Science Fair

Information about the 2024 Ralston Science Fair

How to enter the Science Fair

 

You can sign up now for the 1st Annual Ralston Middle School Science Fair, which will be held on January 31, 2024 on the Ralston Campus. 


Please sign up to express interest, even if you aren't sure about a topic or specific project; you can always update your information later.  We will be holding a few Q&A/mentoring sessions in the coming weeks to help students pick great projects, so don't feel like you need a great project before signing up!  Students are welcome to participate individually or in teams of up to three! You can reach out to the organizers with questions at sciencefair@ralstonmspta.org.  Remember, anyone can participate and all Ralston students are welcome! 

Detailed information for students


The Ralston Science Fair organizers have established rules and policies that you should read carefully as you plan your entry.  You'll be presenting your project using a Google slides template (Experimental projects, Engineering projects).  Please note that if you are planning a project that uses humans, animals, bacteria or tissue, you'll need to submit an additional form for approval by December 10. 


We have detailed information for students about how the judging and community event will run - please review the FAQ document (we'll add more updates to it as questions come in).  You can contact us at sciencefair@ralstonmspta.org with additional questions

So you want to enter a science fair…


Let’s do it!  Students from all backgrounds and experience levels can enter science fairs and have a fun and successful experience.  To enter a science fair, the main thing you need is to have observations about the world around you that you can turn into a testable question.  You don’t need to have previous experience or special equipment or expertise.  


If you’re not sure how a science fair works, you might want to check out this animated video - it starts out kind of silly, but hopefully you’ll see that you can follow straightforward steps to create a science fair project.  


Ralston’s science fair is January 31, 2024.  We’ll share more information and sign-ups in November.  Right now, you can start generating ideas for your project.

Science fairs start to finish


We strongly recommend you check out some resources from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab: a step-by-step guide from generating ideas, to framing your ideas as a testable question, to designing the experiment, and then evaluating and communicating your results.  

I don’t know what project to work on!


Here are some resources to help you find a project idea, if you don’t have one already.


I need more help!


As the fair gets closer, we’ll publish the “rules” of our fair so you understand exactly how the fair will work and what template you should use to present your project.  We’ll be closely following the San Mateo County guidelines.  You can get a sneak peek at those, including Google Slides-based templates to share your results, at https://stemfair.net/students/.


We’ll also make opportunities available to talk to adult community mentors about your ideas and get advice