Parent to Parent
Contributed by Sandy Walker
Congratulations on your wise decision to allow your child to participate in BASEF 2004!
For many students, BASEF is the first time they are rewarded for their academic endeavours. Students gain considerable academic and life skills by researching, experimenting, displaying and presenting their projects. Make no mistake, all student participants are rewarded with an enriching experience and a certificate of participation, not to mention the "goodie" bags containing the official BASEF 2004 tee-shirt and pin, along with other great gifts. One parent noted that the students were treated like attendees at a convention. Registration is free and includes Activity Day tours and workshops, with lunch included.
Many students and parents view science fair projects as a dreaded, compulsory school assignment and have no idea of the available rewards for successful science fair participants. BASEF 2003 awarded over $71,000 in cash, scholarships and prizes. Twenty four BASEF students received all expenses paid, Grand Trip Awards to the Canada Wide Science Fair in Calgary, Alberta or the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, in Cleveland, Ohio. Almost 200 students shared in the awards.
Several of our top students received more than $1000 in cash, trips, scholarships, medals, plaques and trophies. Many of these students won additional awards at the National and International Fairs. BASEF 2003, Best in Fair Award winner Dayna Walker, 13 years old, won a total of $6000 in cash and prizes in the 2003 science fair year.
BASEF
2003 Grand Trip Award Winners
Members of the BASEF 2003 CWSF Calgary Delegation 
BASEF
members of Team Canada 2003 in Cleveland
Who says science fair participation is all work with little reward?
Activity Day
As another incentive, we offer all of our participants Activity Day
events. These events are absolutely free, including lunch and transportation.
Some of the activities scheduled for BASEF 2003 included hands on workshops in
the chemistry and engineering labs at McMaster, aesthetics, metal casting and
computer programming at Mohawk College, and tours of the Canadian Warplane
Heritage Museum and Canada Centre for Inland Waters. Students select their
preferred morning and afternoon activity, along with some alternate choices.
Registration for activities is on a first come, first served basis, based on the
date of the on line registraton.
At
BASEF 2003, over 15 different activities were organized for participating
students. These activities are free, including transportation and lunch. We
believe that our hard working students deserve some time to enjoy a variety of
activities and meet other students interested in science in technology.
Parent Responsibilities
Day 1:
Project set up for the fair occurs on Wednesday,
March 31, 2004 from 4:00 pm - 8:00 pm at Mohawk College. Your child will visit
a registration desk and find out their assigned display area in the gym and
receive information about the activities they are enrolled in. After the project
is set up, one of our many safety inspectors will ensure that the project meets
all safety guidelines. The registration process and project set up actually
takes less than an hour.
Day 2:
Students are required to be at their projects for
judging on Thursday, April 1, 2004 from 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm.
Day 3:
Activity Day, Friday, April 2, 2003, 8:00 am - 4:00 pm Students must
be dropped off and picked up at Mohawk for participation in their assigned
activities.
Day 4:
Public Viewing and Awards Ceremony Public viewing takes
place between 10:00 am - 12:00 pm on Saturday, April 3, 2004. This is followed
by the Awards Ceremony from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm. We strongly recommend that you
attend the public viewing with your child. It will give you an opportunity to
view all of the great projects on display, and to see your own child doing
presentations for visitors. The Awards Ceremony is the culmination of the Fair
and where the hard work of our students is recognized. Project take down occurs
after the Awards Ceremony because many of our participants are photographed and
interviewed by the press in front of their award winning projects.
Please
note:Our trip award winners and a parent are required to attend a
mandatory information meeting (approximately one hour in length) immediately
after the Awards Ceremony.
Miscellaneous:
How to get Mohawk College
A
map, directions to the campus and drop off/pick up areas will be posted in the
near future on the BASEF 2004 website http://basef.mcmaster.ca/2004
Dress Code:
We suggest neat and casual, with the emphasis on neat. Special
clothing requirements (gym clothes etc.) for activity day will be available
during on site registration.
The BASEF experience doesn't end with science fairs.
BASEF
students Dayna Walker, Sean Curtis and Anthony Chiarelli were invited to present
their projects at the SciTech Ontario Media Launch, at Durham College, in March,
2003. They met the Ontario Minister of Enterprise, Opportunity and Innovation,
James Flaherty, as well as dignitaries from Durham College, Ontario University,
Pfizer Canada and Fielding Chemicals.
Seven
BASEF 2003 students won Special Awards generously donated and judged by Dofasco.
In April, 2003, these students were invited to display and present their projects
at the Dofasco Creativity and Innovation Fair. The fair was attended by numerous
Dofasco staff members and each of the students was presented with a framed certificate.
Students were reminded that if, and when, they ever applied for temporary or
full time employment at Dofasco, they make mention of their Dofasco award.
We believe all students should be given the
opportunity to participate in science fairs. Students learn invaluable academic
and life skills through researching, experimenting, displaying and presenting
their projects. The judging process and public viewing components allow students
to practise their "people" skills and gain self confidence and a sense
of accomplishment for a job well done.
Sandy Walker was a Medical Laboratory Technologist, employed as the Diagnostic Unit Manager of Clinical Chemistry at McMaster University Medical Centre until her early retirement. She has experienced science fairs as a novice and veteran, coaching her daughter Dayna to prepare award winning projects for BASEF 2002 and BASEF 2003. In 2003, she coached students from St. Augustine School in Dundas.Two of these students advanced to the Canada Wide Science Fair.