis
-Propose and Design an Experiment
-Collect Data
-Draw Conclusions
-Report the Results      

Overview for Judging
-Introduce yourself 
-Explain your project...What did you set out to do?
-What was the purpose?
-What happened and why?
-What was accomplished?
-What were the final results?

Competition and judging will be based on:
-Scoresheet - attached
-Appropriateness of the project: agriculture/science relationship
-Neatness and creativity of the display
-Information, data, etc. of the project paper
-Organization and neatness of the paper
-Knowledge of the project showed by the student
-Amount of work done
-Speaking ability during oral presentation   

More ideas...

-Encourage your students to find current agriculture topics in the news and research their own solutions.

Best of luck to you and your students!