Long Rules
1. Title
These rules govern the "Kids Read Science" and the "Teens Read Science" 2011 summer science-reading contests. No lawyers were harmed in the writing of these rules.
2. Online Information
The official URL for Kids Read Science is http://KidsReadScience.org; for Teens Read Science it's http://TeensReadScience.org.
These are the primary sources for all announcements and information about the contest.
Submission forms are at these URLs: http://KidsReadScience.org/submission and http://TeensReadScience.org/submission.
You can follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/KidsReadScience and http://twitter.com/TeenReadScience; and join our Facebook groups: Kids Read Science and Teens Read Science.
3. The Contest
These are contests to promote science literacy in young people in two ways. First, young and teen readers enter the contest by reading a book about science and creating and posting online a video about their book. Second, the collection of contest book-videos is a resource for other young and teen readers who would benefit from peer-group reading recommendations.
4. How to Enter
4.1. Read a Book about Science
The book chosen by the contestant must be a nonfiction book that discusses any topic in science, engineering, mathematics, or technology, or is about the life of a scientist, engineer, or mathematician. The book may be written for any age group or reading level.
4.2. Make a Video about the Book
Make a video less than 5 minutes long about why someone else your age should or should not read the book, according to the guidelines below.
4.3. Submit the Video by the Deadline
Your video must be uploaded according to one of the methods described below, and a submission form sent to KidsReadScience or TeensReadScience so we know how find your book video and contact you if your video wins a prize.
5. Who can enter
Anyone in the United States who is at least 8 years old and 18 years old or younger at the time they submit their contest entry may submit one entry to the appropriate contest.
For purposes of judging videos will be sorted into two groups by the age of the creator:
- Ages 8 through 12
- Ages 13 through 18
6. Submitting entries
Every eligible reader may submit one, and only one contest entry. Submission means 1) posting your video online; and 2) completing a submission form.
6.1. YouTube
Our preferred method of entry is for you to post your video in your own channel on YouTube.com, labeling it with the tag "KidsReadScience", if your age is 8 through 12, or "TeensReadScience" if your age is 13 through 18. This allows us to favorite contest videos in our own channel so that they can be easily viewed by everyone.
Then complete the submission form.
6.2. Other Online
You may post your video entry at any other online video host so long as the video is visible to, and viewable by, the public without requiring user-account creation, passwords, or other additional permissions. The contest organizers may, at their discretion, download the video for upload on a different server, such as YouTube.com.
Then complete the submission form.
6.3. Submission Form
Every video posted online as a contest entry must be accompanied by an official submission form, found at these URLs: http://KidsReadScience.org/submission and http://TeensReadScience.org/submission.
The forms ask for your name and contact information so that we can inform you if you win a prize, and the location of your video contest entry so we can find it!
6.4. Email
The email addresses for contacting contest organizers is info@KidsReadScience.org or info@TeensReadScience.org. Please do not send videos to this mailbox.
7. Duration & Deadlines
The 2011 contest accepts submissions between the March Equinox of 2011 (20 March) and the September Equinox of 2011 (23 September). Read your book anytime during that period and submit your video, but your video and submission form must be received no later than 11 pm (Central Daylight Time) on 23 September 2011 to be an official contest entry.
8. Selecting a book
If you need help selecting a suitable book, we suggest you ask a science teacher, school librarian, or public librarian for help finding a good book. Science teachers and librarians make great friends!
9. Video length
Video entries must be less than 5 minutes long.
10. What goes in the video
The video must contain
- The title of the book
- The author of the book
- The reader’s recommendation and explanation of why others who are the same age as the reader should or should not choose to read the book.
Otherwise the video may use any production technique that suits the creativity of the reader. Keep in mind that video submissions will be seen by a large number of people and keep your video rated “G”.
11. Using Others’ Work
Do not use someone else’s words, music, or images in your video unless you have their permission.
12. Judging & Prizes
Video submissions will be judged by a panel of 3 or more professional scientists, book authors, and librarians.
Judges will assess videos based on several criteria, including
- Suitability as a book review
- Clarity of presentation
- Creativity of production
Judges will not reveal scores or critiques of individual videos but will announce and award prizes in the following categories for each age group:
- First place
- Second place
- Third place
- Notable creativity
The prizes will be awarded at the discretion of the judges and their decisions shall be final.
13. Misrepresentation
Misrepresentation in information provided in submission forms or in video submissions may disqualify a video from the contest: be honest about your age and don’t submit a video about a book you didn’t actually read or a video that you didn't make yourself.
14. Use by Ars Hermeneutica and Joanne Loves Science
Submission of a video to Kids Read Science or Teens Read Science grants non-exclusive permission for Joanne Loves Science and Ars Hermeneutica, Limited to use the video in their projects in science outreach and spreading knowledge about science. All other rights remain with the creator of the video –- it belongs to you and this permission is not meant to restrict your rights in any way.
15. Auspices
Kids Read Science and Teens Read Science are a collaboration between Joanne Loves Science and the Scienticity Project of Ars Hermeneutica, Limited, a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization with a mission of increasing science literacy. Thanks for participating!
16. Who We Are
16.1. Joanne Loves Science
"Joanne Loves Science" is the result of Joanne Mannaster's passion for science, a passion she wants to share with young men and women. She believes science is fun, fascinating and can be accessible to everyone, and that the more people know about science, the more interesting the world becomes!
An important aspect of Joanne's science outreach is to encourage young men and women to not be afraid of pursuing science for fear of stereotyping themselves as a nerd or geek. She says: "In my experience, most every student I meet is extremely well rounded and knows quite a bit about a lot of things, not just science, and some dress quite fashionably within the budget they can afford ... as long as they don't mind the chance they could spill some hydrochloric acid on their designer jeans!"
http://joannelovesscience.com.
16.2. Scienticity Project
"Scienticity" is a word we use to mean how much a person or a culture has integrated an analytical and rational outlook into one's world-view. Scienticity means stopping to smell the flowers, admiring their color, and noticing their botanical names, too.
Scienticity takes nature as it presents itself. It's an attitude that believes nature can be understood in nature's terms, and that understanding nature is a worthwhile enterprise. In particular, scientific ideas in public discourse often appear surrounded by confusion or misunderstanding; this is bad for people and bad for democracy.
At the Scienticity Project we do our best to study and explain science as accurately and precisely as we can. We don't want to be scientific arbiters for everyone. Our goal is to arm people with their own snake-oil detectors, tools to help everyone, every day, with an understanding of how good science operates so that they can navigate their own course in an otherwise forbidding technical landscape.
Scienticity is the idea that unifies all of Ars Hermeneutica's projects in informal science education and science outreach. These projects embody our efforts towards our vision of increasing scientific literacy in America.
