Today we Bring You The Results Of The Second SteemSTEM Writing Competition!

_{[Join us on #steemSTEM]}

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As we, the SteemSTEM people, always say is that the best way to learn about a topic is to teach it to others. Our initiative offers the community the opportunity to get rewarded for such an effort, and we are always hunting for the best contributions. Today we are very pleased to report to you the winners of the prizes from the Second SteemSTEM Writing Competition!

What Were The Potential Prizes?

• 1st Place - 200 Steem Power + 18.5 STEEM (rewards earned from announcement post)
• 2nd Place - 100 Steem Power + 18.5 STEEM (rewards earned from announcement post)
• 3rd Place - 50 Steem Power + 18.5 STEEM (rewards earned from announcement post)
• 4th Place - 50 Steem Power
• 5th Place - 25 Steem Power

The top three posts were re-steemed in addition to the bonus monetary prize.

As an extra thank you to all of those who participated, we are awarding a 5 Steem Power bonus to all runner up submissions. We appreciate all of your hard work creating these posts and thank each one of you for the diverse sample of topics.

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Reviewing How Judging and Ranking Was Performed

Three members of the SteemSTEM team, @anarchyhasnogods, @lemouth, and @justtryme90 were responsible for judging the posts.

We assigned each submitted post a score based on 5 guidelines.

• Accuracy - 15 pts
• Comprehensibility - 15 pts
• The choice of the topic - 10 pts
• Formatting - 5 pts
• Appropriate citations and references - 5 pts

Scientific accuracy: Spreading inaccurate and/or false information leads to confusion for your readers!

Comprehensibility: Garbled text or text that is too technical can be hard to understand. It is always possible to make complex topics simple, and that is something that we as science writers, should strive for.

Topic: As said above, we will pay a special attention to the reasons that have pushed you to write on the submitted topic.

Formatting: Large solid blocks of text are difficult to read and concentrate on, no matter the comprehensibility of the text. We are not looking for advanced formatting techniques, just basic, solid formatting improving the readability and motivating your readers to put in the time to read your post.

Citations: Citing information gives credits on the one hand, and serves as a way for your readers to learn more if they are interested on the other hand.

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The Results

The Top Five Posts

First Place

Ultrasonography by @hagbardceline

What we thought: Wow! What a well crafted post! Excellently written, organized, and cited. The formatting made the well crafted text even more easily digestible and the images chosen truly complemented the text. Finally, the depth and quality of the cited material should serve as a fantastic example of what one can do to both ensure an accurate post, as well as provide a nice springboard for further reading. We all learned quite a bit about ultrasound and its use in the ultrasonography technique from this post!

Second Place

Does inhaling bacteria increase intelligence? by @jaki01

What we thought: Another fantastically crafted post! The writing is very clear and the information well supported. The information is also extremely well cited, and easy to access due to the author’s use of links and citation markers throughout the text. A fascinating report on Mycobacterium vaccae, and its influence on our brains, moods, serotonin levels and learning abilities.

Third Place

Virtual Futures : The Allure and Illusion of Digital Urbanism by @voronoi

What we thought: This was a very thought provoking post! As with the top two submissions the writing in this post is exceptional and the information factual, well supported and interesting to read. The images and gifs of what the future augmented reality may look like really helped in making the text come to life and truly made for a wonderful learning experience.

Fourth Place

In the future, Science may help patients forget certain memories by @mgibson

What we thought: This was a very well written and interesting post. As with the top three submissions the writing in this post is exceptional, and the information factual. Though not as extensively sourced and shorter than the posts above, this is still a very well organized and thought provoking contribution to scientific discussion on steemit!

Fifth Place

Smallpox, Vaccination, and Oscillatory Epidemic Dynamics by @kzollove

What we thought: Yet another great post. As with the top four submissions this is a well written piece of work and the information supported with citations. Tells a nice history of the eradication of smallpox as a result of of the development of the vaccine. We did look at your graph @kzollove, and we hope others will too!

Runners Up Submissions (Alphabetical Order By Author)

Author	Post Title
@danigirl	Making Our Bodies Uninhabitable to Cancer
@jeff-kubitz	Healing Whirlwinds - SteemStem Competition 2
@madlenfox	A miracle of nature
@maszblogs	What's that gas?? One of Most Common Gasses in the Universe
@surpassinggoogle	Around 60 People In The World, Have Superhuman Memory And Remember Each Day Of Their Lives!!!

We @steemstem thank all of you for participating and wish congratulations to the winners!

** Considering the success of this contest we hope to do another in the near future. Please be on the lookout for the next contest opportunity **

Thank you for your support of the @steemstem project and your enthusiasm for creating and reading great STEM content on steemit.