Volunteer Opportunities

Judges are selected based on their expertise and educational background and are responsible for evaluating projects against the Fair’s Rubrics for Scientific and Engineering projects. Judges will be assigned to teams and provided with information about their assigned projects in advance of the Fair to review. They provide clear and impartial feedback to each student they interview. Parents, advisors, mentors, teachers, or others with direct ties to student participants may not participate as judges. We have three groups of judges: 

• Category Judges are assigned to one of our STEM Fair project categories based on their educational and work background and expertise. They will judge projects within their assigned category.
• Special Awards Judges will evaluate projects for our Special Awards which are presented by sponsors and may have their own set of criteria or a rubric. 
• Grand Award Judges are our most experienced judges and are selected based on past fair participation and expertise to judge our first place finishers in each category to determine our ISEF nominees. 

Responsibilities & Time Commitment:

• Attend a 1 hour virtual judges orientation the week prior to the Fair
• Spent 1-2 hours reviewing assigned projects in advance of the Fair via our online judges portal. 
• Attend the Fair from approximately 8:00a-3:00p
  • During the Fair you will have time to review your assigned projects in advance of the student interviews.
  • You’ll interview students at your assigned projects during the competition. Your job is to remain curious, encouraging, and supportive – even if you’re asking tough questions. Remember – you may be the person who sets a student on a lifelong path of STEM education and careers, or,  you might dissuade them from STEM entirely.
  • You’ll complete and submit a rubric for each project electronically after each interview (timely submission of rubrics is VERY important!)

Interested in judging at the fair? Apply here. 

Student safety is the SRSEFF’s top priority. Ensuring ethical participation that adheres to all local, state, and national laws and rules is a very close second. To that end, all ISEF-affiliated fairs are required to create a Scientific Review Committee to ensure safety and compliance. Some projects require review and approval before experimentation begins and all projects require review prior to the Fair.

Our Scientific Review Committee (SRC) is a group of qualified individuals responsible for evaluation of student research, certifications, research plans and exhibits for compliance with the rules, applicable laws and regulations at each level of science fair competition. An Institutional Review Board (IRB) is a committee that, according to federal regulations (45-CFR-46), must evaluate the potential physical and/or psychological risk of research involving humans. All proposed human research must be reviewed and approved by an IRB before experimentation begins.

We are currently recruiting SRC/IRB members with the following expertise:

1. A biomedical scientist with an earned graduate degree
2. A mechanical or civil engineer
3. A computer or data scientist or engineer – especially with ample AI or LLM research experience
4. A middle school science teacher – especially in chemistry and biology
5. A high school science teacher – especially in chemistry and biology
6. A middle school administrator
7. A high school administrator
8. A medical doctor, nurse practitioner, physician’s assistant, doctor of pharmacy, or registered nurse
9. A psychologist, licensed social worker or licensed clinical professional counselor 
10. A veterinarian or animal care specialist

Responsibilities & Time Commitment:

• Attend a 1 hour virtual SRC/IRB Committee Meeting at the start of the Fair year (August) to review rules changes, ISEF forms, and Fair procedures for the new year. 
• Be familiar with ISEF and Sacramento Regional STEM Fair Rules
• Devote 1-3 hours per week from August through February to reviewing registered projects.
  • We aim to return determinations to all students within 7 days of their registration. We anticipate most registrations will be submitted at the November 13 and January 31 deadlines. The week following those deadlines may require additional time. 
  • Projects are assigned based on expertise/speciality area. Not all SRC/IRB members review every project. 
  • Materials for review are provided via our SRC/IRB online portal and SRC/IRB determinations are submitted via online form. Fair staff takes care of student communication.
• SRC/IRC members are prohibited from also serving as judges at the Fair. 

Interested in serving on our SRC/IRB? Apply here.

We need lots of help on event day! Event Day volunteers attend the Fair from early morning until the last chair is folded and put away. They help with a variety of tasks like room set up, project set-up monitoring, setting up our breakfast and lunches, monitoring doors during the competition, and more. Click here to volunteer.