Salt Lake Valley Science and Engineering Fair

New Teacher Resources

Below are the resources we mentioned / used in our teacher training sessions. All documents below are PDFs.

2011 Teacher Workshop Slides
A Quick Guide to Abstracts
Other Science Fairs
Lab Notebook Guidelines
Display Board Tips
Science Fair Paperwork Made Easy

Attention: Teachers With Senior Division Students

ALL 9th through 12th grade students need to fill out and submit ISEF forms in order to advance to SLVSEF. If you have science fair students in grades 9-12 who are planning on participating in SLVSEF, you should direct them to isefa.heroku.com and have them create an account so they can get this process underway.

Once they are logged into the site, they’ll answer a few questions about their project to determine which ISEF forms are required. From there, they can download blank forms, fill them out and then upload them for approval.

Other Teacher Resources

Are your students experimenting with Human Subjects? You’ll want to review these two documents for sure:
Risk Assessment Guide (Human Subjects) .doc
Research Ethics: How to Treat People who Participate in Research .pdf

Here are a few other documents that will make your science fair life a little easier:
Science Fair Paperwork Made Easy .pdf
Who, What, When, Where & How (Tips for organizing a school science fair) .doc
A Friendly Reminder For Students: Things Not To Do .pdf

Science Fair Forms

As an affiliate to the Intel ISEF, we are required to document that all of our students are abiding by the rules established for pre-college researchers. The documentation is handled through a variety of science fair forms.

Senior Division Students

Students in grades 9-12 are required to fill out the following ISEF forms:

ISEF Rules & Guidelines

International Rules & Guidelines (English)
Reglas Internacionales para la Investigación Preuniversitaria (Español)

Why Participate in Science Fairs?

“Science is a way of knowing, a process for gaining knowledge and understanding of the natural world. The Science Core Curriculum places emphasis on understanding and using skills. Students should be active learners. It is not enough for students to read about science; they must do science. They should observe, inquire, question, formulate and test hypotheses, analyze data, report, and evaluate findings. The students, as scientists, should have hands-on, active experiences throughout the instruction of the science curriculum.”

—Utah Science Core Curriculum Introduction

Teacher Workshop Documents

	How to Select a Science Fair Project – Student Assignment Sheets Tips and a worksheet for selecting an interesting science fair project Download PDF
	A Quick Guide To Abstracts Writing a great project abstract is one of the most important things about your project—here’s a quick guide on getting it right Download PDF
	Display Board Tips A few tips about your display board Download PDF
	Projects Often Done by Students A list of common projects to (please) avoid. Be unique! Download PDF
	The SLVSEF Judging Process How a project is judged at SLVSEF Download PDF
	SLVSEF Judging Rubric A scoring sheet for CUSEF projects Download PDF
	Blank Judging Spreadsheet A blank scoring spreadsheet Download Excel Spreadsheet
	Understanding, Grading, and Judging Computer Science Projects Specific information on how to judge CS projects Download PDF
	Science Fair Basics An overview of Demonstrations vs. Experiments, The Scientific Method, Engineering Design Process and Grading & Judging Download PDF
	Statistics for Science Fair Presentation Slides from the Statistics for Science Fair, Some Basics presentation Download PDF
	Statistics for Science Fair Cheat Sheet A good overview of statistics use in science Download PDF
	Getting Projects to the Next Level Presentation A helpful document for teachers to help their students create the best project they can Download PDF
	Expectations for Intel ISEF Candidates What judges will look for when deciding if a project is ISEF-worthy Download PDF