Junior Science and Humanities Symposium

What is the JSHS?

The Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS) is a scientifc research paper competition. A 'paper competition" is an event in which students present the results of their research paper to a group of judges. JSHS is for students in grades 9-12 in the tri-state (Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota) area. The JSHS competition will now occur just prior to the State Science & Engineering Fair (the Fair is a project competition for both Junior and Senior High students and a paper Competition for Junior High students).

JSHS has an emphasis both on sharing and doing science. The program is modeled after professional scientific symposia: students present the results of their independent research orally in a competition that is as much forensic as scientific.

Eligibility

Senior High students have an opportunity to enter the Minnesota Academy of Science Junior Science and Humanities Symposium by winning a spot at a Regional Fair Competition. Submit a paper to your Regional Science Fair. If you are one of the winners from your region, you will automatically be qualified to compete in the Tri-State JSHS. Registration is now closed
Application Deadline: 5 business days after qualifying Regional Fair.
All registrations must be completed by 3/8/2010

How long is my presentation?

Your primary JSHS presentation should be 12 minutes long, with an additional 6 minutes for Questions and Answers by the judges.

You are not required to present a Power Point or other technological presentation, but most students do. Each room will be equipped with a projection screen and an extension cord for such purposes. In 2009, the MN Academy of Science, thanks to the generosity of Breck School, will be able to provide projectors for all presentations and may be able to provide laptops for all presentations as well. Please bring your presentation (in a PowerPoint format) on a memory stick to upload to our laptop when you arrive. NOT ALL LAPTOPS will accept a Vista version of PowerPoint, so please also save your presentation as a 2007 or earlier version. We also recommend you bring your own laptop in case your presentation does not format correctly on the provided laptop.

You should bring 5-10 copies of your abstracts to hand out to the judges in your room.

If you are invited to present your paper research in the Callback round later on Saturday night, you will need to present a shorter version - you will have 8 minutes to present, with 5 minutes of Q & A. Again, you are responsible to provide your own equipment for Power Point presentations.

How are JSHS Scores tabulated?

JSHS has two rounds - a 1st round in which all competitors present - and a 2nd "callback" round limited to the top 9 or 10 presentations.

In the 1st round, judges score students presentations on a scale of 1-30, using a score sheet provided by the National JSHS organization. These scores are "normalized" using a popular statistical calculation that MAS uses for Project scoring during the State Science & Engineering Fair (and which is used at many regional, state, and international competitions).

The top presentations from round 1 are invited to the 2nd "callback" round to present a shorter (8 minute) presentation. Judges in the 2nd round see all the same papers and rank the paper presentations they watch. Rankings are used to determine the National JSHS winners. If a numeric tie occurs, the judges discuss and resolve the tie.

Important Dates

Check back later for this year's dates

NEWS

	Become a Volunter Judge
	Everything you need to know about JSHS