1. Cambridge Upper Secondary Science Competition
Demonstrate your passion for science!
Presenter Name Job title
Date

2. Overview What is the Cambridge Upper Secondary Science Competition?
What will you do?
How do we mark your projects?
Winners
Next steps

3. What is the Cambridge Upper Secondary Science Competition?

4. What is it?
A science competition for Cambridge Upper Secondary learners (typically 14 to 16 years):
Work in teams of three to six on a project outside normal curriculum time.
Develop and demonstrate your passion for science.
Involves practical work, investigating topics of interest and using the scientific method.
Develops skills - collaboration, communication, innovation and creativity.
Cambridge International has introduced a competition for upper secondary students who are studying Cambridge IGCSE or Cambridge O Level (typically 14 to 16 years old).
The competition is for teams of three to six students working on a project together. It is expected that you will do this outside normal curriculum time.
The competition gives you the opportunity to develop and demonstrate your passion for science through practical work, investigating topics of interest and using the scientific method.
It will also help you do develop skills including collaboration, communication, innovation and creativity – skills that universities and employers look for.

5. What will you do?

6. What will you do? Choose a team and a topic for your project.
Produce a portfolio of work that will be completed over hours.
Present your portfolio to teacher and peers.
Start by choosing your team (minimum three, maximum six members per team).
Decide on a topic for your project.
Produce your portfolio of work – you can expect to complete it over hours.
Once you have produced your portfolio of work, you will be expected to present it to your teacher and peers.
The competition will not necessarily require laboratory work. Your team will choose its own topic to assist in creativity and encourage high engagement of all group members.
Topics might be developments on the practical work required by the syllabus or more loosely related to a Cambridge IGCSE or O Level scientific topic.
The competition will encourage investigations into areas of some practical or community relevance to the school and the students, for example focused on the environment.
At the end of the project, teams will present present their findings, giving you the opportunity to communicate you work to a wider audience. (This could be in the form of a science fair in the school, individual presentations or posters. )

7. Developing skills
Key skills widely considered essential for success in education and employment:
Collaboration
Creativity
Innovation.
You will also use the scientific method including:
hypothesis formulation
investigation and research
testing the hypothesis
arriving at a reasonable conclusion.
The competition is designed to help you develop the skills of collaboration, creativity and innovation.
You will use scientific method including:
hypothesis formulation
investigation and research
testing the hypothesis
arriving at a reasonable conclusion.

8. How is your project marked?

9. How is your project marked?
Your teacher will assess your project.
Marks awarded for investigation, collaboration & communication.
Teams awarded a Participation, Bronze, Silver or Gold certificate.
Very best gold projects submitted to Cambridge International.
Your teachers will assess your project using the mark scheme Cambridge International provides.
Your team will be awarded marks for investigation, collaboration and communication.
Upon completion, your team will be awarded a Participation, Bronze, Silver or Gold certificate.
The very best ‘Gold’ standard projects from your school will be submitted to Cambridge International to compete in global competition .

10. How do we assess collaboration?
Collaborative problem-solving requires teamwork where individuals work towards a shared goal.
To collaborate effectively, as individuals and as a team, you will:
define the problem, make sure you understand what is being asked and how you will answer it
speak up if you have concerns - make alternative suggestions
think critically as a group
reflect and monitor progress
adjust practices and work as required
demonstrate resilience
help each other
be honest with each other!
Good teams collaborate effectively, and this involves much more than cooperation.
Collaborative problem-solving requires teamwork where, as individuals, you actively, responsibly and productively work towards your shared goal.
This requires high levels of emotional competence and inter- and intra-personal awareness.
A cooperative task may involve dividing up the work equally and everyone getting on with their share.
In contrast, collaboration requires collective intelligence and agility. Individual responsibilities may change as progress is made and obstacles encountered.
You should share leadership across the team, with different individuals contributing as leaders in different ways and at different times depending on their skills.
As individuals in a team, you will work collaboratively [and therefore the group collectively] to:
be able to define the problem and ensure you all understand what is being asked and how you will answer it or achieve the project task
feel a responsibility to speak up if you have concerns and make alternative suggestions. Not be upset by constructive criticism from others.
Think critically as a group, communicate with others
Reflect on how well your group is progressing towards solving the problem and monitor that your group is doing the right things during all stages of the project.
Adjust practices and work as required.
Demonstrate resilience and not be put off if obstacles get in the way
Help each other out. Understand when you should lead and when you should follow.
Be honest. If things have not always worked well, as usually the case, what would you do differently in the future?
The assessment of collaboration requires individuals in your group to be honest, reflective and constructively critical about the contributions you are making to the task.
You can evidence this in different ways:
by completing an individual process reflection journal, a self-evaluation at the end of the project or
contribute to a team blog [which has the potential to be particularly powerful as individuals can record their thoughts in one ongoing team blog].
In assigning marks your teachers will analyse the processes that led to group performance, and reflect on individual and group performance as evidenced in reflections by individuals in the team and their own observation of individual and team behaviour.
Cambridge International will expect to see some supporting evidence of how teachers have judged a group when samples are requested for moderation.

11. How do we assess communication?
Scientists have to communicate their findings or the outcomes of a research project accurately, clearly, intelligibly and honestly.
You will showcase your project and present your work to the school community.
Different mediums of communication allowed.
As a team that communicates effectively, you will clearly:
describe objectives
explain why this task was undertaken - what are the beneficial outcomes?
explain methods used
explain results - acknowledge what was not discovered or achieved explaining why
provide an engaging presentation
be able to answer questions.
Scientists have to communicate their findings or the outcomes of a research project accurately, clearly, intelligibly and honestly. So Cambridge International is looking for your team to do the same.
The competition allows for different mediums of communication, so you can present your finding in different ways. (Schools are encouraged to showcase the projects and teams present their work to a wider school community.)
As a team that communicates effectively, you will:
make it clear what the objectives of your project were.
Clearly explain why this task was undertaken - what are the beneficial outcomes?
Explain the methods used and what you did.
Explain precisely what the results were and acknowledge what was not discovered or achieved explaining why.
Provide an engaging presentation.
Be able to answer questions.

12. How does Cambridge International select a winner?

13. How to we select a winner?
Gold portfolios considered by expert panel of judges.
One winning team per region.
Top three regional teams invited to a video interview with our judges who select the overall global winner.
Winning team receive gold medals, a letter of commendation... and may be featured in Cambridge Outlook magazine!
Your teacher will submit the very best Gold portfolios to Cambridge International for consideration by our expert panel of judges.
The judges will select one winner for each region from the Gold submissions.
The top three regional teams will be invited to a video interview with our panel of judges so that they can select the overall global winner.
The winning team will receive Gold medals, a letter of commendation… and you may be featured in a future edition of Cambridge Outlook magazine!

14. Next steps

15. Next steps
Once you have been entered for the competition, your teacher can share the Learner guide with you:
Learner guide
Example projects
Next entry deadline: 31 January 2019
Learn more:
Your teacher can share a copy of the Learner guide with you to help you understand what’s expected. They can download a copy from our School Support Hub once your team has been registered (
The next entry deadline for Gold portfolios to be submitted to Cambridge is 31 January 2019.

16. Thank you
Any questions?