Registration Open for the NAIVSEF Senior Division

AISES is hosting its third National American Indian Virtual Science and Engineering Fair (NAIVSEF) this spring! The NAIVSEF Senior Division (grades 9-12) may now register online!  Registration ends January 26, 2016.  Junior Division students (grades 5-8) will register starting February 1st. The NAIVSEF is a Society for Science and the Public (SSP) affiliated science fair and as such is part of the larger SSP fair network. The NAIVSEF differs from other SSP-affiliated fairs in that it is a “Virtual Science Fair.” Unlike live fairs, virtual fairs do not require travel as the fair and judging is conducted online and via teleconference calls. 

Senior Division participants will submit their science fair projects as videos and slideshows online by March 22nd. Last year’s winning entries can be viewed here:  http://www.aises.org/programs/pre-college. AISES awards cash prizes to senior and junior division winners and also pays all the travel and registration fees for the Senior Division Grand Award winners and their sponsors to attend the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF).  This year's National ISEF will be held in Phoenix, Arizona on May 8-13, 2016. 

AISES permits students from 5th-12th grades to participate in its NAIVSEF event. There are two categories for entrants, Senior Division (defined as grades 9-12) and Junior Division (defined as grades 5-8).  Per ISEF rules, only high school students (grades 9-12) may go on to participate in the National ISEF competition. Each division has its own timeline. Fair days (the dates teleconference interview calls are held) for Senior Division are April 2-3, 2016, whereas, fair days for Junior Division are April 23-24, 2016.

NAIVSEF projects may be submitted by individual students or teams of up to two students. Students must either be an AISES Pre-College member (Only $5! http://www.aises.org/membership) or a student attending an AISES Pre-College Affiliate School (Free! http://www.aises.org/membership/pre-college) to participate.

For questions contact: Kathy DeerInWater at: kdeerinwater@aises.org.

Registration:

Students MUST register for this fair online. Senior Division/High School students must follow ISEF International Rules and Guidelines (https://member.societyforscience.org/document.doc?id=639) in addition to the AISES NAIVSEF division policies and rules.  Junior Division/Middle School teams will submit forms that are less rigorous but which introduce them to the ISEF standards. Registrations are considered complete when all forms and documents have been completed and uploaded. For time/date stamp considerations, the completion date/time is used to determine when the entry was received. This event is limited to 100 high school projects and 75 middle school projects.

The AISES NAIVSEF Division Policies, Procedures and Rules, the NAIVSEF timeline, NAIVSEF forms, and a link to our online registration platform are posted on our website at: www.aises.org/events/naivsef.

Fees:

The registration fee is $25.00 per High School (Senior Division) project (not per student) or $10.00 per Middle School (Junior Division) project. 

Timelines for 2016 NAIVSEF

*Before experimentation, unless a properly signed Form 1C is provided, the AISES SRC reviews and approves those experimental procedures for projects involving human subjects, nonhuman vertebrates, pathogenic agents, controlled substances, recombinant DNA, and human/animal tissue to make sure they comply with the Rules and any pertinent laws per ISEF Rules.  Note:  Research previously reviewed and approved by a properly constituted IRB (per ISEF Rules) does not have to be reviewed by the SRC until competition.  Most NAIVSEF projects do not require this Initial NAIVSEF SRC Review as they do not trigger this review OR they were approved by a local SRC/IRB and experimentation was already underway.