Fulton County Schools - Where Students Come First

2007 - 2008 Technology Competition
FAQ

REGISTRATION

When is the registration window ?
Registration will open on December 8, 2008 and will close January 16, 2009 at 4 pm.

Who does the registering?
Each school will have a designated liaison who will register the entrants. Contact the School Technology Specialist to find out the name of the liaison.

Are there any changes from last year’s competition guidelines?
1 – single date with different times for grades 3-6 and 7-12
2 – case modification category has been reinstated

Will there be placeholders this year?
There will be no placeholders offered this year. Students must be registered by name. No substitutions will be allowed.

How many projects may a student enter?
A student may register for one project in the Fulton County Technology Competition. A student may enter as an individual or as a member of a team, but NOT BOTH.

What is considered a category?
The Technology Competition categories are descriptions of types of entries. For the 2008-2009 Fulton County Technology Competition the categories include: Multimedia, Digital Video Editing, Animated Graphic Design, Non-Animated Graphic Design, Digital Photography, 3D Modeling, Internet, Non-Multimedia, Project Programming, Case Modification, and Robotics. Two additional categories, Hardware and Individual Programming Challenge, are available for students in grades 7-12 only.

How many projects may be entered from each school?
With the exception of Multimedia (explanation below), two entries per category per school will be accepted, regardless of the grade levels of those entries. A grand total of two entries per school per category will be accepted.

Three Multimedia entrants for elementary school, three Multimedia entrants for middle school and four Multimedia entrants for high school will be accepted.

Why are the middle school entries split up across two competitions?
The state will only accept one winner in each category for the 5th /6th grade grouping.

How many students may be on a team?
A team consists of two students only.

What if team members are in different age groupings?
If the grade levels of team members fall in two different age groupings, the team will compete in the age grouping of the older student.

Must both team members attend the competition?
The team can be represented by one member.

TIMEFRAME

What time do I need to be there?
Students in grades 3 – 6 will check-in from 7:00 am – 8:00 am. Once the check-in desk has been closed, students will not be able to check-in or be eligible to be judged. It is anticipated that judging for the Competition will be concluded by noon; however, the award ceremony may begin as late as 1 pm.

Students in grades 7-12 will check-in from 12:30 pm. – 1:15 pm. Once the check-in desk has been closed, students will not be able to check-in or be eligible to be judged. It is anticipated that judging for the Competition will be concluded by 4 pm.; however, the award ceremony may begin as late as 4:30 pm.

JUDGING

How long will the judging process be for each entrant?
Each entrant will be allotted a maximum of 15 minutes for judging.

What grade levels are judged together?
Our grade groupings are based on the grade groupings at the state competition. Grade groupings are 3-4, 5-6, which will compete in the morning of January 31, and 7-8, 9-10, 11-12, which will compete in the afternoon of January 31, 2009. The one exception is the Multimedia category. In this category, each grade level will compete separately. Ex: grades 3, 4, 5, 6, etc.

NOTE : 6th grade students are judged in the morning with the elementary students because the state competition is grouped in this manner.

Is the team competition separate, or are they judged together with individual entries?
As is done at the state level, in categories where teams are permitted, teams and individuals compete against each other. (Programming Challenge is for individual entrants only.)

Is a notebook required this year?
Notebooks will no longer be required. Instead a 2 page document will be filled out by students which will answer a few questions for the judges and will document required permissions. This form will be available here as soon as it is released from the state.

The only exception is that the Programming Challenge category does not require a notebook. For further information, please refer to the link Project Notebook from the Technology Competition notebook.

What time does my student compete as he/she has other commitments that day?
Students in grades 3 – 6 will be judged from 8:00 a.m. to noon.

Students in grades 7-12 will be judged from 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm.

The exact judging time for each entry depends on the number of entries in each grade level and category. Due to many factors, specific judging times cannot be specified.

VOLUNTEERS

How many volunteers must each school provide for the Technology Competition?
Each school needs to provide a liaison for the Competition to handle registration as well as communication between the school and the Technology Competition Committee In addition, each participating school must submit the name of at least one volunteer for the day of the competition.

If I am a middle school volunteer do I have to attend all day?
The volunteer is only expected to attend the competition during the time period of their school’s competition time. Middle School volunteers are encouraged to volunteer in the afternoon.

LOCAL TECHNOLOGY COMPETITION

Must there be a Technology Competition in my school?
No school is required to have a local competition as long as there is some process at the local school level to determine which students may compete in the Fulton County Competition. In keeping with the limitations described above, a local school competition is not a requirement. If the school DOES have a local competition, it must be held before January 15 since registration closes on January 16.