Eligibility Questions

mrtimklein

My son is in 7th grade, but won't turn 13 until the end of the school year (May). Is he eligible to enter?

TK

(P.S. to admin: This might be a good sticky thread)

Ken Gracey

Doesn't matter how young he is as long as he's 19 or under.

Just requires your consent to participate. If Parallax employees were not excluded I'd ask my kids to participate as well.

Ken Gracey

Bump

We've changed the eligibility for answering the call of the Holiday LED Challenge, and it will include those applicants of 12 years in age.

On the official contest information page we've changed eligibility to read as follows:

"Eligibility: Individual students in a middle school (junior high school), in a high-school in grades 7 through 12, or undergraduate program, and between the ages of 12 years and 24 years can participate. We encourage parents and teachers to participate, too, but as informal advisors rather than as project directors or overseers."

P!-Ro

Is the judging criteria out yet? Seems someone 12 yo will be disadvantaged when it comes to knowledge compared to someone who's worked with electronics throughout high school.

Bump

Yes, the Judging Criteria has been posted; the listing is under the "Judges and Scoring" section:
http://www.parallax.com/go/holidaychallenge

I would hope that younger applicants sought the aid of someone with more experience, which is implied on the rules page "We encourage parents and teachers to participate, too, but as informal advisors rather than as project directors or overseers." We would like to see parental participation similar to the effect of sagely advice, akin to that of a mentor, rather than getting in and doing the project oneself. So if the registrant is having a difficulty with their project one might suggest “Have you tried _______ or perhaps wiring _______.”

We've also created this forum with the expectation that projects in development will be displayed so that other forum members can assist as well. Depending on the competitive nature of the individual we might not see any posts, but the opportunity to share, learn, and grow is provided for those who wish to use it.

The concerns about providing and equal opportunity for all are noted though, and it is difficult to gauge such a prospect with the given age differences. At that point it rests upon the review by the judges.