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Participation Details

Who is eligible to participate?

3 Age categories are defined for IRIS 2007 participation:

• Category I: 5th -8th Std, Age < 13 yrs
• Category II: 9th -12th Std, Age < 20 yrs
• Category III: College/PG/RA, Age < 35 yrs

Category III will not be eligible for evaluation at IRIS National Fair. It will have separate evaluation process as setup by CII & DST.

For further information on Category III please send email to seema.gupta@ciionline.org

Age of participant will be as years completed as on December 31, 2007. If you have an idea that is original and innovative, you are eligible to participate, individually or in a team of 2. You should be eligible to participate as on December 2007.

Research-based projects alone qualify to participate at the IRIS 2007 National Fair. Hence, your project must be original in content and should be substantiated with data collected from experimentation.

Please contact iris@bom.direm.com for more details

Subject Categories

Subject Categories for participation at IRIS 2007 are one of the following

• Botany
• Biochemistry
• Computer Science
• Chemistry
• Environmental Science
• Earth Science / Space Science
• Engineering
• Mathematics
• Physics
• Zoology

For detailed description click here

Forms to be submitted along with your project synopsis

• Students' Participation Form
• Synopsis and Screening Report
• Supporting Data / Additional Information / Ethics Statement

These forms must reach us before the submission deadline. These forms are attached in the Handbook (see last 4 pages) and are also available on our website: http://istdf.educationindia.net. You can download additional forms for yourself and your friends from this website.

Our Scientific Review Committee (SRC) will evaluate your synopses. The SRC is composed of senior scientists and educationists from renowned institutes like Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) etc. The SRC reviews all the synopses received for participation and selects the most promising ones. Short-listed synopses will be invited to participate at the National Fair.

Participation thruogh affiliated fairs

Various Science Fairs in the country are affiliated with IRIS 2006:

All India/ Central level Science fairs:

• Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti – NVS
• Central Board of Secondary Education Union Territory/ State level Science Fairs organized by:
• Andhra Pradesh
• Chandigarh
• Goa
• Gujarat
• Karnataka
• Kerala
• Madhya Pradesh
• Maharashtra
• Uttar Pradesh
• Rajasthan

We are currently working on opportunities to affiliate with other major science fairs and science institutions in India. Please visit our site for the latest developments and tie ups.

Projects will be selected from these science fairs based on IRIS 2007 judging criteria. In case of a team project, if you have worked as a larger group, please nominate 2 people to represent your project. If selected for IRIS 2007, the other members of your group need to give a No Objection Certificate to the nominees. The projects selected from the Affiliated Fairs together with the short-listed Direct Entry projects participate at the IRIS 2007 National Fairs.

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Entry level

In case of direct entries, students apply for the Handbook/Registration kit.

The Handbook can be obtained through your school, on the IRIS 2007 website or through IRIS 2007 workshops.

Synopsis level

• Students respond with the Participation Form, No Objection Certificate, Screening Report (not required in case of Affiliated Fair), and Project Synopses, latest by 31st August 2007.
• In case of Affiliated Fairs, the Fair Organizers inform IRIS 2006 about the projects selected for IRIS 2007.
• The SRC screens and short-lists projects from Direct entries as well as Affiliated Fair entries.
• Project improvement kits are sent to all the students selected by the judges.

National level

All short-listed students are invited to participate at the National Fair.

Chat session

Online chat sessions with scientists affiliated to IRIS 2007 help short listed students for the National Fair resolve project related queries and further improve their project.

Coaching camp

The winners of the National Fairs undergo 2 coaching session with the scientist from their field, to gear up for their participation at the International level. Finalists from the National Fair are invited to participate at Intel ISEF, held at USA in May.

Points to remember when applying through the affiliated fairs

IRIS 2007 has entered into a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) with the Affiliated Fairs who select projects that meet IRIS 2007 judging criteria. (Please refer to IRIS 2007 judging criteria given in this handbook for further details). IRIS 2007 does not appoint or in any way monitor the judging or the conducting of these Affiliated Fairs.

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IRIS 2007 National Fair Prizes

National Level

Upto 9 projects (6 individual and 3 team projects) from each category II at the National Fair will win either or all of the below:

• A Medallion and a Certificate of Recognition
• A special award of recognition
• An opportunity to improve your project at the IRIS 2007 Coaching Camp
• An opportunity to participate at the International Fair

From these 4 individual and 2 team projects will be selected for participation at ISEF 2008.

Best of subject category

In category II at National Fair one best project from each of the 10 subject categories is awarded

• Certificate of Recognition
• Prize
• Summer Internship at a leading Institute in India

IRIS 2007 Support

Lab tie-ups

To help students improve projects after being short-listed for the National Fair IRIS 2007 has tied up with over 60 science labs across the country for Project Improvement.

Information/Contact details of the labs will be shared with all the short listed students in their Project improvement kits.

Mentors

IRIS 2007 has a resource of over 100 mentors who voluntarily help the National Fair short listed students to improve their projects.

Information/Contact details of the mentors will be shared with all the short listed students in their Project improvement kit.

IRIS 2007 Past Participants Program

At the National Fair 2004, a new program initiative the IRIS 2007 Alumni Club was launched. Through this Club we intend to reach out to past participants and encourage them to continue to remain an active part of the IRIS 2007 family.

For more information contact: mraja@direxions.co.in.

Workshops

IRIS 2007 organizes science workshops for students and teachers. The objective of these workshops is to give the participants about the program details and learnings on how do to research-based project with a scientific approach. Eminent scientists from renowned institutes of India support these workshops with their valuable inputs.

Online Chat Sessions

The objective of the online chat sessions is to give students one to one inputs, from eminent scientists on our Research Panel, to further improve their projects.

Online Science Quiz

This quiz encourages ongoing scientific inquiry among the students, enabling them to in exciting prizes

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