Day of Conference Activities: 

Registration/Check-in/Poster Exhibit Set-up:  Teachers and students arrived and after checking-in, students displaying posters began setting them up on tables disbursed throughout the common area of SCC’s Student “Lair” building. Each conference attendee received a conference folder about the day’s activities.

Opening Session: The Voyages of Rediscovery provided a information filled start to the day. Students were shown photos of canoeing adventures along the Columbia River in handmade canoes.   

Morning Break-Out Presentation Session:  Twenty student presentations were heard in five different rooms. Each room had a facilitator and team of evaluators. Evaluators were responsible for reviewing the presentations and scoring them based on a rubric designed by educators. The rubric focused on the hypothesis and conclusion, but also assessed references used and overall presentation by the students. A presentation hunt was created for students who did poster projects to encourage them to apply what they had learned. 

Poster Exhibition and Evaluation: Eighteen student posters were displayed and evaluated in the main hallway of the “Lair.” A team   of two evaluators reviewed the posters and scored them on the scientific content and the appearance. A nine question poster hunt was created for students who did oral presentations to encourage them to learn more about the projects displayed. 

Lunch:  Students turned in their poster or presentation hunt form as their ticket for lunch. A sit-down lunch was provided for all attendees, courtesy of the Spokane Regional Solid Waste System. During lunch, students were invited to participate in an environmental Limerick Smackdown. Students created a limerick or rap relating to the envionmental science or protecting the environment and presented it to the audience of attendees. If space allows, the limericks and/or raps will be included in the Journal of Superior Projects. 

Afternoon Break-Out Presentation Session:  After lunch, another twenty student presentations were heard in five different rooms. 

Closing:  The students joined in the Auditorium for the conference closing, which started with the Voyages of Rediscovery team.  Then teacher recognition. Teachers were given blue recycle bins filled with materials—all donated by the conference committee. Students who received  a “superior” rating were then invited to the stage area. Each project was mentioned and the superior students received blue ribbons. They were also sent a gift card to Auntie’s Bookstore after the conference. 

Evaluation and Student Notebooks – When students turned in their conference evaluation form, they received locally-produced notebooks made out of re-used materials. In addition, magnets and pencils provided by the conference committee were available to the students.