Australian National Competition Rules

VSSEC is the coordinating body for the competition to select the Australian team to participate in the APRSAF-17 Water Rocket Event and Educators Workshop to be held in Melbourne 20th – 21st November 2010.

One student between 12 and 16 years of age, and an accompanying teacher, will be selected from each Australian state and territory. Funding for travel, accommodation and meals has been provided by the Space Policy Unit and the Engineers Australia National Committee for Space Engineering.

Rules and selection process

1. Students must be between 12 and 16 years of age.

2. Students must be Australian citizens.

3. Students must be accompanied by a teacher and have written parental permission.

4. No more than one student / teacher team will be considered from any school. Schools are encouraged to hold a competition to select their student /teacher representatives.

5. Where possible regional or state competitions should be held and a single student /teacher team put forward

6. Competitions should be held in accordance with the APRSAF Water Rocket Event Rules. There is no limitation on the rocket or launcher design that can be used for the local competitions. Students should be encouraged to consider the variation in performance between different rocket and launcher designs. Refer to the APRSAF Water Rocket Event Rules for launcher specifications and rocket materials provided.

7. The winning student from each state will be one who has shown the ability to build and launch a water rocket to hit a 4m diameter target at a range of 60m and who has the personal attributes to represent Australia at an international competition. The winning teacher will be one who has shown innovation in use of water rockets to teach science and who best demonstrates the intention to use their participation in the workshops at APRSAF-17 to advance science teaching both within their own school and in the wider education community.

8. An application will consist of a video and written application. Incomplete applications will not be considered.

9. Teachers should upload their video to the VSSEC Water Rocket Wiki and email their written application to bookings@vssec.vic.edu.au

10. The video should run for a maximum of one minute and show the winning rocket on the launch pad and the launch of the rocket. It is not necessary to capture the impact on video.

11. The written application which accompanies the video should:-
- Not exceed four A4 pages.
- Identify the student, the school and the teacher.
- State the distance from the center of the target to the point of impact of the rocket, (not the final resting distance)
- Include a statement by the student explaining why they should be selected as the state representative and a description of their effort in constructing, testing and launching their rocket.
- Include a statement by the teacher describing how they use water rockets to teach science and their plans to use the knowledge and skills obtained at the Water Rocket Educators Workshop
- Include a statement of support from the school Principal

12. The closing date for submissions is Friday the 22^nd of October 2010.

13. The winning students and teachers will be chosen by VSSEC based on consideration of all of these aspects. Given the difficulty of verifying the claims of teachers and students VSSEC is relying on the integrity of the applicant teachers to respect the spirit of the competition. As usual the judges’ decision will be final and no correspondence will be entered into.

14. Winning teachers and students will be notified by the 29^th of October via email.

15. All students and teachers selected as state and territory winners will attend the APRSAF Water Rocket Event and Educator Workshop in Melbourne 20th – 21st November 2010.

16. APRSAF Water Rocket Event Rules limit the number of representatives per country to six (6). If there are fewer than six National Winners additional entries may be selected to bring the number to six (6). If there are more than six (6) national winners an additional selection process will be conducted in Melbourne to select the Australian representatives from amongst the National winners.

17. Participants will be flown to Melbourne on Friday 19th November and will return home after the conclusion of the event.

18. All APRSAF-17 Water Rocket Event participants will be staying at the Alexander Motor Inn.

19. The Australian students and teachers will be sharing accommodation with the international students and teachers. VSSEC will allocate motel rooms, taking the sex of students and teachers into account.

20. As a condition of receiving funding from the Space Policy Unit and Engineers Australia students and teachers receiving funding are required to complete a survey giving feedback on the event.

21. A limited number of positions are available for teachers interested in attending the APRSAF Educators Workshop only. There is no cost associated with attending the Workshop but no funding is available for travel or accommodation. Teachers wishing to apply for a position should send a one page application expressing their interest and why they should be considered to bookings@vssec.vic.edu.au

22. Any questions should be sent to information@vssec.vic.edu.au

Good luck!