Scientific Writing Competition
Wondering what to do over the holidays? Here is an opportunity
to win some extra holiday money while contributing to improving the
state of mathematics and physical science education in South Africa!
The Free High School Science Textbook (FHSST) project is holding a
scientific writing competition to develop content for free high
school science textbooks for South Africa.
FHSST will offer prizes to the competition entrants who write the
best section for a Chemistry or Mathematics text book for Grades 10
to 12.
Prizes:
1st : R 5000
2nd : R 3000
3rd : R 2000
About FHSST
The FHSST project aims to provide free science and mathematics textbooks for
Grades 10-12 to all South African learners. Started in 2002 by young South
African scientists, one of the primary aims of the project is to develop a
complete set of high school science textbooks, FREE of authors', publishers' and
editors' royalties in line with the new South African curriculum. This is
accomplished through contributions by volunteers. Physics, Chemistry and
Mathematics books are currently being worked on, with Computer Literacy and
Biology in the pipe-line.
The Free High School Science Texts project is a collaborative effort. It is
centrally administered, managed and grown, but we need your help to make it a
success. We realise that no single person has enough time to spend days and
weeks writing a free textbook. What we propose is to combine many small
contributions into a quality text.
Competition Rules
1. Due to the scope of potential foreign exchange issues, only citizens and
legal residents of South Africa, holding a South African bank account are
eligible to win prize money. Should any foreign individuals choose to enter we
will select and award honourable mentions to the top 3 foreign entries.
2. Prizes will be awarded to the writers of the the top three winning entries.
First, second and third prizes of R5 000, R3 000 and R 2 000, respectively, will
be awarded.
3. The competition runs from 00h00 GMT on 1 April 2006 and closes at 23h59 GMT
on 30 April 2006.
4. The competition will be judged by invited scientists and educators, whose
decision will be final; no discussion will be entered into about the result.
5. The judges reserve the right to consult others in making their decision.
6. The competition is open to anyone except the judges, the FHSST
administration team and their immediate family (spouses, parents, siblings,
children).
7. The judges reserve the right NOT to award any prize if none of the
entries is deemed suitable.
8. To enter, a person must write at least one of the specified sections (more
than one entry per person is allowed) according to the specified criteria for
each section, e.g. diagrams, worked examples, scope, length etc.
9. Only submissions in any editable digital format is allowed.
10. Entries must be submitted on the FHSST web-site at http://www.fhsst.org/
before the closing date.
11. Contestants must agree to release content under the Gnu Free Documentation
License upon submission.
12. The writers of non-winning entries which are included in the text books will
be credited as authors and their contributions may be added to the books.
We anticipate that the winning entries will have the following
characteristics:
1. the content will be written at a language level suitable for 15 to 17 year
olds;
2. examples demonstrating the theory must be relevant to a South African
teenager;
3. the content must be interesting;
4. simple figures, where appropriate, should be used to explain concepts;
5. ideas for in-classroom activities relating to the specific content covered
would enhance the written section
More information:
 Visit http://www.fhsst.org/
for more details on the project. Click on the "Competition" link for
details on how to enter the competition!
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