Changes from 1996 - 1997

The California State Science Fair strives continually to improve the quality of the event for its participants throughout the State of California. As part of these ongoing efforts we will be implementing several policy changes this year. Some of these changes are the result of recommendations presented at the last County Coordinators' Meeting which was held during the 1996 California State Science Fair.

Policy Changes

Category Changes

Team Projects

Application vs. Registration

Category Changes

Team Projects

As a consequence of this change, the restriction in previous years that Team Projects were not eligible for the Project of the Year award has now been lifted. All first place projects in every subject category, regardless of number of authors, will be considered by the Project of the Year judging committee.

In recognition of the greater resources of time and effort available to team projects, as contrasted with individual projects, all judges will apply slightly modified criteria in evaluating team and individual projects. As of this writing (November 1996) the wording of these criteria has not received final approval by CSSF. When it is approved (presently predicted for January 1997) these criteria will be listed here, as well as in the Judging Handbook.

Application vs. Registration

By this approval process, it is not our intent to limit the number of participants but rather to improve the quality of the event and ensure that the students are able to effectively communicate their projects to the judges.

The following is the official list of acceptance criteria:

1. Acceptance to present a project at the California State Science Fair requires the approval of an Application submitted by the student(s).
2. Applications without a Project Abstract will be rejected without recourse to appeal. Each student on a team project must complete his/her own personal Application, but the Project Abstract need only be given by one member of the team. As long as the Abstract is provided by at least one member, other members of the team may choose to provide or omit the Abstract without penalty.
3. Abstracts must demonstrate a level of knowledge and investigation that is appropriate for the grade of the student and discipline and which is beyond what is considered common knowledge. In other words, the investigations must demonstrate knowledge that is not found in middle or high school textbooks.
4. Abstracts must communicate ideas effectively, use standard English, and be legible.
5. The methodology and experimental design should be appropriate for the student's grade and discipline, and should include the following where appropriate:
   • experiments are appropriate to achieve the stated objective;
   • the sample size and/or number of trials is sufficient for projects where replication is necessary to establish validity;
   • the statistical analysis is appropriate for the students' grade and discipline;
   • the conclusion is relevant to the stated hypothesis.
6. Projects which are merely demonstrations, display collections, and literature searches are generally not acceptable. In order to be acceptable, the student must use the demonstration, collection, or search results, to extract new information not previously known to the student.
7. Applications may be rejected for failing to satisfy the rules of the Fair.
8. The Application fee is not refundable if the application is rejected.
9. All rejected Applications will be reviewed by the Directors of Judging and are subject to appeal (with the exception of those applications which do not contain an Abstract).