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What is The Fairchild Challenge?
Designed for students of diverse interests, abilities, talents and backgrounds, The Fairchild Challenge is Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden's annual environmental education outreach program. With separate but parallel programs for students in grades Pre-K to 5, 6 to 8 and 9 to 12, The Fairchild Challenge is composed of multidisciplinary competitions and activities aligned with the New Generation Sunshine State Standards.
The Fairchild Challenge options are intended to appeal to students through hands-on activities that encourage them to experiment with ideas, develop skills, seek information and voice opinions. This free program is open to all schools in the South Florida area. Last year, over 100,000 students and teachers from 236 elementary, middle and high schools participated. Gardens and other institutions as near as Central Florida and as far as Costa Rica have replicated The Fairchild Challenge model as our Fairchild Challenge Satellite Partners.
How do I get my school involved?
A team of Fairchild Challenge coordinators at your school (consisting of at least 2 teachers in diverse disciplines plus a media center representative) submits one registration form. All administrators and faculty should be notified that your school is registered. Schools are encouraged to include as many students as possible in the various Challenge competitions and may accomplish this by entering any number of the challenges.
How can I get more booklets?
The program booklets can be downloaded from the elementary school, middle school and high school webpages, or you can request copies of the booklets to be mailed to your school by filling out the online application and submitting it by email, fax, or mail.
I would like to participate. How do I get started?
Find out if your school is registered by viewing the updated lists found on the elementary school, middle school and high school webpages. If it is not yet registered, complete the registration form for your school. Registered schools will receive an email confirmation within two days. Any student or teacher at a school is eligible to participate. We encourage four teachers from different disciplines and an administrator to sign the registration form. Teachers should coordinate the judging of the entries at their school in order to send the best entry.
How can I get more teachers involved at my school?
Fairchild Challenge staff is available to visit schools to introduce the program at faculty meetings or student assemblies. School faculty can also request additional copies of the booklet to give to other teachers or administrators and/or a program DVD to show to other interested parties.
How do I submit a Fairchild Challenge entry?
Following the stated policies and requirements, teachers submit the best entries with a completed entry form downloaded from the elementary, middle or high school Fairchild Challenge websites. Each entry form contains a checklist of required items for submission. The entry, with the completed challenge entry form, should be submitted through the method suggested on the entry form. There are three different possibilities, depending on the type of challenge: electronic submission, delivery to Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Miami-Dade Public Library entry drop-off.
- If it is a written paper, we urge you to submit it electronically to Challengepk-5@fairchildgarden.org, Challenge6-8@fairchildgarden.org or Challenge9-12@fairchildgarden.org
- If it is an art challenge or a research poster (middle school competition), you will need to bring it to Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., or by appointment. Weekends are possible, but require advance notice.
- All challenge entries (with the exception of the art and research poster challenges) can also be left at one of the eight conveniently located Miami-Dade Public Library drop-off sites. Entries can only be left at these particular branch libraries, and must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. on the entry due date.
What happens to submitted challenge entries?
Each student entry is judged by a panel of experts at Fairchild according to predetermined evaluation criteria. The evaluation criteria can be downloaded from the elementary school, middle school or high school webpages. Scores are emailed to all teachers on each school's contact list. You will only receive your school's scores; we do not not disclose other schools' scores or standing in the competition. Along with your school's updated school score, you will be notified by e-mail of any awards earned by your school. Final results will be announced and prizes will be awarded at the awards ceremonies in May.
Can we see the judges' evaluation sheets?
Schools will be provided with their point value but the completed score sheets are not released after the judging panels. The template for the scoring sheets is available on The Fairchild Challenge website.
Can we see other schools scores?
Schools are provided with their individual scores throughout the year, but the competition standings are not released until the awards ceremonies in May.
What is your goal?
All schools that earn the designated point totals for each year will be presented with The Fairchild Challenge Award at the awards ceremony in May. Schools receiving The Fairchild Challenge Award for five consecutive years will be honored as a Fairchild Challenge School of Excellence and will receive a banner for their school.
How will I benefit from participating in The Fairchild Challenge?
The Fairchild Challenge is designed to increase student's environmental awareness, scholarship and stewardship. Ninety percent of students surveyed in 2010 indicated that they enjoyed the program and would recommend it to other students. Ninety-seven percent of teachers surveyed indicated that they benefited from The Fairchild Challenge and plan to participate in the future.
In order to encourage students to visit the garden with their family, all actively-participating students receive a four-person pass to Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, along with a program T-shirt. The sixteen top-scoring schools receive monetary awards of $250 (10 schools), $500 (5 schools), or $1,000 (1 school) to be used towards their environmental programs.
Fairchild also offers grants and resources throughout the school year for participating schools.
Does Fairchild pay for transportation for Fairchild Challenge events?
Fairchild will accept applications for transportation reimbursement from Title 1 schools for Fairchild Challenge events and/or field trips. The reimbursement application form is available on the website.
Can we submit more than the maximum number of entries?
In order to make the program available to all schools, the number of entries that we can receive from each school is limited; therefore, we cannot accept additional entries. We encourage schools to host school events, such as your own school-wide performance or botanical fashion show, to help teachers and students determine the top entries to send to Fairchild for judging.
Where should I send the forms?
All completed forms must be mailed, faxed or delivered to:
FAIRCHILD CHALLENGE (Attention: Pre-K to 5, or 6 to 8, or 9 to12)
FAIRCHILD TROPICAL BOTANIC GARDEN
10901 Old Cutler Road,
Coral Gables, FL 33156-4296
Fax 305.400.0265
Can I receive additional booklets to share with others?
We are happy to mail additional booklets to you - the additional resources request form is available on the website.
How can I stay informed about important events, deadlines and other information for The Fairchild Challenge?
Please see the calendar for important dates and information. Fairchild Challenge staff maintains regular e-mail contact with participating teachers through a monthly e-newsletter. For this reason, we ask all of our teachers to keep us informed of your current e-mail address(es). This is especially important if you are taking a lead role in organizing your school's Challenge activities. The monthly e-newsletter provides reminders and updates for deadlines, grant applications, workshops and other Fairchild Challenge related information. This newsletter is also available on The Fairchild Challenge website.
How do library drop-offs work?
Teachers can drop off entries at selected public libraries (please see individual challenges for submission restrictions as some entries may be too large in size for library drop-off sites). Please contact Fairchild staff and inform them when and where entries where dropped off as to insure that it will be picked up on time.
Do students need to fill out a photograph release form in order for their picure/work to be shown?
The Fairchild Challenge program policies state that by participating in the program, "Schools consent to Fairchild's unrestricted use of student work and participants' likeness, including photographs and our audio/visual recordings made of participants and/or their entries, at Fairchild or elsewhere. Fairchild must be notified in writing of any exceptions."
FAQ about 2012-2013 Challenges
Middle School Challenges
Challenge 3: Writing
Does the word maximum (450-600) apply to each journal entry?
No. We will add the word count for all your student's journal entries (3-5) and in order to meet this requirement, your student's word count should not exceed 600.
Challenge 4: Botanical Fashion Show
Can my students paint the recyclable material?
Yes and only the recyclable material. Outfits that contain altered botanical materials will have points deducted.
Do the plants have to be South Florida native plants?
No, your students can choose to use any plants they'd like! Remember to avoid toxic or endangered plants, and seeds from invasive plants.
High School Challenges
Challenge 8A: Inventions
Is there a size limit on the functioning invention?
There is not a size limit for the invention. That being said, keep in mind practicality; it needs to be transported here and displayed in the tent or visitor's center lawn. A functioning scale model is also another possibility.
Challenge 10: Environmental Action
If we select "school" does this mean that all activities must occur on campus, or can it include activities that go off campus?
We would like the report to focus on one key area but it does not limit you to only that key area. Therefore, if you select 'school', a strong report would be focused on the school initiatives but can have various other activities from the home or community.
Updated 10/01/12
10901 Old Cutler Road Coral Gables, FL 33156 • Phone: 305.667.1651 • Fax 305.661.8953
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