Wednesday, March 29, 2023

History Fair: Details, Judging and Everything You Need to Know to Succeed

 


Ok here is everything you need to know about our upcoming history fair. I went over all of this information in class so it shouldn't be a surprise to you but please make sure to read through the infromation carefully, there may be something you missed!

Who: All the Vanguard Youth
What: A History Fair -- basically like a science fair but for history!
Where and When: 
April 17th, 
5:30 (set up)
6-7 p.m. (judging)
7-8 p.m. for award ceremony and parents reception.  
259 E Alpine Dr, Elk Ridge, UT 84651

PRIZES will be GIFT CARDS of GREAT VALUE. And a ribbon. 
The judges will determine 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. 



What you need to complete: You need to have a trifold board that clearly displays :
  • The title of your project
  • Photos or illustrations or graphics
  • A bibliography (more details on that below)
  • Typed, written research
In front of your trifold board you will be placing your project that you completed this semester. 

Examples of tidy, eye-catching trifolds are these: (found on google)

Notice, the first student obviously has artistic talent so she used that to her advantage. Notice how clear, tidy and interesting it is to look at. The second student is probably not an artist, yet he accomplishes  having an eye-catching board through the use of color and easy-to-read and organized information. 

Not sure what font size to use on your trifold board? Here is a good guideline: 

FONT SIZES:
 >100 for your title, 
32-48 for headers
16-18 for body text
12- 14 for captions

Remember that the person reading your board is standing a few feet away from it, not reading it like a paper. These larger font sizes also help limit the amount of text on your board.

Not sure how to make a bibliography? No problem! Read this article and ask for help if you need it! The person judging your research WILL be looking at the quality of your sources. All three sources from Wikipidia will not be to your advantage. A variety of sources from reputable books/articles/websites is what you are going for :) 

HERE IS THE LINK FOR THE BIBLIOGRAPHY TUTORIAL


FINAL Guidelines -- PLEASE NOTE, if even ONE of these is not followed then you will not be able to place your exhibit for judging! Pay attention to the rules below:


Project Guidelines

Research is displayed on a trifold board.

Bibliography is displayed on their trifold board

Visuals are for more than being pretty, they are an integral part of your trifold board

A title for their project is clearly displayed on the trifold board

You have prepared a 2 minute speech/presentation to give

to the judges when they come to your booth.

Your physical project is complete – not half finished

If you are using media for your project, note the following:

Media Devices include headphones for listening

Media devices are no longer than 3 minutes in length

Media devices are easy to start and stop and require no assistance to use

Media devices are fully charged do not require a cord


(NOTE the times, judges will have a stop watch to time your presentation, they will cut you off at 2 minutes. Media must be less than 3 minutes)


So, I bet you want to know .... HOW EXACTLY WILL WE BE JUDGED?! I would love to wow our judges and make it hard for them to choose our winners. With that in mind if we all rise to the challenge and excell at this project then it's going to be the small details that set your project apart from the rest. Are you ready to give this project the extra effort and finish the school year strong? Here is the judging criteria that will be used:


65% Project and Visuals- Your display and your finished project. I realize you've sepnt the entire school year working on the finished project so I want that to weigh heavily into your final score.


35% Historical Quality- The strength of your research, the quality of the information that you share.


10% Presentation Skills- Eye contact, confidence, clarity of speaking, sharing intersting information about your project. The presentation you give to the judges should be specifically about what you created, NOT about your research alone. You need to show them what you made and talk about the process, it's historical significance, why you chose it, what you learned from it ... focus on the project.

This is the grading rubric I'll be giving to the judges:

Finished Project

Finished project shows attention to detail and quality. You can tell the student spent 8+ hours on the project.

Finished project shows attention to detail and quality. Nicely done. 

Project is finished, could use some more finessing or polishing but the student did a good job. 

Visual Materials

Visuals on the display board are tidy and add to the overall visual appeal of the project.

Visuals on the display board are mostly tidy and add to the overall visual appeal of the project.

Visuals on the display board are somewhat tidy and mostly add to the overall visual appeal of the project.

Research

The research on the display shows a gold level of research. Is interesting to read and goes beyond basic information

The research on the display shows a silver level of research. It is interesting but still somewhat basic. It could go deeper.

The research on the display shows a bronze level of research. You didn’t necessarily learn anything new. 

Creativity

This project is oozing with creativity, in how they put together their display or how they present their final project. You want to stop and look at it longer. 

This project shows creativity in how they put together their display or how they present their final project. It draws your attention.

This project shows basic creativity in how they put together their display or how they present their final project. 

Speaking Skills

Speaker was engaging, confident, had great eye contact and clarity and they were able to speak about their project for up to 2 minutes. 

Speaker did a great job. They may need to work on confidence or eye contact or clarity but overall a good job. 

Speaker could use more practice giving their presentation to be polished enough for presenting. 

Rules

Project followed ALL guidelines


Project failed to follow all guidelines





You will need to pace yourself. We will still have homework on our last history week because we need to learn about the Civil War before we end the year! I will keep it light(ish) and focus on finishing our timeline and doing our notes from our reading and then the rest of the time will be for you to work on your project. With that said, you may want to be working consistently on your final project in these next few weeks a little at a time. 
Create a timeline for yourself and figure out what you need to accomplish  each week to put you on track to present your project on April 17th (roughly 2 1/2 weeks from today! The History Fair falls on the Monday following our LAST history class of the year). 
You can do this, I've been hearing about your project all year and I'll be very excited to SEE it. The two judges are both history buffs who are looking forward to attending our fair. Any questions?? Send a text!