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Science Fairs go Web 2.0
from iprojectideas.blogspot.com
Are you a parent who likes to do science experiments with your kids? Well, then you might be Balloon Boy’s father, and you should probably lay low for a while. But if you’re anybody else, check out oursciencefair.com.
Our Science Fair is a web service for schools and parents who host or participate in science fairs. It modernizes the registration process, turning it from one dependent on convincing hundreds of preadolescents to take a paper packet home to their parents, get it filled out, and then bring it back to teacher in a timely manner; to one dependent on the parent spending 30 seconds or less online signing up their little Dr. Kevorkian -- ahem -- Einstein.
The service is Sammamish resident Rajeev Goel’s brainchild, inspired by his brave commitment last spring to coordinate his daughter's science fair at Cascade Ridge Elementary.
Our Science Fair's features include the ability for parents and kids to upload photos they’ve taken while creating their baking soda and vinegar volcanoes, with the option of purchasing a slideshow of all such photos burned onto a DVD by Our Science Fair.
Parents can also buy supplies for their kids' projects that will be delivered to classrooms, too (although the inventory is fairly limited for now—a cardboard display board and a header board of the same material. When will they stock the flux capacitor?). Part of the money made from those sales will go to the school's PTA, and part of it makes up Our Science Fair’s revenue.
The idea for the service came when, in the process of working on his daughter's science fair, Goel realized that registration for 600 students was being done via paper. "The worst part was when the paper came back somebody had to sit there and type it all into a spreadsheet," he said.
So, being a former programmer at Microsoft, he brought it all online. The response from teachers, administration and parents was so positive, he decided to take a swing at a startup.
The service is free for schools and parents, and Goel said one new school signs up every one to two days: “Not bad for this point in the cycle.”
Camden Swita is an editorial intern at the Puget Sound Business Journal
About John Cook
John Cook is co-founder and executive editor of TechFlash. He has been covering the technology beat for nearly a decade, writing about startups, entrepreneurs and venture capital, most recently serving as a reporter/blogger at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
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