ISEF shot

[Jacobshhs]

I did a project this last year on Motivation and cognitive function.. My results were brand new ( IE non confirmatory) I looked at possessional experiments. Many of my findings large and non confirmatory results were Statistically significant (all being tested for significance using one-way ANOVAs and F-tests) My experiment tested the effect of a motivator on a low-stake test, against a non motivated group on the same test. So my question is do I have a shot at ISEF?

[AerospaceGuy]

Hi Jacobshhs,

First off, let me say that I'm not affiliated with ISEF so I cannot guarantee that you will qualify for ISEF. However, I did participate in the 2007 ISEF so I may be able to help you with little advice.

I cannot say that I understand what you are talking about (I'm in aerospace, not in psychology studies), but I CAN tell you this: to qualify for ISEF, you usually need to be a top winner at a local Intel-affiliated science fair, such as a regional or state fair. So, the first thing you should do is find out which fair can present you with the opportunity to qualify to present your project at the ISEF, and then seek out advisers from that fair and check with them. Ask them if they think you could have a chance at qualifying, and take their advice into consideration.

Also, I should note that it sounds like you used human subjects in your project--this involves extra paperwork. Science Fairs always make sure that human subject testing was done ethically and safely, etc., so MAKE SURE that you know all about the human subject testing forms you need to submit to the Intel-affiliated fair.

I can offer the following resource for help: the ISEF is run by an organization called The Society for Science and the Public. On their official web site, they host a search engine that goes through all ISEF abstracts since 2003. An abstract is a one-page explanation of a science project that all participants must submit. You can use this search engine to find similar projects to your own, and see what they have and what they did. This will help you to determine what you need to do/not do in order to possibly qualify for the ISEF. I recommend that you search for abstracts from the past couple of years or so. When searching, choose the year you want to search, and the field of science, then leave everything else blank except for the keyword section, in which you should put the key term(s) of your project to help search for similar projects. I think that this resource can help you a lot. The link to the search engine is here:
https://apps.societyforscience.org/abstracts/

Also, that web site hosts all the rules and guidelines for the ISEF, so take a look at those at this link:
http://www.societyforscience.org/isef/document

Science Buddies can help you out, too. Our Project Guide has dozens of pages worth of advice and helpful information about conducting and presenting your project, all based on ISEF guidelines. The Project Guide is here:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ndex.shtml

I hope you have found this information useful. Again, you can get to ISEF by going through an Intel-affiliated local science fair (regional, and/or state), so figure out how you can get to ISEF, and then ask people involved with the fair that can get you there for advice about qualifying for ISEF.

Good luck! Let me know if you have any other questions.