How to Complete Your CWSF Finalist Registration in the YSC Portal

How to Complete Your CWSF Finalist Registration in the YSC Portal

Welcome to the Canada-Wide Science Fair (CWSF) registration guide. This article will provide you with all the necessary steps to successfully register as a finalist in the YSC Portal. Whether you are new to the system or returning for another exciting year, follow these instructions to ensure your registration is complete and accurate.

Step 1: Accessing the YSC Portal
  1. Visit the YSC Portal at https://portal.youthscience.ca
  2. If you are a returning user, log in with your existing credentials. If you are a new user, your regional coordinator will need to invite you to register for the CWSF before you will be able to login. 
Alert
It is highly recommended that finalists register using a personal, non-school email address (e.g., Gmail, Outlook) to ensure they receive essential CWSF information from YSC as well as the login information for the CWSF event app – schools often block outside emails. Finalists should not create an account or register using their parent's/guardian's email address. Parents and guardians will have the ability to include their contact information during the registration process on the YSC Portal if they wish to receive the same YSC communications as the finalists. 

Step 2: Confirm your User Profile
  1. Once logged in, navigate to User Profile and fill in your personal information, including your full name, preferred language, postal code, region and grade.
  2. Ensure all information is accurate and up-to-date. This information will be used for all official communication and documentation.
Info
If you would like to change the email associated with your account, please do not create a new account. During your CWSF registration, under General Contact Information, changing the email field will change the email address associated with your account as well. Similarly, you can change your email address on ProjectBoard. You do not need to create a new ProjectBoard or YSC Portal account when your email changes. Having one ProjectBoard account means that all of your projects can be in the one place - ideally linked to just one YSC Portal account as well. 

Step 3: Connect to ProjectBoard
  1. Your YSC Portal account should automatically connect to ProjectBoard and you should see "My ProjectBoard" in the sidebar.
  2. If this process doesn't work automatically, navigate to your Dashboard and click Connect to ProjectBoard.
  3. Use the same credentials (username and password) you use to log in to the YSC Portal to access your ProjectBoard account.
Alert
For ProjectBoard to connect, the Username in the YSC Portal and ProjectBoard must match. In some cases, regional fair participants/finalists have multiple ProjectBoard accounts and the username for the "wrong" account is attached to the YSC Portal. To prevent disconnecting your account from ProjectBoard, YSC Portal usernames are not user-editable; however, they can be changed by a YSC Admin. If you have this type of ProjectBoard connection issue, please submit a ticket to request that your YSC Portal username be changed to match your username on ProjectBoard. Don't forget to provide us with your name, email, YSC Portal username and ProjectBoard username so that we can match it to the YSC Portal.


Step 4: Start your Registration
  1. Navigate to Registration, underneath the CWSF-ESPC heading. You will be presented with a dashboard showing you all of the sections and forms that are required to complete your CWSF registration. Your registration will not be complete until you have confirmed your CWSF registration in the final form. 
  2. The forms you are required to fill out include: See extra tips below the table.
About You


   General Contact Information
Personal identification information
Note: Your used name is your preferred name if different to your legal name.
   Emergency Contacts
Emergency contact information

   School Select
School information
Note: If you cannot find your school, email support@youthscience.ca and we can add it to the list.
Your Project


   ProjectBoard
Connect to your project on ProjectBoard
Note: If you have more than one project on ProjectBoard, ensure you select the correct project in this section.
   Project Information
Information about your project

   Biography
Personal biography

   Project Safety
Project safety information
Note: You can find the CWSF Project Display policy under My Documents in the YSC Portal.
   Project forms
Project forms

CWSF


   Carleton STEM Experiences
Add your Carleton STEM Experiences choices
Note: We will use these choices to organize groups for lab tour day (Tuesday afternoon)
   Special Awards
Special awards nominations
Note: Only nominate for special awards that are relevant to your project. The judging team will review all nominations for eligibility prior to CWSF.
   Additional Information
Information needed to complete your registration
Note: Parents/guardians can include their contact information here to receive the same emails as those sent to finalists.
   Permission and Release Form
Download and agree to the permission and release form
Note: This form must be completed and signed by everyone - including the finalist on both pages - before you can upload the PDF. If that is not possible, you can give it to your regional coordinator or delegate who can email, send, or fax the form to YSC.
   Registration Confirmation
Confirm your CWSF registration


Additional Tips
  1. The school picker works best if you can copy/paste the exact school name into the field. Otherwise here are some tips:
    1. Enter the full name of the school, not an acronym. The database has no idea what "SMCSS" is.
    2. Enter a unique element of the school name, even if it's in the middle of the name, (e.g., Garneau for "Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute."
    3. If the name is common, (e.g., St. Mary's High School) enter the city name instead and then find the school in the list.
  2. If you don't see any projects, check that the project you want to link is set to Public on ProjectBoard. The portal cannot see projects set to Private.
    1. Many students have multiple projects on ProjectBoard with identical titles, making it difficult to know which one to select. In ProjectBoard, set the project you want to link in the portal to Public and all the others to Private.
    2. For students registering for the CWSF, setting a project in ProjectBoard to "Public" simply means that the YSC Portal and anyone with the exact URL can see it. It won't be made visible on ProjectBoard until mid-May when CWSF is underway. Please don't delay your registration - you have an extra week after the CWSF deadline to complete your ProjectBoard project.
  3. If you have a project partner, here is how you pair your registrations:
    1. The first partner completes the Project Information tab and clicks the Submit button. Still in that tab, they click the "I have a project partner" checkbox, which reveals a blue token/code under the text, "Share this token to invite your partner to this project.” They share that token/code with their partner.
    2. The second partner registers and goes to the Project Information tab. They click the “I have a project partner” checkbox and enter the first partner’s token/code under "To join your partner's project, enter their token here.” They click the Find Project button, and a “Project Found!” popup should appear listing the project they share. If the project is correct, they click “Yes” and the two students are linked to the project.

Step 5: Review and Submit
  1. Once you have completed all of the forms and there is a green checkmark next to them all, review all of the information you have entered and make any necessary adjustments.
  2. Once you are satisfied that all information is correct and complete, confirm your CWSF registration. 
Troubleshooting and Support
  1. Your regional delegates are available to assist you through the CWSF registration process. They aren't able to see a detailed view of your progress however, so when asking them for help, it is suggested that you use the screenshare functionality in a video call with your delegate(s) so that they can better assist you. 
  2. If you experience any issues during registration, please submit a ticket in the Help Center.
  3. If you need help with uploading or editing your project on ProjectBoard, refer to the FAQ & Resource Center on ProjectBoard (under Help in the menu on ProjectBoard). 

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