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I can confirm the snags that Stuart Kohlhagen has just highlighted. Last
year I also ran interactive exhibit design sessions for adults at the
National Science Centre in Kuala Lumpur and also at the British Interactive
Group's annual 'Event'. Many years ago I was also involved in running a
public competition very similar to the one you propose. 

You are certainly going to receive a high percentage of inappropriate
submissions on which children have sadly wasted much time and effort. Many
ideas will not resemble any kind of interactive exhibit. Many other
'designs' will be quite impossible or impractical to actually fabricate. 

May I make a suggestion, based on experience? Why not invite the children to
physically MAKE their own simple, tabletop, interactive exhibits, maybe
based on specific exhibits that you describe or show them? Again I know from
experience that this is perfectly possible for children to do, using very
simple, inexpensive materials. Then they could simply submit photos and/or
movies of their creations as competition entries. This will keep everything
much more focused, give the participants an extremely worthwhile learning
experience and minimise wasted effort.

Promoting public engagement with science
through a contagious delight in phenomena
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Give people facts and you feed their minds for an hour.
Awaken curiosity and they feed their own minds for a lifetime.
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Ian Russell (Twitter: ianrusselluk)

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