How To Enter the Green Science Fair for a Better Planet

The contest is over. See who won here!

Instructables has teamed up with Discover magazine to bring you the Green Science Fair For a Better Planet!

Think green, share what you've learned, and win some great prizes!


You could: build an eco-friendly project, test and compare "green" products, repurpose old parts, or just show us greener way to live.

Put on your lab coat, grab your notebook, and start testing those hypotheses!

Some inspiration:

- Make a solar powered water desalination out of plastic bottles
- Test and compare levels of CO2 in human breath, car exhaust, and combustion products.
- Find out how biodegradable different materials are
- Make a saline fuel cell
- Find the most drought-resistant types of grass
- Recycle your water in a hydroponic bog garden
- Hack a toilet for free water
- Test your electronics
- Make your own recycled solar panels

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Prizes

First Prize (1)
Celestron Skyscout: use advanced GPS technology with point and click convenience to identify thousands of stars, planets, constellations and more. Plus Instructables Robot t-shirt, patch, and stickers.

Second Prize (2)
Sansa Express 1GB MP3 player, Instructables Robot t-shirt, patch, and stickers.

Third Prize (5)
Eton FR150 Microlink: Solar-Powered, Crank-powered Portable Radio with Flashlight and Cell Phone Charger

Runner-Up (10)
20 Things You Didn't Know About Everything, a book from the Editors at Discover magazine

First 10 Good-Quality Entries (10)
DISCOVER magazine T-shirt

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Judging

Judging will be done by staff at Discover magazine and Instructables. Contest entries will be judged according to the quality of the idea, documentation, and presentation.

Open to enter: April 4, 2008-04 12:01 AM PST
Deadline for entries: June 6, 2008 11:59 PM PST



[/contest/greensciencefair/ View Contest now!]

Step 1: Official Rules

1. All federal, state, and local taxes on prize are the sole responsibility of the winner. No purchases are necessary; void where prohibited by law.

2. Participants agree to abide by all decisions of Instructables, contest co-sponsors, and judges, which shall be final and binding with respect to all issues relating to this contest.

3. Prize is not transferable and no cash alternative or prize substitution is available. Instructables and contest co-sponsors reserve the right to substitute a similar prize of equal or greater value if the prize listed is unavailable for any reason. All potential winners are subject to verification at the discretion of Instructables and contest co-sponsors.

4. Winner agrees that prizes are being provided "as is", and Instructables and contest co-sponsors make no warranty, representation or guarantee regarding the prize, including but not limited to its quality, condition, merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

5. Instructables and contest co-sponsors are not responsible for problems including (but not limited to) damaged, incorrect, inaccurate, lost, delayed, or defective entries, or for injury or damage to any computer resulting from participation in this contest. Entries that have been tampered with or altered are void.

6. Instructables reserves the right to modify, cancel, postpone or end the contest at any time as necessary, at its sole discretion, or to disqualify any participant or winner, at its sole discretion, deemed to have cheated, destroyed, obstructed, or otherwise acted illegally or in bad faith in relation to this contest.

7. Instructables reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual it finds, in its sole discretion, to be in violation of the Terms of Service; to be acting in violation of these Official Rules; to be acting in a unethical or disruptive manner, or with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any other person.

8. By submitting an entry and entering this contest, you represent and warrant that: you are over the age of 18, or entering with the knowledge and permission of your parent or guardian (subject to verification), and that the entry does not contain or incorporate the intellectual property and/or confidential information of any third party.

9. By submitting an entry and entering this contest, you hereby grant Instructables a perpetual, irrevocable, sublicenseable, worldwide, royalty free right to publish and distribute your entry for their promotional purposes.

10. Governing Law: All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of the official rules, or the rights of entrants, shall be governed by and construed in accordance with, the substance laws of the State of California and any applicable laws and regulations of the United States.

Comments

[bosherston]

hmmm, I still can't see the winners when I click the link.

[stinkymum]

Probably they are having a hard time because of all the great entries. It must be hard to choose.

[laminterious]

hmmm judging date changed and were there some more added to the finalist list? Just wondering since it's kinda hard to tell heh.

[Neelie]

one more was added as far as I could tell called "Adapt a clock today! Cheap trackers boost solar panel and solar cooker performance", by gaiatechnician. I don't remember ever seeing this entered in the contest before June 16th (after the closing date - go figure)

[fungus amungus]

That was the only one added after the rest. The list was narrowed down to finalists based on votes. After looking at the entry we decided that it deserved to be considered as well. After that, it's up to the judges to decide.

[laminterious]

hmm... 2 are missing from the list of finalists, one of which is mine... were they decided to not be up to snuff or something?

[fungus amungus]

The two that were removed are perfectly fine. If you think about it, you shouldn't be upset that one of yours was removed.

[bosherston]

I'm jumping around like a dog in a butchers' shop doorway here, who won? who won?

[fungus amungus]

We'll have an announcement later today.

[drinkmorecoffee]

When, do you think? Just wondering so I can be around for it... :D Any time now or this evening sometime? I'm on EST. thanks, DMC

[fungus amungus]

UPDATE: The announcement will have to be tomorrow. It appears that someone who I won't name by name forgot to vote and really wants to. Sorry for the delay.

[killerjackalope]

Byargh... Wants to know results because I'm bored...

[laminterious]

cool! I was glad that there was another added to the list. Now i can't wait to see who the judges vote for!

[bosherston]

I can't find the results anywhere, are they still judging?

[stinkymum]

It's down to 49 finalist this morning, two are no longer with us! One was about making bio diesel and the other about making bowls out of waste paper. However the instructablers of these both had other entries in the finals. So ..... I guess we are all biting our nails!

[bosherston]

I get it, so out of the original finalists we're at the knock-out stage, hmm how long does that take do you know?

[stinkymum]

who knows? My loons are getting anxious!

[bosherston]

My loons need changing lol. I don't do this waiting for results thing very well. Good luck Stinkymum

[bosherston]

So it's about 4:30am Instructables Time, they must be about finishing their second gallon of coffee by now, 'phoning the people over at Discover. Why have we heard nothing yet?!!

[gaiatechnician]

I thought mine was original enough to be a finalist. guess not. (And I though a 20% improvement in output from solar panels might make people look twice) Anyways, please note that the clock based solar tracker is now a collaboration. If you have any old clocks at home, please take one apart, add a "gearwheel" instead of an hour hand and as long as it can handle 100 g (4 oz) of weight attached to a string and still keep time, it is viable. brian

[Gjdj3]

It's good to see that they've changed it to first 10 Good Quality Entries. I hope mine still qualifies!

Oh, well. Even if it doesn't I still have my other entry.

And even if that doesn't, it was a great contest. Nice job to the Instructables staff and whoever thought up this contest.

[societyofrobots]

I entered my 'green' robot for the contest.
http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Glowing-Robot/

Hope it counts! =P

[lawizeg]

Wait are the prizes like: 1 first prize to the winner, 2 second prizes to TWO people, 5 radios (the one i want) to FIVE different people? and 10 books and t-shirts to TWENTY people? Like that?

[fungus amungus]

Yup, you've decoded the numbers correctly.

[lawizeg]

oh. i thought the winner would get like one of everything.

[killerjackalope]

hey the little numbers in brackets confused me for a while too...

[whatsisface]

I'm wondering why every entry has 41 votes...

[stinkymum]

(removed by author or community request)

[canida]

No worries. It doesn't affect the judging, and we'll fix the tallies shortly.

[dunnos]

are the votes gone yet?

[lawizeg]

Kiteman's a moderator? +hmmm...i never knew that....+ ANYWAY. Maybe there is someone, who wants to mess up the contest. So, they made all those accounts and voted alot to mess us up. What reason would they have to do that? What kind of grudge can you have against INSTRUCTABLES??? (the best site ever)

[GorillazMiko]

Kiteman and Brennn10 are not moderators.
They have the ability to feature Instructables, and are very popular on Instructables.
But no, not moderators. :P

[mysterious ninja of fire]

WOW IM WAY OUTTA MY LEAGUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[drinkmorecoffee]

Sweet. And I have just the project for this... 12 months in the making and a green contest pops up right as I'm finishing it, what a coincidence. :)

[lawizeg]

I'd like to win that book. =ITS AWESOME!=

[Brennn10]

Yea it looks like a neat book.

[xACIDITYx]

I think there may be a full, online version of the book.

http://browseinside.harpercollins.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780061435645&WT.mc_id=REFL_DISC_DISC_020108

It may not be full, though.

[dressupgamesrule]

My computers too slow to view that... :(

[Brennn10]

My wonderful entry was been entered.

[jasc]

I gotta get to it!