Date: April 24, 2024

Time: 6:00-7:00 pm ET

Location: Zoom

Recorder: Brian Dempsey

Attendees: Suzanne Stickley, Karen O’Havan, Tanya, Brian D., Lorena Leza, Elizabeth Kronberg, Bekah Stendahl

Agenda:

--General reflections on the planning process and event

• What went well during the fair?  Split between morning and afternoon sessions went well. Retained judges from last year.  Judges liked the layout with 2 morning sessions.  Tufts showcase was popular.  JCC at Tufts with a conference space may be another venue for next year but only available on weekends. Too many students arrived at once in the morning and streamlining registration for both students and judges is needed for next year. A new larger location would be great.
• What to improve/change during the fair?

• Electrical outlet “needs”  Must change on zfairs for student registration.

• Feedback on the award selection process and the award ceremony.  Having the award ceremony virtually several days after competition was successful allowing for less stress for the planning committee and less stress for students.  Special awards (ex. to specific schools) requires more attention on zfairs.  Have a designated person from the planning committee do this one week before.  The volunteer must look carefully at the criteria for each award to match to a student.  Signing-up on the Google Form worked well.
• Feedback from Tufts.  
• Feedback from Judges.  Should have all judges using Tufts’ ipads so they don’t have wifi issues.  A volunteer from the Region IV committee should troubleshoot to help judges (ex. a “help desk” for judges).  
• Feedback on the SRC process.  Elizabeth thought the overall process went well.  Tanya thought the process this year was better.  Suzanne said some teachers did not know to “check the box” to indicate to the SRC that students completed forms.  Suzanne felt the email chains could be difficult to manage.
• Feedback on the planning process.  Judges need to be aware THEY MUST wear name tags so the judging process is transparent and clear.  All visitors might have name tags? Have more detailed information about the agenda for students next year.  Some back and forth about having specific time slots for judges but general consensus is this is not feasible logistically.  Karen suggested using an orange card that is held up so they know a judging session is ending soon.  May also announce when a judging session is ending.
• Feedback from families.  Some discontent from students or parents about not advancing to MSEF or ISEF.  Try to have 4 judging sessions per project next year.   Question is the judging pool big enough for 4 judges per project.  Some push-back from the #2 project that did not qualify for ISEF.  A homeschooling parent did not know about the STEM Expo.  To rectify this next year Suzanne will likely email parents directly (not just teachers).

• # of ISEF delegates (tied to finances below).  If a teacher cannot attend Bekah said it might be possible to have a parent chaperone.
• Some complaints from those who did not advance to MSEF

• Feedback for/from MSEF

• We will need to provide ISEF chaperone next year

--Finances

• Do we want to take over management of our money?  MSEF may manage our funds.
• Remaining balance
• Anyone willing to do some fundraising very early in the season?  Maybe volunteers meet during a 1 to 2 hour meeting to send out emails.  Elizabeth has a mail merge in Word to send out mass letters.  Elizabeth, Suzanne, Tanya, and Brian volunteer to do this summer.  Possibly have an online method of donation so it goes to Region IV, not MSEF, and use target amounts.  Publicize that if parents donate Region IV could send more delegates - $4 to $5 K per delegate.  Link to fundraising - Massachusetts Middle School Science & Engineering Fair - Special Awards Nomination Form 2024 (google.com)
• → Perhaps have schools pay (ex. via zfairs) or perhaps parents pay?

--Volunteer roles for next year (director, treasurer, secretary, state-wide SRC)

Suzanne will serve as chair for Region IV withs Susan helping with zfairs.  Brian and Tanya offered to be part of the state-wide SRC.

 Date: February 07, 2024

Time: 6:00-7:30 pm ET

Location: Zoom

Recorder:        

Attendees: Suzanne Stickley,

Agenda:

1. Numbers from zFairs

1. Judges - 74 judges on zFairs
2. Projects-117 approved, 66 pending

1. 142 assuming max of 15 per school and no projects are DQ’ed by SRC

1. If 4 or more projects get DQ’ed schools should be able to send max 15

3. Schools-25

1. Nice to see so many schools! Malden Catholic, Acton Boxborough, and Pioneer over 15 projects.

2. Updates from MSEF and SRC
3. Updates from Tufts and day-of event details

1. Updates from Karen and Lorena

1. Share slides with teachers/schools. Here is the link: Reg IV Committee 2_2024.pdf
2. New - Barnum Hall STEM expo
3. 10:15 finish for 1st session must be firm because of tour, departure to Barnum
4. Lunch - Karen will stay at Breed - looking for others to help with this. Students can see each other’s projects.
5. QR code will be in the slide deck for the Dowling parking garage.
6. Tufts catering will provide box lunch - orders due by Feb 21. More than 4 options - price goes up. Is not free, so off campus is better price-wise.
7. Online registration for campus tour, but STEM expo has over 25 undergraduates who have volunteered. Highly recommend STEM expo over the campus tour.
8. Tours/walking outside rain or shine - wear good walking shoes.
9. Breed will be open for students/chaperones who bring lunch or want a space to eat.

2. Judge Orientation

1. Details about judge training will be sent out closer to Feb 12th.
2. New rubric on clipboards - one copy
3. MSEF wants more specific appropriate comments.
4. Notesheet for judges to help make comments. Also has blank sheets.
5. There will be 4 ipads for judges.
6. Add table map with table numbers for judges to circle. Need clear labeling for locations. Judging session 1 on front, session 2 on back.
7. Notesheet is for judges to make comments - will not necessarily be available to students - the judges must type them into zFairs.
8. Exit survey: to ask judges’ their feedback, also get judges’ favorite projects to give recognition to

3. Giveaway

4. Deadline and next-step reminders

1. Deadline for all pre-project forms has passed
2. Monday 02/12--Judge sign-up closes
3. Thursday 02/08--Teachers receive notification of next steps via email
4. Tuesday 02/13--This is deadline to notify which projects from a school will participate in the Fair
5. Wednesday 02/14--Projects are passed to the Region IV site.  All other work by students and teachers should occur at Region IV zFairs
6. Saturday 02/16--Waitlist students will be notified on or before this date.
7. Tuesday, 02/27--Deadline for Tufts paperwork, abstracts, Form 1C etc.

1. Research papers should be uploaded to zFairs to Region IV for the plagiarism check, but students need to bring their physical or digital notebook to the fair along with their board.

8. Friday, 03/01--Region IV Fair!

5. Volunteer Roles

1. Before the event:

1. Table/project numbers for each session
2. Karen taking care of judging materials
3. See volunteer roles spreadsheet for assignments.

2. During the event:

6. Award Ceremony

Tufts will do a live zoom, but middle school does a recorded version. Lorena: live Zoom webinar can accommodate many people, IT will facilitate it and do all the back end controls. President’s statement will be recorded and the student speaker speech could be recorded.

3. Date/Time Thursday, March 7 at 3pm
4. Format: Zoom webinar
5. Tasks
6. Award distribution?

7. Prizes

1. Do we agree on the value to spend out of our account? Yes, we will spend $1225 out of the Region IV account. Reduce Tufts award to $100?

Try to spread out awards.

2. Feedback on SSP Awards

1. Already have the 4 airforce awards

3. MSEF--How?
4. Susan, Region IV--How?

8. Direct Entries and Waitlist - send to Suzanne, deadline is moved to Tuesday evening 2/13. Some schools may need a later deadline because of when their school fairs are held.

9. Future Meetings:

1. March 01: Region IV Fair
2. April 10: Zoom meeting at 6 pm

Date: January 10, 2024

Time: 6:00-7:00 pm ET

Location: Zoom

Recorder:        

Attendees: Suzanne Stickley, Tanya Chiarella, Karen O’Hagan, Brian Dempsey, Susan Schmidt, Elizabeth Kronberg, Jennifer MacDonald

Agenda:

1. Updates from MSEF/SRC

1. Question about the box to check a project is ready for review
2. 154 pre-approved projects and 127 non-approved projects in MSEF. Region IV…Most projects that have been marked “ready for review” have been processed.  Region IV 47 projects in pipeline, 21 that approved and 19 non-approved projects that have been approved.  Students with SRC feedback must make sure they are communicating (ex. all members in a project are included).
3. MSEF will send a reminder about the Feb 5th deadline for non-pre-approved projects.  Elizabeth K. has been checking the Region sites to make sure that students are not signing up for pre-approved projects on their regional websites.
4. Awards - no announcements about prizes yet (next meeting will discuss this and how much to budget for awards).

2. Updates from Tufts

1. Awaiting to see which classes and spaces will be available for judges.  Don’t want to have them all crowded in the back of Breed Hall.
2. 41 judges confirmed.  Still looking for judges. Jennifer MacDonald is looking for scientists from Novartis.

3. Judge Registration open on zFairs

1. Judges so far… 41 (prior judges and Tufts members contacted)
2. Link to formal announcement from Karen

1. Please share this announcement with any scientists in your network

4. Student numbers

1.  Updates
2.  Vote on project limit

1. 281 students so far. Elizabeth--how many of these are approved?
2. Susan Schmidt is still working on the timeline of judging per project (ex. 70 projects per hour and a half).  This may be 6 projects in the morning and 6 in the afternoon.  Assumes 15 minutes for judging.  The plan is to have these judges work in both the morning and afternoon sessions.  
3. Karen O’H. stressed that an advantage of morning and afternoon sessions is the students will be less cramped and hopefully less stressed.
4. Depending how many new schools are added (perhaps 2), how likely is it that schools can send 15 projects versus 12?  Susan S. estimates that 15 projects may be reasonable.  Pros of 12 projects is that bigger schools are less dominant.  Con is that pre-approved projects are small enough and that more students may be allowed to participate.  Goal is to incorporate more schools.  Should we set a smaller smaller but schools with larger science fair programs are unhappy?  In the past, Somerville HS allowed schools to send extra projects for a fee.  Might be a fundraising mechanism.  Could also have a waiting list so schools with an excess of 12 projects can still send extras.  A waiting list could pose problems of communication unless an early date is announced to accept extra projects.  The vote is to keep 12 projects and allow a waiting list for more.  Schools may enter 3 projects per school on the waiting list.  Region IV will coordinate and promote projects on the waiting list.
5. Jen-keep the project number per school smaller, and try to recruit schools that may not historically get involved. I think this gives an opportunity for more students to get exposed and excited about STEM
6. Susan-would love to see more new schools participate and make sure that there is space for them. On the other hand, I am aware that schools with a strong science fair program have many more projects that could participate. I could go either way. If we do increase the number of projects to 15 total, can we ensure that all new schools get to participate?
7. Saman-12 is good, 15 if needed to fill the space

5. Upcoming deadlines.  Feb 5th non-approval projects.  Judge sign-up Feb. 12th.  Registration deadline is Feb. 12th and students on the waiting list will be notified by Feb. 16th.  The Feb. 12 deadline is to notify which students will participate in the Region IV fair.  The SRC paperwork is completed after Feb. 16th and sign the Tufts paperwork.  This deadline can be late (ex. soon before the Region IV fair).  From the time students are promoted by the school's teacher they should work within the Region IV site.  Feb. 27 deadline for the abstract, form IC and the Tufts form.  Tufts forms must be completed on paper and then they can be digitized and uploaded.
6. Once students are promoted by the teacher then projects can be paired with judges.
7. Updates on Fundraising and prizes.  No updates yet.
8. Next meeting is February 07 from 6-7:30 pm

1. New agenda:

1. Day-of event details
2. Assign volunteer roles
3. Finalize prizes

 Date: December 13, 2023

Time: 5:45-6:45 pm ET

Location: Zoom

Recorder: Susan Schmidt        

Attendees: Suzanne Stickley, Brian Dempsey,Karen O’Hagan, Bekah Stendahl, Susan Schmidt

Agenda:

• Updates from Tufts

• Schedule: Karen sharing schedule

• 2 judging periods concurring with STEM expo (undergrads involved)
• Dowling Hall parking
• Breed - judging
• Barnum - expo. Entire 1st floor for event. Completely renovated. Mix of formal and informal experiences. Lecture Hall will be filled with undergrads sharing experience about why they got excited about STEM. Research posters. Also campus tour scheduled for the second session.
• 30 minute transition time
• Only extends judging time by 30 minutes. Potential judges say that it will not be a program.
• Hoping to have 15ish volunteers.
• What do we want the undergrads to talk about? What do high school students want to hear?

• Research opportunities
• Reflect on science/STEM skills used in class or life, how these relate to their life experience
• Diverse perspectives on a range of topics, backgrounds, interests.
• See what STEM options are out there - to show what is possible
• What college is like, what college classes are like, experience of undergrads

• Will there be a place for students’ stuff? Students will store their boards behind and under the table. Electronics must be taken.
• Will students attend only the judging portion? That option is available but not advertised. Try to encourage students to attend the whole day and take advantage. On registration paperwork, have students select the activities in advance. Will influence judge scheduling.
• Students will have to sign a waiver that covers the event and Tufts- due to minors on campus. Students will have to leave boards, so they should be willing to come back. Background checks for all volunteers.
• Schools judged together and judges available for whole day. Each judge gets 3 projects per period.

• Finalize event schedule

• Link to schedule from Karen

• Updates from MSEF/SRC (Bekah)

• Students will need to log in to Region IV, all paperwork migrates. Log in to activate account - they complete the questions, paperwork, ask for abstract update. Don’t know if students who do not activate - whether they can be assigned judges. There is a way to check on the back end. Send out messages to teachers and parents to get the students to activate.
• Scan abstracts and review paperwork - see what projects have signed up. Look at Form 1C and Form 7 (continuation). Make sure students are disclosing. There are tools to filter which projects have those forms. In master spreadsheet there are columns for Form 1C and Form 7 and can see what projects need those reviewed. Have training for volunteers on what to look for in terms of what to look for in the abstracts and the forms. Discuss at the next MSEF meeting.
• Out of school time program that has registered as a school - based in Lexington, students from Region IV and Region V. They want to sponsor projects, but in the past, students need to sign up through school. In areas that the schools can’t support, MSEF has let out of the school programs sponsor those students. We don’t want to discourage participation, but also don’t want students to sneak in through the back door. What parameters should be put on that?

• Wouldn’t want big schools to get extra projects through these programs.
• Students need to disclose participation
• Would it be possible to coordinate with Lexington teachers and have them confirm that the students are participating? Need to confirm that students are only participating in one school fair?
• Does this encourage the participation of new and smaller schools?
• Would the program be able to choose only the best projects to enter?
• If Region V students participate in this program which is in Region IV, this puts more students into Region IV.
• Brockton library sponsors students, not the school.
• Bekah has told Igor that she will get back to him soon.

• Select Max number of projects

• Table numbers: Lorena suggested clearing out the judging space in back to get more space. Currently 184 projects in zFairs.
• up to 74 tables, so we should be able to accommodate more projects with 2 judging sessions.
• Max number per school: Historically it has been 10-12. Increased capacity, but trying to get more schools involved. Keep lower threshold, and increase recruitment at new schools? Increase to 15? There may be an advantage to having more projects even if they are lower quality - exposure to higher level, helps student growth. Some schools don’t want to participate because Lexington HS wins everything, for example.
• By Jan 10, need to decide on the final number.
• Have a waitlist based on whether your school has more than 12, put up to 3 projects on a waitlist and if there is space, then let them in? Set hard limit?
• Make sure awards go to a diverse group of students.

• Fundraising updates: Share updates on email
• Updates and suggestions regarding awards: Should know state contribution of awards by next meeting. Find ways to recognize new schools. Have more time to think about awards.
• Volunteer Roles:

• Form 1C and Form 7 review
• abstract review
• Plagiarism check: There are a few different programs. Only screen proposed award winners. Use school software to review papers.
• Judge orientation - in different location. Karen will be at Barnum, so need someone to be in charge of judge organization on the day.
• Student check-in
• Check-in table will be removed from Breed Hall- using all of Breed for the tables.
• Table numbers--assigning and signing

• Any other questions, issues that need to be discussed

Date: November 15, 2023

Time: 5:45-6:45 pm ET

Location: Zoom

Recorder:Susan Schmidt        

Attendees:Suzanne Stickley, Brian Dempsey, Jennifer MacDonald, Karen O’Hagan, Bekah Stendahl, Saman Abbas, Seamus McGuire, Tanya Chiarella, Susan Schmidt

Agenda:

• Updates and questions for MSEF

• From Bekah:

• Emails going out to teachers - where to go for resources, timing, new rubric, new project categories
• 1st newsletter went out last week - sent out to students on zfairs. Emphasizing research plan. Also info about mentors for students - can use more mentors.

         How much active recruitment do we need to do for new schools? How much should we reach out for new schools? Bekah: Look at MA zfairs site and see who’s participating, follow up with teachers who have not registered.

        Confusion about the old vs. new website: Should we look for signups in the old website? Confusion about where to look for student information. Check on Region IV zfairs site to make sure it’s clear about where teachers can see their students. Teachers can see their students on the state site.

        Many Region IV and Region I private school students doing projects individually - have emphasized that teachers at their schools must be involved.

        Recruitment/ Info flyer has been made to give out to students.Susan will email it out.

• Updates from SRC

Deadline in a few weeks, some projects have been approved.

Feb 5 deadline for all paperwork, but registration deadline is later. How to deal with paperwork issues for schools with a lot of projects - to prevent uploading a lot of projects that will not advance. School fairs may be close to the registration date, so think about ways to accommodate.

        Brian: Are doing internal prescreening for pre-approval vs. non pre-approval.

Leave the registration deadline open ended to allow for flexibility.

• Finalize registration deadline

• 2 weeks before March 1 would be best: Feb 16 to allow for time for SRC approval.
• Note will go out to teachers about which students are participating. Then Elizabeth will transfer the students to Region IV.
• We will email the teachers/schools about which students will be participating, They will get back to us.
• One of us may be able to do the promotion.
• Students will need to log into the Region IV site once promoted. When students log into the Region IV , they will get media release notices, other questions. Some students may not do it, and so we need to reach out to specific students.

• Updates from Tufts

• Boxed lunch is $19.00. Option for schools to pre-order with the understanding that not all schools will order.
• Max tables for Breed Hall is 66, with 8 foot registration table.

        Last event at Breed the table was between the double doors.

        Students would check in and get their number.

        This allows for the center row to be extended, increasing to 70 tables.

• At PCSS - 4 projects for 8 foot table. Do we use 6 foot tables? How many projects per table? Could do back to back projects on tables - may be able to put up more projects.
• Seamus: circular tables 2 projects, 6 ft 2 projects each
• Trying for two judging sessions - allow for more projects. Have some groups that want to present/volunteer. Karen is working on volunteer forms/legal issues.
• 4 activities: college tour, poster session, 2 other presentations in totally different areas (diamond chemistry and astronomy).
• Will students choose the activities? On zFairs, they will need to pre-register fo the activities. Tour is 1.5 hours. Karen is figuring out exactly how this will work/logistics of locations and how the programs will work.
• Karen is recruiting student volunteers for the morning and afternoon session.
• Judge recruitment: Jennifer is helping Karen with recruitment - will recruit at Novartis. Once the judging schedule is set, the judging letter will go out in January when students/professors/professionals are back.
• Judges will sign up on the Region IV zFairs site.

• Proposed schedule for the day

• 2023 (Last year’s) Schedule

• Check-in/Setup: 8:00-8:30
• Judging 8:30 - 12:00 with tours and info sessions available for students who finish early. (May decide to do two separate sessions depending on space availability)
• Showcase from 11:30pm - 12:00pm
• Lunch 12:00-1:30 on own with chaperones
• Awards ceremony following showcase from 1:30pm - 2:30pm (preferably the same location as fair to avoid confusion/movement
• Cleanup/takedown: 2:30-3:00

• 2024 Possible Alternate Schedule

• Check-in/Setup: 8:00-8:30
• Judging Session 1: 8:30 - 10:00 (Session 2 students participate in activities)
• Transition Time between Sessions (30 minutes)
• Judging Session 2: 10:30 - 12:00 (Session 1 students participate in activities)
• Lunch on own - either on campus or at local restaurant
• Showcase and Closing Remarks

• Have students say whether they will stay for the showcase.
• What about parents or extra people that come for the showcase - will that put the hall over capacity?
• Do we let students just come for their judging session then leave (to reduce numbers for the showcase)? Would need to have students from one school all together - may give a skewed look to the fair.
• Issue of overcrowding of projects during showcase

• Finalize max number of projects: Determine schedule first. Also floor plan may affect this.
• Updates on fundraising

• Fundraising meeting through MSEF - very helpful. Approach chamber of commerce, local businesses
• Make sure to clarify that the donation is for Region IV, not Tufts.
• Folder of fundraising resources: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lLH7AuEJplP6MrY7-Uy9j3xnU14iRfyZ
• Talk about prizes at the next meeting. Have more prizes with the business name as sponsor.
• Will touch base and think of strategy

• Idea sharing on additional handouts/giveaways

• Susan and Seamus can help Tanya with the plexiglass tokens. Tanya has a lot of lanyards leftover.

Date: October 19, 2023

Time: 5:45-6:45 pm ET

Location: Zoom

Recorder: Brian Dempsey

Agenda:

1. Introductions Attending:Tanya Chiarella, Elizabeth Kronberg, Loren Aleza, Itamar Allali,  Suzanne Stickley, Brian Dempsey
2. Updates from MSEF: New guidelines reported by Elizabeth Kronberg by downloading forms and uploading them to MSEF (not via the Regional site).  Regions can get access to MSEF databank.  More strict on making sure students receive approval before they begin project.

• ISEF affiliation

1. Managed through MSEF
2. Currently 1, can send more

• Plagiarism - Possible use of software, “Turn-It-In” to screen for plagiarism.  Region IV would manage this if it is used.
• Updates on zFairs and SRC from Elizabeth

1. Pre-Approval deadline is Dec 18
2. Non-pre approval February 05
3. Forms are downloaded and re-uploaded instead of filing out online
4. All teachers and students need to make new accounts on https://mahs.zfairs.com/

3. Location and Date: In-person at Tufts University

• Government and Community Relations is looking into rooms and dates between March 1 or March 8.

1. Breed Hall or Joyce Cummings
2. Lorena provided update that Breed is reserved for 03/01.  Still looking to see if we can get Joyce Cummings Center

• Proposed structure - if in Breed Hall, split into two cohorts so may judge more students.  While students are not being judged, they attend a program about how to enter a STEM field hosted by Tufts.  This may increase the number of projects from 103 to about 150. Students judging in the morning set up on top of the table and afternoon students have their posters below the tables.  Students won’t know if they are in the morning or afternoon cohort until they arrive that day and are expected to attend the full day. Uncertain about how a showcase for visitors to view, possibly at the end.  Get a head count of who plans to stay until the end to view the showcases.
• Lunch - Students may be allowed to eat on their own, including possibly box lunches students either bring or buy from Tufts.  Unclear where the dining area might be in Tufts.  If Joyce Cummings center is used it affords more eating spaces.
• Showcase (see notes above)
• Awards ceremony - Proposal by Karen O’H. to do awards ceremony virtually a week after the fair.  Advertise to students that a vetting process will occur to check for plagiarism for top projects.  Schools are encouraged to have a watch party.  Unanimous agreement to have a virtual awards ceremony.
• Goodie bag/keepsake ideas.  Tanya has extra plexiglass light bulb keepsakes from last year.

1. Please bring any other ideas for this to the next meeting

4. Limit for projects per school: 150 total. Find out how many schools are participating and determine what maximum number of projects can enter.  Last year it was 12, maybe this year it will go up to 15.

5. Finances:

• Sharing of financial info for Region IV.
• MSEF will continue to hold the account.

1. MSEF will charge a $500 bookkeeping fee, will not apply for 501c3, but will stay under the MSEF umbrella.

• We’ve been asked not to charge students a fee

6. Fundraising:

• Need some fundraising

1. Smaller asks for specific prizes

Tentative Future Meetings on Zoom @ 5:45-6:45

Wednesday, November 15

Wednesday, December 13

Wednesday, January 10

Wednesday, February 07

Wednesday, April 10

Preliminary agenda items for next meeting:

• Finalize registration deadline
• Finalize max number of projects
• Updates from SRC
• Updates on fundraising
• Idea sharing on additional handouts/giveaways
• Updates/planning of activities