| The Rules
A. General Instructions A1. All participants are honor-bound to follow these rules and regulations fully. Remember your Ethics classes: as apprentice Wizards, your word is your bond. A2. All time references in the rules are in USA Pacific daylight time, according to the GSW Clock Tower. “Due dates” will follow this clock. Note that there are no exceptions—I know that computer disasters happen, as do personal “events,” but this year, the deadlines are absolutely firm. I will only accept submissions that come to me in the correct form and by the correct time. For maximum security, I suggest these approaches: (a) where allowed by the rules, have two people responsible for every task; (b) as individuals, back up your work (on computer) as you go; (c) be sure of your computer access as the deadlines approach; and (d) finish early: don’t put completion of any task off to the last minute. A3. As with last year, Houses and Lodges will team up to complete the challenge:
Team Air = Sylphs + Winds Team Fire = Salamanders + Flames Team Water = Undines + Waters Team members are limited to those who declared their participation by midnight on March 30. (latter sentence added 31 March 08 11:02 am) A4. Each Team (see above) will have its own forum in the Great Hall. Each team forum will be available only to its own Team members and to Prof. Moonwriter. (At the end of the EDC, all four Team forums will be opened to the entire GSW, so that the student body may see what the Earth Day Challengers have been up to. Before this is done, teams will have time to remove any “sensitive” posts.) A5. All communication re: the challenge (and its planning) must take place on the Team forum. Email should be used only to exchange photos and documents for the final report. A6. The EDC begins as soon as it is posted and ends at 7 pm on April 22. A7. Materials submitted for other GSW challenge activities—past or present—or for GSW classes may not be reused in this challenge. All challenge materials must be fresh. A8. The EDC is an exercise in teamwork! The team’s size does not matter: what is critical is that the team work together to coordinate efforts, communicate, help each other, and cheer each other on. A9. Within the team, each team member must take primary responsibility for completing at least one Challenge task. A10. Youth members are on equal footing with adult members, and their views should be equally considered and respected. With their age and experience in mind, youth members are expected to hold up a reasonable share of the tasks. Give your youths a chance to shine! A11. Teams may not seek or accept assistance from members of their House or Lodge who are not on an Earth Day team. A12. Fun must be had. B. Formatting Your Work B1. Each team must submit a single Answer Document (AD). In other words, I will accept only one submission per team. There will be no exceptions. The AD will be sent by one team member, from one address. Note: depending on its form, the AD will probably include more than one file (keep reading….) B2 Your Answer Materials (AD) may be submitted in any form you choose. I strongly recommend that you do this in an interesting and creative way. For example, creating a blog (Blogspot is a good start), web page (Google and FreeWebs are good sources of free web materials and space), graphic novel, or pdf document are examples of good presentation ideas. See the Dean of Students forum for presentation resources. B3. In order that they may be used in GSW classes and materials, all text materials must also be submitted as separate Word documents*, and all image files must also be submitted as separate jpg or gif files. For example, if you create a web page to showcase your results, you must also submit Word versions of all text and separate jpg/gif versions of all images. These files must be submitted by the April 22 deadline. * Use Microsoft Word for written materials; submit work only as .doc or .rtf files. Do not use WordPerfect. DO not submit as .wps or .docx files. If you don’t know how to use the “save as” command to save files in a certain format, use your resources (i.e., ask someone in your group!). Please do not contact me asking for tests or requesting whether other formats are “okay.” (This is one of those things you must figure out!) B4. There is no length limit to your responses. Note however, that a longer response isn’t necessarily better, nor worth more points. (In fact, an answer that is excessively long is apt to make the scorekeeper quite crabby,) Write what you need to write to explain your topic well—don’t pad your answers or make them unnecessarily long. B5. Each answer must include a list of source materials and references. Their format must follow the “Academic Policies” lesson on the Dean of Students forum. You will lose points for submitting citations that are incomplete or incorrectly formatted. (Example: simply listing a website URL is not a complete citation!) B6. Do your most excellent work—grammar and spelling absolutely count, and presentation is important. B7. Creativity is everything—don’t be afraid to try something unique. C. Submitting Your Challenge Answer Materials C1. Your AD is due on Thursday, April 22, by 7:00 PM, Pacific (United States) time, as per the GSW clock tower. You may turn the AD in earlier if you wish, but you MUST turn in whatever you have done by this time. I suggest you turn everything in before 7:00; no late submissions will be accepted. C2. Anything sent by classic mail must reach me on or before April 22. Note again that the materials must reach me—not be postmarked by—the 22nd. If necessary, the team leader should contact me for a classic mail address. C3. Your AD may be in the form of (a) a Microsoft Word document, (b) a pdf document, (c) readable CD-ROM and/or DVD-ROM, (d) a packet of hard copy documents, sketches, photos, etc., (e) a link to a web page, blog, or video, (f) miscellaneous materials used to answer the tasks, and/or (g) any combination of those (if I’ve forgotten to include something you wish to use, post a question on the ‘Earth Day Challenge Questions’ topic on the forum). If web destinations are included in the AD, the actual AD itself should include clear, functioning instructions (web links). If I can’t open or “see” the materials, they aren’t worth any points. (Note: I am running Mac OS 10.4.8, and can read wave, RealPlayer, Quicktime, and Windows Media files, as well as using all of the most common web browsers.) As noted above, you must also submit separate text and image files if appropriate. C4. Email electronic AMs as an attachment to Moonwriter07@comcast.net. Please do not embed ADs within the email itself. C5. If sent electronically, file size must not exceed that which can reasonably be sent and downloaded by email. I have a high-speed cable connection, but I cannot be responsible for how kind the web is to electronic documents, nor can I ensure their arrival. Images, if embedded in electronically transmitted documents, should be kept as small as reasonably possible. C6. If sent electronically, I strongly recommend that you do not use Yahoo email. It has begun causing more and more problems lately, in terms of dropped emails, file corruptions, and delivery failures. I am not responsible for email failure on the sender's end. C7. I will confirm the receipt of all ADs. D. The Scoring Process D1. Work will be scored completed tasks and for other criteria to be determined by Prof. Moonwriter. Teamwork, enthusiasm, and school pride are of great importance. D2. IMPORTANT: There is no penalty for leaving a question unanswered. If anything is left unanswered, you won’t get credit for it, but you also won’t lose anything. If you don’t have time to do everything, don’t worry—just do what you can do. Pay the most attention to the tasks that you think you’ll enjoy the most, or those that you think will teach you the most. D3. Scores will be tabulated by yours truly (Prof. Moonwriter), and if necessary—i.e., if the results are close—will be verified by at least one additional Grey School faculty member (someone who did not take part in the challenge). D4. The results will be announced as close to Earth Day as possible, and no later than April 27. D5. The winners will have their Team immortalized in the school “Trophy Room.” E. Miscellaneous E1. All answers and answer materials become the property of the Grey School of Wizardry, and can be used by the GSW as desired, including (but not limited to) as class materials, newspaper pieces, creation of the annual report, publicity, etc. This includes attaching the writer/creator’s name(s) to the materials. The writer retains use of the materials for Grey School-related tasks, e.g., clubs, classes, etc. E2. Any procedural questions should be posted to the ‘Earth Day Challenge Questions’ topic on the Great Hall Challenge Forum. I will check the forum at least once a day throughout the Challenge. Please do not send me email questions unless the GSW site is inaccessible. E3. Teams should check the All School Challenges Forum daily, for updates, new information, bonus rounds, etc. |
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