September 4, 2015
MONTGOMERY, W.Va. – The third annual West Virginia State Science, Engineering and Art Fair will be held on Friday, Oct. 16, 2015 at the Neal D. Baisi Athletic Center on the campus of West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Montgomery, Fayette County. This day-long competition provides students with an opportunity to display their knowledge and passion for the sciences as well as showing their creative sides. Integrating the arts with sciences and engineering encourages innovativeness, creativity and contextual thinking and gives students the ability to succeed inside and outside of the classroom. “We are honored to partner with the Higher Education Policy Commission and the West Virginia Division of Culture and History on this program again this year. This is a positive collaboration that connects young students with STEAM educational opportunities and WVU Tech,“ said Carolyn Long, WVU Tech campus president.
Middle school and high school students (6th-12th graders) throughout the state are encouraged to participate in the event. The fair is broken down into five divisions: Investigatory Project Division - experimental research performed on a particular topic with a display to explain the experiment; Display Project Division - informational poster on a research project in the biological and physical sciences with no experiments performed; Art Division - an art object with a scientific theme; Symposium Division - an oral competition open to students with Investigatory, Display or Submitted Papers projects; and Submitted Papers Division - written report from presentations in the Display, Investigatory, and/or Symposium categories. Each division will be judged based on a specific set of criteria, and $1,000 scholarships will be awarded to the winners. Students are allowed to compete in as many divisions as they wish.
Another fun but challenging way for all students to get involved is to enter the Olympiad event division. This competition is open to any student, regardless if he/she has an exhibit entered in the other divisions or not. The name of the Olympiad event this year will be “Fun with Chemistry,” and it will include four separate competitions that are both educational and competitive. Certificates of participation will be given out to all participants of this event.
The West Virginia State Science, Engineering and Art Fair is hosted and sponsored by West Virginia University Institute of Technology in partnership with the West Virginia Division of Culture and History and the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission. Registration is free and open to public, private and home school students.
For more information about the science and art fair, a list of rules, applications and a complete schedule, visit http://sciencefair.wvutech.edu.
The West Virginia Division of Culture and History is an agency within the West Virginia Department of Education and the Arts with Kay Goodwin, Cabinet Secretary. The division, led by Commissioner Randall Reid-Smith, brings together the past, present and future through programs and services focusing on archives and history, arts, historic preservation and museums. For more information about the division’s programs, events and sites, visit www.wvculture.org. The Division of Culture and History is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.
-30-
