Below is a copy of a letter that was shared with USEF students, parents, and teachers:
March 13, 2020
Dear Fellow Scientists,
Thank you for your passion and commitment to science. As you may have heard by now, we have rescheduled competition for the elementary and junior divisions of USEF for May 18-20, and we are hoping the COVID-19 pandemic will be more contained by that time, so that you and your fellow scientists will have a chance to showcase your work, learn from each other, and experience the thrill of sharing knowledge in a public forum. We understand and share in the disappointment that we had to postpone the elementary and junior division USEF competitions, and therefore wanted to share the reasons why we postponed those divisions but still held the senior division competition.
Indeed at first, it may seem illogical that we postponed the elementary and junior competitions while proceeding with the senior division. However, there are several factors that led to this decision, which was made together with the U’s COVID-19 response team, composed of health care professionals and university leadership (including President Ruth Watkins, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Daniel Reed, and Senior Vice President for Health Sciences Michael Good). Most importantly, this decision was based on the need to limit the size of public gatherings since this is the primary way the virus will spread throughout our communities. As of a few days ago, the U limited gatherings on campus (of students, faculty, staff, and visitors) to under 150 people, and yesterday this was revised to gatherings of 100 people or fewer through April 29. The elementary and junior divisions of USEF both would exceed 150 people (about 325 students in the elementary division and 250 in the junior division plus 130 judges added to that). The senior division, on the other hand, was much smaller, with only about 80 students competing.
An additional factor we needed to consider was the next level of competition for each division. Only students in grades 9-12 can qualify for the International Science and Engineering Fair and the deadline to qualify is April 1. If the senior division students could not compete until May, they would lose the opportunity to advance to this competition. Students in grades 6-8 can qualify to apply for the Broadcom MASTERS competition and the deadline to apply is early June, so postponing until May for elementary and junior divisions would still allow students to qualify through our fair. We have confirmed with the organizers at Broadcom that holding the elementary and junior division competitions in May will not affect the application process.
Another important factor is that many of our USEF judges are in high-risk categories for COVID-19, including being over the age of 60. Many judges notified us that they would not be able to participate, so we had a judge shortage. Once again, this impacted the larger elementary and junior divisions compared to the senior division.
And finally, it’s important to remember that while young people are at a smaller risk of getting sick from the virus compared to other groups, they can just as easily be infected and transmit the virus to others. So again, it’s important to limit the size of gatherings to slow the spread of the virus throughout the community so we avoid (hopefully) overwhelming our local healthcare system as more people get sick from it.
Again, thank you for your concern and for taking the initiative to reach out to us! We hope to see you under better circumstances in May, however, please know that whether or not the elementary and junior division students can continue will be a decision made by the U’s COVID response team and not myself or Brenda Mann, USEF’s Director.
Jody Oostema
Program Manager
University of Utah Science and Engineering Fair
University of Utah
155 South 1452 East, Room 452
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
(801) 585-9109 office
Brenda Mann
USEF Director
University of Utah Science and Engineering Fair
University of Utah
155 South 1452 East, Room 452
Salt lake City, UT 84112
(801) 585-9109 office