Competition
The 2012 Aspire Science Competition is open to students in the United States in grades nine through twelve who have completed an individual or team research project in the fields of mathematics, science (biological or physical), or engineering. Students are required to concisely explain their scientific research in a research report. Projects involving interaction with human subjects are not allowed. Teams may only be of two or three students. Note that the option for submitting projects reviewing published literature has been replaced by a research proposal option this year.
The research report should cover the problem or question being examined (and the importance of this problem), and materials and methods used to solve the problem. Students should also address results, their interpretation and conclusions if the experiment was carried out, or how data could be analyzed if they did not have the resources to conduct the experiment. The maximum length of the report is eight pages; note that this includes tables, graphs, figures, and illustrations, as well as appendices. References are not included in the eight-page limit, but should be submitted together with the rest of your report.
Research reports will be judged for clarity, creativity, independence in research, originality, relevance, scientific process, and understanding of related work. In addition to the research report, which should be submitted as a document (PDF format is preferred), an abstract (maximum 250 words) and a short project description (maximum 350 characters) will be submitted in text. Neither of these are included in the eight-page limit for the research report.
The deadline for registration and submission of projects is March 21st, 2012. More information is available in the 2012 Aspire Science Competition Rules and Guidelines.
Awards
Up to two hundred semifinalists will be recognized on April 21st, 2012. Then, on April 28th, 2012, up to five finalists will be selected from the pool of semifinalists.
Each 2012 Aspire Science Competition finalist will receive $200.
Winners of past competitions are listed here.