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Science Fair Judging
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Last updated March 7, 2010

These pages contains information for technical professionals in California wishing to volunteer as judges for county and other regional science fairs. While these pages are primarily intended for MITCNC members (i.e. MIT alumni in Northern California), the pages can also serve as a clearinghouse for others wishing to help out in this important mission.

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Getting Involved

Science fair judging is an easy way to get involved to help budding young scientists launch their careers, as well as to increase the supply of technical professionals that will be available to industry 5-10 years from now. It’s also an easy and fun way to get involved in the community, and to raise the visiblity of the MIT and the MITCNC.

Almost any MITCNC member is prepared to be a judge at a local science fair. Among the common misconceptions:

  • I’m not qualified. Any adult with a degree in science, engineering or math should be able to judge middle school students. In addition, at most fairs judges work in teams, allowing the team to draw on more specialized expertise for the most advanced projects.
  • It’s too hard to learn. Most fairs have teams with experienced judges to help newcomers learn. Although the rules and procedures are slightly different at each fair, we also provide general guidelines for those preparing to judge for the first time.
  • It’s too big a committment. Most science fairs require one-time appearance of 3-6 hours to review a group of projects. While they would love to see you again, organizers understand if you can’t make it every year due to travel or work deadlines.
  • It’s too far to go. Nearly all Bay Area counties have their own science fair (as does Sacramento, Fresno and the most populous counties of Central and Southern California). Those who live in the major cities or nearby suburbs should be able to find a fair no more than 20 miles away from their home or place of work.

We hope you will agree to volunteer at your local county science fair. A list of fairs by date and by location is provided on this website. Please contact the fair directly to volunteer your services, or contact the MITCNC science fair coordinator if you’re not sure where to go.

If you decide to volunteer, please tell the officials that you are from the MIT Club of Northern California. That will allow us to monitor where our volunteers are having the most impact.

Northern California Science Fairs by Date

Below is the calendar of major Northern California regional science fairs and their judging dates. (For other California fairs, see our complete list).

Judging Date Location Fair
Feb. 24, 2010 Santa Rosa Sonoma County Science Fair
March 1, 2010 Sausalito Marin County Secondary Science Fair
March 13, 2010 Santa Cruz Santa Cruz County Science Fair
March 17, 2010 San José Synopsys Silicon Valley Science and Technology Championship
March 22, 2010 Fresno Central California Regional Science, Mathematics and Engineering Fair
March 24, 2010 San Francisco San Francisco Bay Area Science Fair
March 26, 2010 Concord Contra Costa County Science & Engineering Fair
March 26-27, 2010 Sacramento Sacramento Regional Science and Engineering Fair
March 31, 2010 Livermore Tri-Valley Science and Engineering Fair

California State Science Fair (CSSF)

The California State Science Fair is held every May at the California Science Center in Los Angeles near USC. The fair was founded in 1952. Today, the fair accepts nearly 1000 students from around the state. Each year, the fair takes the top projects from the county or other affiliated fairs. (See also the MITCNC directory of regional fairs.)

Every year, the CSSF needs judges, particularly in the life sciences. This year, judges will be working from 7:00 am - 1:30 pm on Tuesday, May 18th, 2010. To volunteer, please see their judging volunteer page.

Intel International Science and Engineering Fair

The International Science and Engineering Fair was founded in 1950 to create a national science fair for high school (grades 9-12) students. Since 1998, the fair has been sponsored by Intel. The annual competition is held in May, and includes participants from all 50 states and 40 other countries.

The Intel ISEF sets standards and guidelines used by regional fairs that wish to nominate students to participation in the international fair.

The 2010 fair will be held in San Jose from May 9-15. The ISEF is seeking volunteer judges for this fair for the evening of May 11 and during the day on May 12.

SSP Middle School Program

In 1999, Science Service and the Discovery Channel cooperated to create what became the SSP Middle School Program, a national science fair for students in grades 5-8.

In 2008, more than 7000 projects were nominated for the SSP Middle School Program. From this, the fair selected 300 semifinalists. Of these, 30 finalists won an all-expenses paid trip to compete in Washingotn, D.C.

For Further Information

These web pages are maintained by Joel West on behalf of the MIT Club of Northern California. Joel (MIT ’79) has been a science fair judge since 1989, and also helped create and run a science fair at a San José elementary school.

If you have any questions about the process of volunteering to judge, or any corrections to the website, please email Joel at

ScienceFair@joelwest. org