Project book and diary
The judges will collect your report book for a closer look at your project. Both individual and group entries must keep a diary, it forms a vital part of your 3 project elements.
Project Book
This may not be returned to you until the end of the exhibition. However, be assured that each report book will be studied carefully by the assigned judges in the judging rooms. Also please note that not all assigned judges will sign your report book. In some cases only the first judge will sign your book, but this does not indicate in any way that your project is weak.
N.B. When you arrive at the R.D.S. please make sure that you write your stand number on the front of your report book as this will ensure that your report book is returned to the correct stand.
Your report book forms a vital part of your 3 project elements. It should be no more than 50 pages of text (word processed) plus appendices and references:
1. Title page
This contains the name of the project, name of school and name of student.
2. Comments page
Put a page into your report book which may be signed by a judge. Again please note that not all assigned judges may sign your report book.
3. Contents page
Includes the sections and page numbers of the report.
4. Summary / abstract
This is a very important part of your project. Ideally it should be about two pages long and include a short summary of your project. If someone reads this summary they should understand what you were setting out to achieve and what your main results and conclusions are.
5. Introduction
This should set the scene for your report. Why did you do the project and what did you hope to achieve? In this section you should also refer to experiments, surveys, questionnaires and the part they played in your project. Make sure you refer to previous research in this area.
6. Experimental methods
This section should describe the experiments you carried out. Keep in mind the value of diagrams and illustrations.
7. Results
You should include a good sample of your measurements and all of your important results in this section. You can include the bulk of your readings and measurements in appendices.
8. Conclusions and recommendations
You should comment on the results of your work in this unit. Be clear and concise. How does your work compare with existing theories? How accurate is the data you got from your study? What are the strong and weak points of your methods? How might your work be extended and improved? Does your project contribute to scientific knowledge and research?
9. Acknowledgements
At the end of your report acknowledge any help you received during the project for example, teachers, companies, institutions and parents.
10. Appendices
Additional information, reports, and any letters or correspondence.
11. References
List any books, articles, web pages and references that helped you in your project.
Project Diary
This diary should contain day-to-day records of how the project is going from the start of your project. Remember to record all the names of books you have reference or looked up and all the people or institutions you have contacted.
If you are working as a group, remember to appoint a leader. The leader should keep all relevant information and appoint a group member to keep the diary.
PowerPoint Presentation
This is what will replace your presentation board as we are virtual this year. You can use this as an aid during judging to refer to, just as you would the poster at the physical exhibition. Include what you feel is most relevant/significant and be sure to include a few graphs or diagrams if necessary. If you want to use this PowerPoint to explain your project to the judges during the interview stage, the BT co-ordinator on the judging call will share your presentation from their laptop.
To help with this we ask that you name your presentation as “Stand XXXX Presentation”. Please do not include any product placement or advertising within your PowerPoint. If you do want to share your presentation during your judging call, then it is advisable not to overlay music on it as this will be a distraction and hard to talk over. Judges do not want 6 slides full of text – that is what your report book is for!
The 3 Minute Video
This is what the public will see at your virtual stand. So, explain your project as if you are doing so to a member of the general public, not a judge. You should include what you set out to do, how you did it and a few results. It must be a maximum of 3 minutes long – any longer than 3 minutes will not upload through the link you will be sent, and therefore will not be used – and the video should be called “Stand XXXX Video”. Make sure to have a plain background with no branding please. (By plain we mean without distractions eg, do not have the rest of you class in the background.) You could use your PowerPoint presentation as the background if you wish. Please be aware that any copyrighted music is prohibited – even if you purchase the right to use the music that only covers you using it in a private setting. This video will be uploaded to the BTYSTE
Portal to be viewed by the public and BTYSTE will not have the right to share that music. Any music at the start should be less than 3-4 seconds (if your music clip can be recognised by software such as Shazam, then your clip is too long). Product placement and advertising is not allowed in the video. You will want to practise beforehand to make sure you are speaking slowly and concisely! All videos will be viewed for approval before being uploaded to the BTYSTE portal. We have given as late a deadline to upload the video as possible, but this will mean that if we encounter any issues with your video the request for you to make any changes will be very close to the exhibition and may delay your video being uploaded to the BTYSTE Portal so please review your video for quality prior to submitting it.