NIH Lessons About Bioscience (LAB) Challenge

About the Challenge

We're making a collection of engaging, inexpensive experiments for students from kindergarten through high school, and we need your help! We're looking for experiments that

• are geared toward grades K to 12
• use safe, easily available, inexpensive materials
• take 90 minutes (or less) of class time
• have at least one clear learning objective
• are related to health and life science (the mission of the National Institutes of Health*)

What you win:

• An exclusive electronic badge that can be used on the Web.
• Your name and experiment will appear in the final collection.

Who can enter:

• U.S. and U.S.-territory residents.
• If you're under 18 years old, we'll need a parent/guardian consent form.

How to enter:

1. Read the entry instructions here or at http://science.education.nih.gov.
2. Submit your entry form by

• email: LAB@science.education.nih.gov,
• fax: 301-451-5431, OR
• mail: K-12 LAB Challenge, Office of Science Education, NIH, 6100 Executive Boulevard, Suite 3E01, Bethesda, MD 20892-7520.

Where to go for help:

• Frequently Asked Questions
• Email us at LAB@science.education.nih.gov or call 301-402-2469.

* The NIH mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce the burdens of illness and disability.

Where to find the closed-captioned LAB Challenge video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0bbglntEOQ

 

MORE ABOUT THE CHALLENGE

Entering

Anyone can participate in this challenge, as long as they live in the United States or a U.S. territory. To submit an experiment procedure, though, you need to be at least 13 years old. People under 18 will need parental or guardian consent.

Use the entry form, including the signed parental consent page (if applicable), to send us your detailed procedure(s) for conducting the experiment(s). You can enter by email, fax, or regular mail. For detailed instructions and the entry form, see How to Enter.

The entry deadline is 11:59 p.m. CST, December 15, 2011. [DEADLINE EXTENDED from Dec. 1!]

Judging

A panel of classroom teachers, students, scientists, and NIH science education personnel will use a rubric to score the entries and select winners.

NIH will conduct an independent safety review of the candidate winning experiments before the final selection and announcement of the winners. Experiments that use hazardous materials or bodily fluids will not be accepted.

Winning

The winning experiment procedures will be announced March 1, 2012.

Winners will earn recognition and an official, exclusive, electronic NIH Challenge badge to display online.

Winning submissions will be included in our NIH collection of the best experiment procedures, which people all over the world can access. It will be available for free in print, online, and on mobile devices from the NIH Office of Science Education Web site.

Getting Help

Please review our frequently asked questions (FAQs). Your question may already have been answered. If it hasn't, contact the NIH Office of Science Education at LAB@science.education.nih.gov or call 301-402-2469.

For updates about the challenge and other education activities at NIH, follow us on Twitter: @NIHSciEd.

 

How to Enter

1. Review the general guidelines (download), including the copyright information, and be sure to follow them when you submit your procedure(s).
2. Follow the format guidelines (download) when filling out the entry form. It may be helpful to review examples of qualifying experiments.
3. Fill out the entry form, which includes the consent form. (Spanish version of consent form.) 
4. Submit your entry form in one of the following ways:
   

   email	LAB@science.education.nih.gov
   fax	301-451-5431
   mail	K-12 LAB Challenge Office of Science Education, NIH 6100 Executive Boulevard, Suite 3E01 Bethesda, MD 20892-7520

Download all entry documents at once (general guidelines, format guidelines, entry form with parental/guardian consent, Spanish consent form, examples).

General Guidelines

• Submissions will be accepted from now through 11:59 pm CST, Thursday, December 15, 2011. [Extended from Dec. 1!]
• There is no limit to the number of proposals an individual or group can submit. We encourage you to check the K-12 LAB Challenge evaluation rubric before you submit a proposal.
• Procedures may be submitted on behalf of an individual or group.
• All LAB Challenge participants will be asked to complete an NIH evaluation at the end of the program.
• Remember that procedures should be for experiments related to the NIH mission*. This includes everything from health-related physics and chemistry to behavioral and social science experiments.
• Email LAB@science.education.nih.gov or call the Office of Science Education (301-402-2469) with any questions about the submission process. Please check our Frequently Asked Questions page first.
• By submitting procedures, submitters are certifying that the procedures are complete work as is and that the submitters have done the experiments. If you would like to submit something you modified from another source, be sure to include your source on the entry form. If your procedure uses nonhuman vertebrates or humans as your subjects, you must comply with the Intel Science Talent Search Entry Rules 5 and 6 at http://sciserv.org/Sts/students/rules.asp.

*The NIH mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health lengthen life and reduce the burdens of illness and disability. (For information about NIH, go to http://www.nih.gov.)

Format Guidelines

 If emailing, submit the proposal as a Microsoft Word or a PDF-formatted document.

• If you can't submit your proposal online, please follow this format:
  • Set margins to 1″ each on top, bottom, left, and right.
  • The text should be black.
  • The font should be 11-point Arial, except for the title (which should be 12-point Arial, bold, ALL UPPER CASE).
• Each page of the entry should be numbered and include the last name of the submitter.
• Each procedure must be entered using the official entry form.
• Procedures should be no more than six pages long, including photos, graphs, and tables, if used.
• Procedures can include still photographs of the experiment as part of the six-page-total length. Please do not submit videos.
• Winning submitters, once notified, will be asked to submit a Microsoft Word version of the proposal to NIH.

The format will look like this:

TITLE OF EXPERIMENT: Needs to be in bold, all UPPER CASE, and Arial 12-point font.

BACKGROUND: Describe how this aligns with what you are learning (or teaching) in science class. Describe the connections to the NIH mission and science, technology, and/or engineering. Also, describe the research that went into developing the experiment and why you or your team chose to submit it.

OBJECTIVE: The description of the experiment purpose can be in paragraph form or as a list introduced by a sentence and no more than six lines.

HYPOTHESIS: This is a statement of an estimate or “educated guess” for solving a problem based on facts, observations, and available data.

DURATION: Describe each of the following time factors.

Total actual in-class time (not to exceed 90 minutes):

Set-up time:

Experiment’s run time:

Take-down time:

MATERIALS: Experiments should use commonly available materials that are either available at no cost or that cost no more than $30 for a class of 30 students. Quantity needed should be in parentheses, and if something must be purchased, include a cost estimate in parentheses.

Here's an example of how to list the materials:

Washcloth (2)
Distilled water (1 L)
Thermometer for taking human body temperature
Timer/Stopwatch
Pencil
Fine Point Sharpie ($2)
M&Ms (1 lb.; $4)

PROCEDURE: This is a step-by-step explanation of how to do the experiment and should be very detailed. Steps should be written in complete sentences and all punctuation should be used in accordance with the rules of grammar. Use a step number, followed by a period, a space, and the instruction. Steps can contain more than one action. Steps must be numbered sequentially and aligned on the period in a single column. Sub-steps should be numbered sequentially starting with 1.1 following the step number under each step title.

STEP TITLES: If you use these, they should be in all UPPER CASE and underlined.

PHOTOS, FIGURES, AND TABLES: These are not required but are encouraged if they could help others do the experiment. Center the item above the appropriate step. Use the appropriate heading (for example, “Figure”), followed by a number and a concise description of the item. The heading should be centered above each item. The figure, photo, or table number should also be referenced in the step(s) that applies.

DATA ANALYSIS: List specific questions you had. How did the data you collected address your hypothesis and help you answer the questions?

CONCLUSIONS: Describe what you concluded from your observed results.

(See Examples.)

 

Copyright

All contestants must agree to assign the copyright and all other property rights in and to the entry materials to NIH. The entry materials will not be returned to you. All contestants grant to NIH an unlimited, worldwide, irrevocable, and perpetual and royalty-free license to use the entry materials in any way it sees fit, without separate compensation to the institution or team or any other person or entity. The contestant grants to NIH the right to use your entry materials in any way it chooses, in connection with the publicity, advertising, and promotion. If your submission wins, you agree to the following: (1) you grant to NIH the irrevocable right to use your entry materials in any way NIH sees fit, which may include, but not be limited to, your experiment procedure, photograph(s), acts, pictures, poses, and statements throughout the world and in perpetuity, in all mediums, including print and electronic media (including, without limitation, the Internet or any other online medium) and via any other means of distribution, publication or exhibition, whether now known or hereinafter created, as part of any NIH publication without separate compensation to you or any other person or entity; and (2) you grant to NIH the right to use your experiment procedure, name, likeness, statements, actions, biographical data, and voice (if applicable) in connection with the production, publicity, advertising, promotion, exhibition, or other exploitation or use of any of the application materials or any production incorporating the application materials.

Examples

• Apple Tooth Decay: How Do Cavitites Hurt Your Teeth? (download)
• Toxicity Testing: The Effect of Chemicals on Radish Seed Germination (download)

APPLE TOOTH DECAY: HOW DO CAVITIES HURT YOUR TEETH?

Grade Level: elementary school

BACKGROUND:

In this experiment, students use an apple as a model to investigate tooth decay. Like most models, the apple is not a perfect model for investigating tooth decay; an apple is not a tooth. However, you can use the apple model despite its limitations to help students transfer ideas about the apples to ideas about tooth decay.

Tooth decay (dental caries) is often recognized as a hole in the tooth, or a cavity. A cavity is actually the late stage of a dental infection that causes the tooth enamel to lose minerals. The apple model’s “hole in the apple” analogy is not entirely accurate because tooth decay begins under the surface of the enamel and not as a break or hole in the enamel. If the decay process continues unchecked, a cavity, or hole, eventually appears in the enamel. This, however, is a fine distinction and one that students don’t need to make. It is sufficient for students to discuss tooth decay as “cavities” in teeth at this time.

The apple is a good model because it graphically illustrates decay spreading into the apple from a hole in its surface. From this observation, students make predictions about tooth decay that starts from actions on the surface of the teeth. Students don’t need to understand details about how the decay process happens yet.

In this experiment, students will ask questions, conduct an investigation, gather data, and communicate their results. Practice with scientific inquiry will help students understand the process of tooth decay and develop the skills needed to understand the world around them.

OBJECTIVES: After completing this activity, students will

• be able to plan and conduct a simple investigation and to share results with others;
• recognize that simple tools, such as hand lenses, thermometers, and balances, provide more information than the students can acquire using only their senses;
• realize that the processes of scientific inquiry can help them ask and answer a question;
• explain that scientists use models when they cannot investigate real things; and
• describe that cavities are the result of a process that begins in the enamel of teeth.

HYPOTHESIS: An apple with a hole poked in it will rot more quickly than an apple without a hole. Other factors (temperature, number of holes, etc.) will influence the amount of rot seen in the apple.

DURATION:

Set-up time: 30 minutes (one class period)

Experiment's run time/data collection: 45 minutes, two days after set-up, for observations, data collection, and discussion

Take-down time: 5 minutes

MATERIALS:

For the class:

• 1 apple, preferably Red Delicious
• 2 or 3 thermometers
• sharp knife to cut apples (for teacher’s use only)
• assorted materials for student investigations, such as plastic containers with lids; plastic wrap or small plastic bags; aluminum foil
• sheets of flip chart paper
• markers

For each team of 2 or 3:

• 1 apple, same type as control apple
• 1 hand lens
• 1 sharpened pencil

For each student:

• 1 copy of the Apple Record Page (at the end of the file)
• 1 pencil
• crayons or markers

PROCEDURE

1 EXPERIMENT SET-UP

1.1 Show students an apple. Ask them to compare the apple with a tooth. How is the apple like a tooth? How is it different from a tooth?

1.2 Set the stage for investigating tooth decay by asking students what they think would happen inside the apple if someone used a pencil to poke a hole in its skin. Tell students they will conduct a scientific investigation about an apple with a hole in it.

1.3 Students will plan and conduct their investigations in teams of two or three. Each team will choose a question they think they can answer by investigating. For example, What will happen to the apple if we poke five holes in it and put it in the closet?

*Other examples of questions to study include:

What would happen if

• we poked more than one hole in an apple?
• we made some holes deep and some holes shallow?
• we made some holes larger than others?
• we poked one or more holes in the apple, then put it in a plastic bag and sealed it?
• we poked one or more holes in the apple, then put it in the refrigerator?
• we poked one or more holes in the apple, then put it in a sunny place?
• we poked one or more holes in the apple, then put it in a dark, warm place?

1.4 The team will write its question or have an adult help them write the question.

1.5 The team members will decide who will perform each task.

2 EXPERIMENT EXECUTION

2.1 After teams have confirmed their scientific question and decided who will perform the tasks, distribute one apple per team.

2.2 As a class, determine where to place the control apple. Make sure students know that they should observe the control apple as well as their experimental apple each time they make observations.

2.3 Have students prepare a records page (Apple Record Page, at the end of this file) that addresses the following questions:

1. What will happen to our apple if... (start hypothesis)
2. Draw a picture of and write what they did to the apple
3. We think our apple will... (end of hypothesis)

2.4 Allow students to poke, treat, and manipulate the apples according to their hypotheses.

2.5 Over the next 5 to 7 days, allow students to briefly observe the experimental and control apples. Because the change is gradual, require students to record their observations only once at the beginning, once in the middle, and once at the end of the investigation. Encourage students to use hand lenses and thermometers to record data about their apple or the environment of the apple.

2.6 After 5 to 7 days days (whatever time you designate for the investigation), cut open each team’s apple and the control apple. Instruct teams to observe their own apple and to record the results on their record page. Note that the inside of the apples will turn brown quickly after you cut them open. (See Figure 1.)You might wait to cut open the control apple until students have recorded the results from their experimental apple.

Figure 1. Halves of two apples cut open after 5 days of observation: left, 5 days after poked with a pencil; right, control apple (not poked). [Photos of apples are in the Word (downloadable) version.]

2.7 Display all the team apples and the control apple. Label each apple according to its variables: number of holes, size of holes, in a plastic bag, in the refrigerator, in a closet, and so on. Invite students to observe the results from all the apples.

2.8 Have students complete the sentence: "After __ days, our apple..."

3 EXPERIMENT TAKE-DOWN

3.1 After the results have been documented, the apples can be discarded into the regular trash or compost.

DATA ANALYSIS AND QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

1. Review the teams’ responses to Question 3 above (We think our apple will...). Discuss whether their responses were accurate and why initial ideas are not always accurate.

2. Discuss the results of their investigation

• What happened inside the apple? The inside of the apple turned brown; it began to decay.
• What made the apple begin to decay? We poked a hole in the skin or peel of the apple.
• What did the hole allow to happen inside the apple? The hole allowed something to get inside the apple and start the decay process.What is your evidence that something got inside the apples that had the holes? The inside of the apples that had holes turned brown. The inside of the control apple did not turn brown.
• Did all apples show the same amount of decay on the inside?
• Which apples showed more decay and why do you think that is?

3. Since this apple is a model for our teeth, why is it important to protect your teeth so that they do not get holes in them?

If the bacteria in your mouth create a hole in the enamel of a tooth, then that tooth will decay, similar to what happened to the inside of the apple.

Remember that the apple is not a perfect model of a tooth. The decay process is not the same, although the appearance might be similar. The inside of the apple will turn brown upon exposure to the air. Tooth decay requires acids produced by oral bacteria.

4. Review the processes that students used to answer their initial question about the apple. Help students compare what they did to what scientists do when they conduct investigations or experiments. Help students realize that they can be scientists.

• Scientists ask a question. (What questions did students ask?)
• Scientists plan their investigation and use a control to try to answer their question. (How did the students plan and conduct their investigations? Did they use a control?)
• Scientists make predictions about what they think might happen. (What were students’ guesses?)
• Scientists use their senses to observe and gather evidence or data. (How did the students use their senses?)
• Scientists use tools to help them observe and gather data. (What tools did students use? How did using those tools help them?)
• Scientists record their observations and data. (Where did students record their observations?)
• Scientists share their evidence and data with others. (How did students share their evidence?)
• Scientists use their evidence and data from investigation results to answer their question or explain what happened. (How did students use their evidence to answer their question?)

6. To end the activity, ask students what they would do differently if they repeated their investigation.

7. Congratulate the students on their work as scientists.

CONCLUSION: In our classroom experiment, we saw that poking a hole in an apple speeds up the rotting of the apple.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apple Record Page

Scientist Names: ________________________ ______________________ ________________________

1. What will happen to our apple if ________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________

2. This is what we did to our apple. Draw a picture here.
Write what you did to your apple here. ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________

3. We think our apple will ________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________

4. This is a record of what happened to our apple.

 

Date	Our Experimental Apple	The Control Apple

5. After _____ days, our apple __________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________

********************************************************************

TOXICITY TESTING: THE EFFECT OF CHEMICALS ON RADISH SEED GERMINATION

Grade Level: middle and high school

BACKGROUND: The beneficial and harmful effects that a chemical has on an organism depend, in part, on the amount of the chemical that gets into the organism. The total amount of chemical administered to, or taken by, an organism is called a dose, and the effect a chemical has on a living organism is called the response. The effect a chemical has on a living organism is related to its dose and the resultant concentration of chemical in the organism. Toxicity tests enable toxicologists to learn about responses of living organisms, especially humans, to doses of chemicals.

In this experiment, students perform toxicity tests on seeds, paying careful attention to the dose and concentration of chemicals. From this experiment, students can understand the importance of using model systems in science when human subjects cannot be used because of the potential risk. Students can also understand that many questions in science suggest a variety of investigation methods and that their use of models in scientific inquiry can help them establish relationships based on evidence from their own observations.

Radish seeds are ideal for the experiment because they are easily found at local garden stores and will germinate in one to three days.

OBJECTIVES: The experiment has three objectives:

• To test the effects of different doses of chemicals on seed germination and collect data for two consecutive days.
• To understand that the effect a chemical has organisms is related to the dose and the resulting concentration of chemical in the organism.
• To demonstrate how toxicity tests enable toxicologists to learn about responses of living organisms to doses of chemicals (dose-response relationship).

HYPOTHESIS: Exposure to solutions of increasing concentrations of chemicals will have an effect on normal radish cell germination. Students may hypothesize that certain chemicals are more toxic than others.

DURATION:

Set-up time: 45 minutes (one class period)

Experiment run time/data collection: two consecutive days, 15 minutes each day, for observations and data collection

Take-down time: 5 minutes

MATERIALS (for a team of three students):

• 6 resealable plastic sandwich bags
• 12 paper napkins
• 6 50-mL beakers of chemical solution, ranging from 0% to 100% concentration*
• 1 bag of seeds (approximately 60 seeds in a bag)
• 1 permanent marker
• latex gloves
• safety glasses
• 1 tray

*Safe, easily available chemicals for testing include water-soluble plant food, artificial sweetener, liquid detergent, shampoo, soft drinks, window cleaner, instant coffee, salt, non-toxic environmental cleaner, sugar, tempura paints, fruit and vegetable cleaner (Fit), all purpose disinfectant cleaner (Lysol). 1 PROCEDURE EXPERIMENT SET-UP

1.1 Prepare 20 mL solutions of each % concentration of chemicals (0%, 6.25%, 12.5%, 25%, 50%, 100%) according to table below for each team of students. Assemble materials together and set out.

Beaker #	Amount of Water	Amount of Chemical	Total Volume of Liquid	% Concentration of Chemical
#1	20.00 mL	0.00 mL	20 mL	0%
#2	18.75 mL	1.25 mL	20 mL	6.25%
#3	17.50 mL	2.50 mL	20 mL	12.5%
#4	15.00 mL	5.00 mL	20 mL	25%
#5	10.00 mL	10.00 mL	20 mL	50%
#6	0.00 mL	20.00 mL	20 mL	100%

2 EXPERIMENT EXECUTION

2.1 Label all six bags with your team members’ initials, plus the bag number and a percent concentration of chemical, like this:

Bag Number	Percent chemical concentration
#1	0%
#2	6.25%
#3	12.5%
#4	25%
#5	50%
#6	100%

2.2 Put two napkins together and fold them in half so that they fit into the plastic bag. Fill each bag with two folded paper napkins.

2.3 Put on the safety glasses and latex gloves. Carefully pour the chemical solutions into the bags, making sure to match the numbers and concentration percentages of the bag and the chemical. Each bag now will contain 20 mL of chemical solution that is absorbed by the paper napkins.

2.4 Count out 10 seeds. Carefully place the seeds on the moist paper napkins in the control bag (#1), making sure to space them evenly (do not clump them in one spot). Seal the plastic bag, pushing out the air as you go.

2.5 Repeat Step 2.4 for the remaining bags.

2.6 Place the seed bags in a stack, lying flat with the seeds up, on the tray. Put the tray of seeds in the spot designated by your teacher. Put this worksheet in your science notebook.

2.7 Observe the seeds for two days and fill in the following data table.

Table 1. Response of radish seeds to different concentrations of chemical

Bag #, dose	Day 1, # seeds germinated	Day 1, # seeds not germinated	Day 2, # seeds germinated	Day 2, # seeds not germinated
1, 0% (control)
2, 6.25%
3, 12.5%
4, 25%
5, 50%
6, 100%

3 EXPERIMENT TAKE-DOWN

3.1 Clean up your work area. Everything can go into the regular trash.

DATA ANALYSIS AND QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

• On Day 1, predict what you think will happen to the seeds in each bag.
• What was your chemical? Describe what you know about the chemical. (Do you consider it harmful, beneficial, or neither? What is it used for? How would a human be exposed to this chemical?)
• In which bag was the dose of chemical the highest? In which bag was the concentration of chemical in the solution the highest? Describe how you know.
• Did you see a difference in the effect on seeds of a small dose of chemical compared with the effect of a larger dose?
• What did you see?
• Is there anything else you saw that you would like to tell us?
• Is there anything else you are still wondering about?

CONCLUSION: [This is an example of one possible conclusion.] "In our classroom experiment, we were able to observe the dose-response relationship of radish seeds after the seeds were given different types and doses of chemicals." Students will see that different chemicals have various effects on radish seed germination. They should be able to compare various levels of toxicity of these chemicals to radish seeds.

**********************************************************************

Frequently Asked Questions

 

• What is the NIH LAB Challenge?
• Who is issuing the challenge?
• Who can participate in the challenge?
• How do I enter?
• How many experimental procedures can I submit?
• Must I fill out a separate form for each experiment I submit?
• What is a "learning objective"?
• How will the submissions be judged?
• What would eliminate my experiment(s) from consideration?
• How many winners will there be for the challenge?
• What can I win?
• What will happen to the winning submissions?
• How can I get a copy of the winning procedures?
• How can I find out why my entry did not win?
• How can I get help if I have any questions or problems?

What is the NIH LAB Challenge?

The NIH K–12 LAB Challenge is a call to the nation to help us bring engaging hands—on science into the classroom — so everyone can enjoy doing science! We're asking people to send us their best experiments for kindergarten through 12th-grade classrooms. We'll collect these written procedures and make them available to everyone for free. Your experiment can be original or modified from another source. (If modified, we'll need to know the source.)

Who is issuing the challenge?

The Science Education Resource Group (SERG) is issuing the challenge. SERG is composed of members representing all the NIH institutes and centers. Members of the group have an interest in science education, and most have related programs and resources.

Who can participate in the challenge?

Anyone can participate in this challenge, as long as they live in the United States or a U.S. territory. To submit a procedure for an experiment, though, you need to be at least 13 years old. People under 18 will need parental or guardian consent.

How do I enter?

Follow the instructions at "How to Enter."

How many experimental procedures can I submit?

There is no limit to the number of procedures you can submit. Just be sure to follow the entry guidelines for each one.

Must I fill out a separate form for each experiment I submit?

Yes. Each will be judged separately for consideration in our future free publication.

What is a "learning objective"?

A learning objective is a statement that describes the knowledge or skills that a student should be able to attain following a lesson (or in this case, a science experimental procedure).

How will the submissions be judged?

A panel of classroom teachers, students, scientists, and NIH science education personnel will use a rubric to score the entries and select winners.

NIH will conduct an independent safety review of the candidate winning experiments before the final selection and announcement of the winners. Experiments that use hazardous materials or bodily fluids will not be accepted.

What would eliminate my experiment(s) from consideration?

Experiments that do not follow the guidelines or do not have all the necessary entry documents will be eliminated from consideration. Experiments that use hazardous materials or bodily fluids will not be accepted.

How many winners will there be for the challenge?

There is no set limit to the number of winners for the challenge.

What can I win?

Winners will earn recognition and an official, exclusive, electronic NIH Challenge badge to display online. Winners will be announced March 1, 2012.

What will happen to the winning submissions?

Winning submissions will be included in our NIH collection of the best procedures, which people all over the world can access. It will be available for free in print, online, and on mobile devices from the NIH Office of Science Education Web site.

How/when can I get a copy of the winning procedures?

Winning submissions will be available for free in print, online, and on mobile devices from the NIH Office of Science Education Web site. They will be available at the time of the winners are announced, or shortly thereafter.

How can I find out why my entry did not win?

Contact the NIH Office of Science Education at LAB@science.education.nih.gov or call 301-402-2469. For updates about the challenge and other education activities at NIH, follow us on Twitter: @NIHSciEd.

How can I get help if I have any questions or problems?

Please review our frequently asked questions (FAQs). Your question may already have been answered. If it hasn't, contact the NIH Office of Science Education at LAB@science.education.nih.gov or call 301-402-2469.

For updates about the challenge and other education activities at NIH, follow us on Twitter: @NIHSciEd.