More/WhyHSTrack

Why combine the Collegiate and High School competitions into one Jamboree?

We are excited to announce that in 2015 we are merging the high school and collegiate divisions. Instead of two separate competitions we are combining these two events with the addition of the ‘High School’ track in the 2015 iGEM competition. The High School track will become a part of the 2015 iGEM competition and Giant Jamboree event. As such, all high school teams will register and compete with similar deadlines, requirements & fees as the collegiate teams. All teams will then be invited to the 2015 Giant Jamboree in September to compete within their track.

• How will High School teams be judged? High school teams will be judged and evaluated against others in their track only (ie. high school teams will not be judged against collegiate teams).
• Will there be Tracks within the High School track? iGEM is encouraging all high school participants to follow their passion and work on projects that inspire them. Unlike previous years, the high school teams will not be competing within focus research areas (ie, health and medicine, environment, etc). High school teams may work on any research area of their choosing with evaluations and judging across all projects and fields.
• Why did we make this change? We could not make a change like this without explicit support from our high school community. We’ve reached out to our high school community and have had strong endorsement for this change. Combining the two divisions is meant to strengthen the high school iGEM experience by facilitating connections with colleges and universities. Forming relationships between colleges and high schools can lead to an exchange of ideas and resource as well as mentorship or guidance from professors or collegiate teams. By giving high school students access to the collegiate division competition we hope to inspire future studies in synthetic biology and bring awareness to colleges and universities passionate about synthetic biology.
• Fees and other considerations? The high school team registration fee will be the same as for all participants (high school and collegiate) Attendance fee will be decided as the 2015 Giant Jamboree competition schedule is finalized.