Genesis Energy
Royal Society of New Zealand

For Nominators

All supporting programmes or competitions may nominate up to five projects for Realise the Dream. This involves completing a nomination form for each project and sending their work to the Realise the Dream Selection panel where it will be discussed and reviewed at the end of October.

Contents

Nomination Forms | Judging Process | Project Selection | Animal and Human Ethics | Awards and Prizes | Conflicts of Interest | Disagreements, Enquiries and Protests

Exemplar Nomination Interviews

Daniel Hodder

Hollie Andrewes

Peter Smallfield

 

Nomination Forms

Click on the links below to download a PDF of the nomination forms for Science, Technology and Crest. The forms will open in a new window.

Science Nomination Form

Technology Nomination Form

Crest Nomination Form

Bright Sparks Nomination Form

Young Historian Nomination Form

Young Enterprise Scheme Nomination Form

Y13 Geography Competition Nomination Form

Nominated Student Form


Structure of the Judging Process

Each contributing organization may nominate up to 5 projects (number determined by RSNZ) to be considered for selection to attend Realise The Dream. All nominations must be accompanied by written documentation from the student and the Chief Judge of the nominating organization, and a 5 minute video, as specified by the RSNZ from time to time. Nominations are invited from
The Nominations Judging Panel considers the submitted materials and ranks the nominated projects on the basis of these materials.
The top-ranked projects are selected to fill the places available in Realise The Dream that year.
At the Realise The Dream event the Awards Judging Panel allocates awards and prizes on the basis of the rankings and additional material presented at Realise the Dream.

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Selecting Projects for Realise the Dream - October

The Nominations Judging Panel consists of a Convenor (Chief Judge), and 7 to 9 others.

The Royal Society of New Zealand (RSNZ) provides an organising official for Realise the Dream, who will attend the panel, to support its work. Furthermore, the relevant RSNZ Manager may attend at any time, and is available for consultation by the panel.
The panel is not open to the public or contributing organisations, except by invitation of RSNZ.

All judges have a broad range of knowledge, experience and qualifications, as the task requires relative evaluations across a very wide range of topic areas. Every judge is able to contribute comment on most aspects of every project. However, each judge has fields of special expertise and these are given appropriate weight.
Every judge is very familiar with the criteria outlined in the Judging Handbook1, as well as the principles of scientific method, technology development, research practice, and ethical considerations. The judging panel includes representatives well experienced in the relevant aspects of the NCEA Framework as they affect the production of projects.
Most judges have significant direct judging experience in other national or regional science and technology fairs. Occasionally judges may be selected for other forms of expertise.

Projects selected for Realise the Dream represent excellence across many categories including:

It is expected that all contributing organisations will apply robust selection criteria and submit those projects they consider most worthy from their event. The Realise the Dream judging panel has no control over the range of projects nominated in a given year. As a result, most categories will be represented most years, but it will be unusual to have all the categories (above) represented in any one year.

Judging will be based on the following aspects, as appropriate to the project:

The relevance of these aspects to science and technology projects is well described in the Judging Handbook1. Careful consideration and interpretation is required when applying them to other categories of research project (e.g. History, Decision Making and Enterprise) where the balance of the various aspects may differ from that expected in 'traditional' science and technology fair projects.

The judging panel can receive up to 100 nominations in a typical year.
These are read thoroughly by the judges before the panel meeting, which takes place over a weekend in October.
At the meeting each project is discussed, and the above considerations are used to draw up a broad ranking.

A line is provisionally set at the number to be selected for Realise the Dream in that year. The panel then closely re-examines those projects initially ranked above and below the line to test and if necessary, reassign their placement. At this stage the panel also generally ranks the most clearly outstanding projects in preparation of the later Awards allocation at Realise the Dream.

In cases where selections of the judging panel are at variance with the rankings of a nominating organisation, the panel will attempt to contact the organiser or chief judge of the nominating organisation to obtain further information. However, the over-riding principle is that the panel's judgement must be based on the materials and information provided in the nomination. The nominator is responsible for ensuring that the submitted materials satisfy the specified criteria. RSNZ strongly recommends that the nominator assists the candidates with preparation of their video so that they present their work most effectively to the panel.

Animal and Human Ethics

If the exhibit or investigation involves animals please make sure that the proper ethical approval forms accompany the documentation. Please click here to view information regarding animal and human ethics.

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Realise The Dream Awards and Prizes

Realise the Dream awards are sponsored by various organisations and businesses.

The Awards Judging Panel therefore has the task of allocating the available awards so that:
Awards are made on the basis of: Back to Contents

Conflicts of Interest

All judges are expected to act impartially at all times. Most members of the judging panels are inevitably associated with one or more of the contributing organisations.

To avoid conflict of interest in such a situation, the judge involved is required to state their conflict of interest and take a purely observational role: answering direct questions about the project, but not offering opinion or influencing the decision or consensus, which is made by the other panel members.

Disagreements, Enquiries and Protests

If an interested party disagrees with a decision of one of the judging panels (re. selection to Realise the Dream or allocation of an award), and wishes to follow up the matter, then

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1 Judging Handbook, 2002 Genesis Energy Science and Technology Fair. Available from the Royal Society of New Zealand. Click here to view this document as a PDF