In 2014, nearly 6000 students attended the STLP State Championship in Lexington’s Rupp Arena. Supporting those thousands of students, projects and competitions were nearly 1200 adult volunteers. Each school participating at the STLP State Championship is required to provide at least one volunteer judge to help in various events. This session will give valuable training and preparation for new judges in advance of the March 26th Championship event.

Target Audience: Volunteers to help with STLP Judging at State Championship

At State Championship, most judges will be needed to score Level 2 Project, thus choosing which teams advance to the final round at Level 3.

Visit http://stlp.education.ky.gov in August to check out the dates and deadlines for participating in Fall Showcase.

Occurring throughout November and early December, we are hosted around the state by several universities.

Schools determine which Regional Showcase is closest to their location and register to bring up to 3 projects to be judged. (Gold Status schools can bring up to 4 projects and Platinum Status district schools can submit up to 5 projects).

At this level, projects can be "in progress" and are not required to be completed. A proof of concept can be presented with a detailed road map for how the project will be continued, updated, developed and deployed over the months following Fall Showcase. Having a clear project plan is essential for success.

Projects are scored against the Level 1 Project rubric. If a project meets a minimum score (set by rubric) a project gets invited to compete in Level 2 competition at STLP State. There, projects compete against each other for a spot in the Level 3: Final Project judging.

The best of the best are selected and the top 3 projects (by grade division) are invited to present their projects at ISTE (with travel expenses paid).

DESIGN
Students determine an area of need within their classroom, school, or community. Through a project planning process (See STLP Handbook, section 3.4)

MAKE
Teams develop their presentation plan and put together a tangible display that highlights their project.

CONNECT
Teams (represented by no more than 4 students) connect with judges and share their project idea, process, plan and progress. Other STLP groups, parents, teachers and administrators will visit your project display area and give each team the opportunity to share their project idea with a wide audience.

LEARN
Teams hope to be invited to State Championship Level 2 Judging so they can continue working and developing their projects in the interim. Articulating what they learned along the way to State is central to their semi and final judging.

How projects are planned, developed, and measured is vital. Include those key elements in the project planning from the start and you'll be ahead of many other groups from the start!

Judges are looking for teams that clearly articulate their project planning -- but also are looking for teams that know why they are doing their project and who they are trying to target/impact/help with their project, too.

Common elements of good projects:
Products and new ideas are sometimes generated from the project;
Students have to create and carry out the project over time;
Students must be able to discuss the project in depth. (Age appropriate)
The project is tied to many human and technology resources;
The project makes an impact to other persons, the school or community


The three types of showcase projects are:

Service: projects that extend outside the classroom to help the school and community

Instructional: projects that impact classroom instruction and help in student or adult learning

Technical: projects that are specific to the use of hardware and software; or STEM topics

The State Championship allows students from across the state to come together and demonstrate for other students, school and community persons what they know and can do with technology.

All STLP schools are welcome to attend the State Championship to learn and achieve. There are no registration fees. All schools attending must register online- including the number of students attending.
Plan to attend the whole day. If your budget allows or your school has raised the funds, plan on staying overnight.

At State Championship judges may receive EILA Credit at the event.

At the conclusion of the STLP State Championship mega-activity-day, we all gather in Rupp Arena to recognize finalists in each of the Live Competition categories, winners from the Digital Project categories (that qualified to compete at State during the DPOJ event in January), and crown the Best in State STLP Projects for K-5, 6-8 and 9-12 Divisions.

New for 2015, STLP will also award a Best in State Technical Project trophy in memory of the late KDE Office of KIDS innovator and STLP supporter, Dave Sigler.

Top 3 Best Projects are sent to ISTE in Philadelphia to represent Kentucky at the international conference -- expenses paid!

Although the Award Show starts at 5PM, we will strive to wrap up the event by 7PM. We recognize that it is a long drive back home for many schools. Help us keep the Award Show running on time and efficiently so that we can best respect everyone’s safe travels home.

Teams that make it to Level 3 Project Judging and who are announced as finalists on the Wall of Winners should do their best to attend the entire Award Show. However, for groups that can not stick around for the fun, we will also live broadcast the Award Show via the KDE Media Portal

Please visit the STLP website's "State" section and also review the "State Championship" section of the STLP Handbook for details on all the events available at STLP State!

Registration Deadline closed March 2 at 11:59 PM (CST)

Still can attend!

What's the schedule?
The detailed schedule/matrix will be released via our new STLP app in March, but the general schedule for the day is as follows (subject to adjustment):
(All times are Eastern Standard Time)
09:30 AM – doors open for SLTP groups to enter/set up Projects/start Live Competitions
10:00 AM – Project Judges trained for Level 2 judging / Live Competitions continue
11:00 AM – Level 2 Project judging begins / Live Competitions continue
02:00 PM – Announcement of Projects advancing to Level 3 judging / Live Comp. continue
03:00 PM – Level 3 Project Judging begins / Live Competitions start wrapping-up
05:00 PM – STLP Awards Show begins (ends approx. 7:30 pm)

Review the Rubric and the Project Planner requirements at each level. The rubric allows students to demonstrate their projects progression.

Review and download rubrics from http://stlp.education.ky.gov/handbook

Each area of STLP relies upon volunteer judges to succeed.

The value of a good judge is immeasurable.

Judges need to be fair but able to pull out the best in the students/products they review.

STLP judging is not about "gotcha!" -- instead it's about helping students achieve their potential through self reflection and demonstrations of learning.

Review the information about judges for each category at Http://stlp.educaiton.ky.gov/handbook/

Jeff Sebulsky
Student Technology Leadership Program
Kentucky Department of Education
Program Manager

jeff.sebulsky@education.ky.gov
@jeffsebulsky

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