Determine if you want to compete for awards and prizes or if you would like to exhibit only!
Competing Divisions
High School – Students in grades 9-12
Middle School – Students in grades 6-8
Showcase Division
Students in grades 5-11
Make sure that you can enter the Fair and that your schedule is clear for the entire day of the Event!
Read the General Information and FAQ pages if you have some questions.
Decide on your topic and develop your experiment or design.
DON’T START EXPERIMENTING YET!
Remember your registration needs to be completed PRIOR to your experimentation.
Use the Student Checklist and the Road map to Registration to help you prepare for registration.
Complete the necessary items in order to make registration easier.
YOU’RE READY!
Begin registration using the buttons below.
Make sure you take note of your Regional STEM Fair ID Number!
Your Regional STEM Fair ID Number will be used to identify your project and
MUST be on the back of your Display Board.
Check your Emails!
If you didn’t catch your Regional STEM Fair ID Number during registration, you will receive a notification email with it listed.
BE SURE TO WRITE YOUR REGIONAL STEM FAIR ID NUMBER (or numbers if you’re on a team) ON THE BACK OF YOUR PROJECT BOARD.
Be sure to check your SPAM folders for our emails as we will let you know if your registration is missing anything up until the event!
Submit Additional Pieces of your Project!
Submit your required Project Video, and your optional Project PDF and Quad Chart using the buttons below.
Students will have five minutes to give judges a presentation on their project (which can be made using PowerPoint or other presentation software, a trifold board, a Quad Chart, or some other presentation that involves the student making a live presentation to the judges), and the judges will have five minutes to ask questions of each student. Students will have the ability to share their screen. Once their allotted time elapses, students will be automatically removed from the breakout rooms.
You can also view the ISEF Categories here.
Remember: Once you have your idea, please ensure you will be following the Rules & Guidelines. Be sure to read the Student Handbook for help with the Scientific Method! Begin the electronic registration, using the Registration Guide to help you.
The science or study of the thought processes and behavior of humans and other animals and their interactions with the environment studied through observational and experimental methods.
(Includes Biochemistry, Chemistry, Chemical Energy, and Pharmacology)
Studies that explore the identification of the substances of which matter is composed; the investigation of their properties, and the ways in which they interact, combine, and change, and the use of these processes to form new substances.
(Includes Animal, Cellular, and Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Plant Sciences, Health Sciences, and Transitional Medical Sciences)
Focuses on human or animal body systems or overall health.
(Includes Earth & Environmental Sciences, Mathematics, and Physics, and Astronomy)
Focuses on the science of matter, energy, mathematical functions, and applied mathematics.
(Includes Engineering mechanics, Materials Science, Robotics and Intelligent Machines)
Studies that focus on engineering that involves movement or structure. The movement can be by the apparatus or the movement can affect the apparatus.
(Includes Biomedical Engineering, Physical Energy, Environmental Engineering, and Green Chemistry):
Focuses on sustainable or green materials or products
(Includes Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Embedded Systems and Systems Software):
The practical approach to computation and its applications.
Sparticl – A new web and mobile service for teens that collects the best Internet resources in STEM.
Read MoreThe National Science Digital Library – An on-line library for those interested in education and research in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Read MoreeGFI – Tools to boost your students’ math and science skills, enliven the classroom with engineering projects, lesson plans and activities and demonstrations.
Read MoreFind your Path Through NGSS – Choose different STEM topics and cross cutting areas to see different activities and lesson plans!
Read MoreCode.org – This website has helpful tutorials on the basis of computer science, coding and programming. It even lets you learn coding with simple building blocks while playing your favorite games like “Angry Birds”!
Read MoreScience News for Students! Pretty self-explanatory, but this news site can help you see what real world problem professional scientists and engineers are tackling – maybe you have a better solution?
Read MoreProject registration is open. Sign up online and begin brainstorming.
Think of a topic that interests you or that is relevant to you and develop a question or a solution to a problem Remember: STEM is in everything! For example, if you love art, you could research how the chemicals in paint react or how they make the artificial colors.
Begin researching your topic. Be sure to record and cite your sources
Keep a notebook to record notes throughout your project, including references for your bibliography, observations, measurements, sketches and diagrams. Narrow down your topic to one that you can experiement with.
By late September, you should have completed your initial research, identify your topic and conduct specific research on your topic.
Plan for your experiment! Draft out what steps you will take in your experimentation and make a list of what materials you will need.
Purchase the materials for your experiment – make sure to have enough for a few trials! Be sure to list out your safety procedures as well because you will need it for your STEM Fair registration. Make a hypothesis and record it!
After you’ve come this far, go online and fill out your Project Registration. Be sure to keep an eye out on your email – this is how we will contact you if we have any questions to inform you if we are missing anything.
Complete your Project Registration online or submit a paper copy. You MUST submit your paperwork PRIOR to experimentation. If you do not have the paperwork in before you begin your experiment, you may be disqualified from winning awards and prizes. We suggest submitting your paperwork in NOVEMBER so that you can get it out of the way and off your plate.
Perform the procedures you developed in October and November. Record all observations and data in detail in your notebook. When you are experimenting be sure to collect both quantitative (numbers and measurements) and qualitative data (descriptive observations).
We suggest you videotape and photograph your experimentation. This way if you have materials that are not alloqed at your project display during the Fair, you are still able to showcase the work you performed.
Analyze your data and draw conclusions. This is where you reflect on what happened during experimentation – what did you observe? What does it mean in the real world? Would this work affect other areas of the world?
Before you begin and display world, make sure to review the Items Not Allowed at Your Display list and the display guidelines. Make sure that your display board fits in the dimensions provided because you will be limited to those guidelines.
Prepare your 2-3 minute presentation. Take a look at our “Project Tips/Interview” section on the Student & Parents page. Remember: your judges will be scientists and engineers; you do not have to explain every tiny detail to them.
This is the FINAL DEADLINE for Project Registration. There will be NO extensions. If you submit your project registration after this date, you will not be eligible to compete.
Make sure to review the online information packets that are posted close to the date of the Fair. These contain information pertaining to timing, parking, student check-in, activities for the day and more!
Student Project Check-in and Drop-off will be held on site from 5pm-8pm. Stop by tonight to make your event day SUPER easy!
join us for the Sacramento Regional STEM Fair! Student project check-in and drop-off opens again at 6AM if you were unable to make it Friday night. You MUST have your project set up by 8:00AM and remember to attend student orientation!
Do you consider yourself somewhat of an artist? If so, we want you to help us design our 2023 STEM Fair pin! Each year, the NorCal STEM Education Foundation provides pins to participants at the Sacramento Regional STEM Fair to commemorate the event. These pins travel with the winners who go on to compete in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair and are traded among competitors from all over the world! Imagine YOUR design traveling to Europe, Asia, even Australia!
All designs should be scalable (submitted in EPS format) and visually appealing when reduced to 1 ½ x 1 ½ inches. Designs will be displayed in color in two sizes for voting. Designs will be displayed on one side of one 8 ½ by 11-inch piece of paper. Designs will be shown in a print area of 4×6 and a pin preview thumbnail of 1 ½ by 1 ½ inches. Winning pins will be re-designed in the submitted image’s likeness and manufactured no larger than 1 ½ x 1 ½ inches. Pin designs should state “2023” and “Sacramento Regional STEM Fair.” The chosen pin is subject to change to reflect the name of the 2023 Fair.
Individual submissions only. Contest is limited to students in grades 5-12 that reside in the NorCal STEM Education Foundation’s service area.
For a detailed look at all rules and regulations that apply for the Pin Design Contest: look here!
