Google Science Fair 2016

Application can be done online only.

To enter:

Submit one (1) Entry either as an individual or as part of a group (“Team”) comprised of up to three (3) persons. If entering the Competition individually or as part of a Team (each, an “Entrant” or “You”), follow the steps below.

You may participate in only one (1) Entry, whether as an individual, a Team Leader or a Team Member. If you participate in multiple Entry submissions, only the first Entry you submit will be judged. All subsequent Entries in which you are listed as an Entrant, Team Leader or a Team Member will be disqualified. Entries not submitted in accordance with the instructions provided on the Competition Site and these Official Rules may be disqualified, at the sole discretion of the Competition Entities.

Note: Google will assign entrants into Age and Regional groups based on information submitted during the registration process. Google will assign each entrant into an Age Group as follows: 13-15 and 16-18, and one of the following three Regions as follows: The Americas, APAC (Asia, Pacific), and Europe/Africa/Middle East.

A. ENTERING THE COMPETITION AS AN INDIVIDUAL:

● If you don’t have one already, sign up for a Google Account: To register for a Google account, go to https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount and follow the instructions provided.

● Once you have a Google account, go to http://googlesciencefair.com and register. You will be asked to input your Google account, email address and password.

● You will then be taken to your Project Dashboard. Whenever you log in using your Google account details at http://www.googlesciencefair.com, you will arrive on the competition page where you can enter and review your registration information, request parental or legal guardian consent, create, edit and submit your final Entry. Register (for Individual)

● Complete requested information about yourself and your Entry in the Registration section before creating your Entry. You may edit this later. Click the box stating that you have read, accept, and agree to be bound by these Official Rules and terms. Creating your Entry (for Individual)

● Upon completion of registration you may begin working on your Entry. The Entry must follow the technical, creative, and legal entry requirements set out in these Official Rules and the Competition Site (which are incorporated herein by reference).

● You will be required to complete all sections of the Competition Site.

● Your Entry will be judged in one (1) of two (2) age groups (13-15, 16-18; based on your age as of February 21, 2016) and competition category as determined by the judges (see section 4(C) below for Categories). Request parental or legal guardian consent (for Individual)

● You may begin working on your Entry after completing the Registration, however, you may not submit an entry for judging until you have requested and received parental or legal guardian consent. Visit the “For Parents” section at googlesciencefair.com for more information and to begin the parental or legal guardian consent process.

● Once you have done this, your parent or legal guardian will receive an email from Google with instructions on how they can give their consent for you to participate. The Entry will not be judged unless this consent is received.

● Parental or legal guardian consent is a requirement of all entrants. Google must receive parental or legal guardian consent for you to participate before you are eligible to submit an entry. Parental or legal guardian consent is also required for you to use Google products and services in connection with and as part of participation in the Competition.

B. ENTERING THE COMPETITION AS A TEAM:

Team eligibility as of the day the team leader registers for the Competition:

● All team members must meet the eligibility requirements of the competition.

● All team members must complete and receive parental or legal guardian consent (as indicated above).

● Team members may be comprised of entrants from different schools, cities and countries.

● A team may be comprised of entries from either age category. The oldest team member will determine age category placement.

To enter as a Team:

● To enter the competition, all team members must have or must create a free Google Account. To register for a Google account, go to https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount and follow the instructions provided.

● Once all team members have a Google account, choose one of the team members to be the Team Leader.

● As Team Leader, go to http://www.googlesciencefair.com and register. Team leader will be asked to input their Google account, email address and password.

● Team Leader will be directed to their Project Dashboard. Whenever the Team Leader logs in using their Google account details at http://www.googlesciencefair.com, they will arrive on the competition page where the Team Leader can enter and review his/her registration information, request parental or legal guardian consent, create, edit and submit the team’s final Entry.

● Team Leader will be required to enter some information about themselves and the team’s Entry in the Registration section before they can create an Entry. Note: Registration may be edited during the submission phase up to the point the entry is “submitted”.

● Team Leader must click the box stating that they have read, accept, and agree to be bound by these Official Rules and terms.

● The Team Leader must add the other Team Member(s) to his/her Team after completing the registration process by entering the email addresses of the other team member(s).

● The other team member(s) will receive an email from Google with instructions on how they can register as part of the Team Leader’s team. They will be asked to create their own password and provide the same personal information as the Team Leader. Team Members must click the box stating that they have read, accept and agree to be bound by these Official Rules and terms.

● Once a Team Member has registered, they will be able to log in and see the Project Dashboard. They can view their personal information, and the same dashboard as their team members. Team Members can all log in separately to work on the “team” project, although the Team Leader will be required to submit the final Entry. 

Request Parental/Legal Guardian Consent (for Teams)

● You may begin working on your Entry after you have registered, however, you will not be able to submit it for judging until all Team Members have requested and received parental or legal guardian consent.

● Each Team Member must log in to the Project Dashboard using their own log-in details and enter the email address of a parent or legal guardian in the space provided.

● Each Team Member’s parent or legal guardian will receive an email from Google with instructions on how they can give their consent for Entrant’s participation. The Entry will not be judged unless this consent is received.

● Parental or legal guardian consent is a requirement for all Entrants, including each member of a team. Google must receive parental or legal guardian consent for you to participate before you are eligible to submit an Entry. Parental or legal guardian consent is also required for you to use Google products and services in connection with and as part of participation with the Competition. Creating Your Entry (for Teams)

● Upon completion of registration you can begin working on your Entry. The Entry must follow the technical, creative, and legal entry requirements set out in these Official Rules and the Competition Site (which are incorporated herein by reference).

● You will be required to complete all sections of the Competition Site.

● Your Entry will be judged in one (1) of two (2) age groups (13-15 and 16-18) based on the age of the oldest team member on February 21, 2016. Entries will be judged based on their competition category as determined by the judges (see section 4(C) below for Categories).

C. COMPLETE AND SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY

You (or your Team Leader if a Team) may submit Your (or Team’s) Entry any time during the Open Call for Entries.

ENTRIES WILL NOT BE AUTOMATICALLY ENTERED – YOU (OR YOUR TEAM LEADER IF A TEAM) MUST HIT SUBMIT FOR YOUR (OR YOUR TEAM’S) ENTRY TO BE CONSIDERED ENTERED INTO THE COMPETITION. You (or Team) can make further changes to your Registration information and/or Entry up until the close of the Competition.

Entrants can select one (1) of the following topics as a main topic and up to two (2) sub topics for their Entry:

● Flora & Fauna

● Food Science

● Earth & Environmental Sciences

● Inventions & Innovation

● Electricity & Electronics

● Robotics

● Biology

● Chemistry

● Physics

● Behavioral & Social Sciences

● Energy & Space

● Astrophysics

● Computer Science & Math

Entries will be placed by the Sponsor and/or Judging Panel (as defined below) into the Category that they determine, in Sponsor’s and/or the Judging Panel’s sole discretion, best represents the Entry subject matter for judging purposes (although the Judging Panel will take the Entrants’ topic selections into consideration when placing the Entries into a Category: Experimenting Category or Engineering Category).

● EXPERIMENTING CATEGORY INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING TOPICS:

Behavioral & Social Sciences, Biology, Chemistry, Environmental, Flora & Fauna, Food Science

● ENGINEERING CATEGORY INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING TOPICS:

Astrophysics, Energy & Space, Physics, Electricity & Electronics, Inventions & Innovations, Robotics, Computer Science & Math

Entrants must complete all sections of the template on the Competition Site:

Section 1: Summary o A brief overview of your Entry. Optional additions to your summary (submit only one (1) of the following options):  a two (2) minute video (YouTube only) OR o a slideshow (Google Slides only) with a maximum of twenty (20) slides

Note: Videos not produced using YouTube and slides not produced using Google Slides will be disqualified and not viewed.

Section 2: About Me:  Introduce yourself/your team.

Section 3: Question/Proposal:  Describe the question that you are investigating and your hypothesis, or the problem that you are going to try to solve and the outcome that you expect.

Section 4: Research: An account of the research that you have done into your chosen category, and how this has influenced your Entry.

Section 5: Method/Testing and Redesign o Describe in detail how you carried out your experiment or tested your solution.

Section 6: Results o Data and observations gathered during your experiment or testing, presented clearly, including a description of any patterns or trends.

Section 7: Conclusion/Report o An explanation of how your experiment or testing answers your question, or why it 7 fails to do so, and whether or not the outcome was as you expected.

Section 8: Bibliography, References and Acknowledgements

D. Technical and Language Requirements:

● Optional Entry Summary Video (YouTube only): Maximum running time is two (2) minutes. If the video is longer than two (2) minutes, only the initial two (2) minutes will be judged.

● Optional Entry Summary Slideshow (Google Slides only): Maximum of twenty (20) slides. If the presentation is longer than twenty (20) slides, only the first twenty (20) slides will be judged.

● Language: Submissions may be submitted in one of the following languages: English, German, Italian, Spanish, French, Arabic, Hebrew, Polish, Japanese, Russian, Turkish, Portuguese, Korean, or Chinese (simplified or traditional). However, you may submit Entries in any language, provided you also provide an English translation/script for English speaking judges. Language used for submission will have no impact on an Entrant’s or Team’s opportunity to progress in the Competition.

E. Additional Entry Restrictions: Projects involving human subjects, human data or human testing are limited to the following:

Use of data from pre-existing, publicly available resources;

Use of data from behavioral observations of unrestricted, public settings;

Use of data received and recorded in an anonymous/de-identified format;

Projects involving animal subjects or animal data are limited to the following: Use of data from pre-existing, publicly available resources;

Use of data from observational or behavioral projects that involve animals in their natural environment or in an existing observation laboratory (e.g. a university).

Projects involving biological agent subjects, biological agent data or biological testing are limited to the following: Use of data from pre-existing, publicly available resources;

Use of organisms recorded as being in Biosafety Level 1 (BSL1) and lower;

Approved categories include; Baker’s yeast and brewer’s yeast, except when involved with DNA studies; Lactobacillus, Bacillus thuringiensis, nitrogen-fixing, oil-eating bacteria, slime mold and algae-eating bacteria introduced into their natural environment.

Culture of bacteria or fungi within domestic areas is strictly prohibited. Culture where carried out must be in sealed petri dishes under appropriate supervision by professionals routinely engaged in biological agent culture, by participants with access to autoclaving facilities. Studies of mold growth on food items outside of a professional laboratory may only be allowed if the experiment is terminated at the first evidence of mold; Use of tissues are limited to the following: Plant tissue; Established cell and tissue cultures (e.g., obtained from the American Type Culture Collection).

Note: The source and catalog number of all cultures should be identified in the Research Plan. Meat or meat by-products obtained from food stores, restaurants, or packing houses; Hair; Teeth that have been sterilized to kill any bloodborne pathogen that may be present. (Chemical disinfection or autoclaving at 121 degrees Celsius for twenty (20) minutes is a recommended procedure); Fossilized tissue or archeological specimens. No project may involve usage or handling of hazardous chemicals. T

HE USE OF CARCINOGENS OF ANY CATEGORY IS STRICTLY BANNED.