Participate

Critical Information for a Successful Registration

Fair Information and Regulations – Read This Completely!

If there is a city or county science fair in your area, you must participate in your local competition before advancing to GGSF. If there is no local competition near you, you may apply to compete in GGSF by registering online. Registration opens September 1. Top placing projects move on to the California Science and Engineering Fair, the International Science and Engineering Fair (High School only), or Broadcom MASTERS competitions.

To Register:

Anyone in the counties listed below may register for Golden Gate STEM Fair. 

Group Projects: Group projects are welcome, no more than 3 total members.

Lower Division, Grades 6 – 8

Lower Division projects may be registered with or without a teacher’s involvement as long as there is an adult involved in monitoring your project. Use this LINK to register.

Upper Division, Grades 9 -12

Upper division projects must have a science teacher or scientist mentor in addition to a parent supervising your project. Upper Division projects register via the zFairs platform at this LINK. You will need to create a user name and password. The paperwork for your project will be filled out via this profile to obtain digital signatures. 

Geographic Area:

You or your group leader must live in San Francisco, San Mateo, Marin, Napa or Sonoma counties.

School Fairs:  If your school has a science competition that is affiliated with GGSF, you MUST participate in that fair and not register for GGSF.

Display Regulations:

Maximum Size of Project
Depth (front to back): 30 inches
Width (side to side): 48 inches
Height (floor to top): 60 inches

Photographs or images of people other than the Finalist need to have a signed photo/video release form from those individuals in a notebook. These signed release forms must be available upon request during the set-up and inspection process, but may not be displayed.

No commercial or brand logos

You may bring parts of your experiment if it fits in front of your project according to the above display regulations.

Material Regulations: The following are not allowed

1. Biological materials (living, dead, or preserved) other than those commercially available. This includes but is not limited to:

• Living organisms, including plants
• Taxidermy specimens or parts
• Preserved vertebrate or invertebrate animals
• Human or animal food
• Human/animal parts or body fluids (for example, blood, urine)

2. All chemicals including water. Absolutely no liquids can be utilized in the Project Display

3. All other hazardous substances

Categories

Lower Division (grades 6 – 8):

Environmental – Biological – Physical – Behavioral

Upper Division (grades 9 – 12):

Environmental – Biological – Physical – Behavioral – Engineering

Computer Applications – Mathematics

Paperwork

You must fill out a Scientific Review Committee form BEFORE YOU START your experiment if your project includes any hazardous substances (anything you would not want in your body. Ex: bleach), microbial propegation (bacteria), human or animal participants.

Judging and Awards

Rubric: For clarity please view these rubrics that judges will use for each project. Upper Division Lower Division

Placement Awards: Categorization for 1st through 3rd place awards are dependant on registration numbers to ensure fairness. Ex: If there are only 3 registrants for Mathematics, it will be combined with another category.

California Science and Engineering Fair: Generally 1st and second place winners move on to the State competition.

International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF): Two upper division projects are chosen to attend the ISEF directly. If funding is available, airfare, lodging and registration will be provided by GGSF for the student (or group) and one adult for each project.

Broadcom Masters: Top-placing lower division students will be eligible to participate in the Broadcom Masters competition.

Special Awards There are many special awards available from our community partners.

Required Forms: Scientific Review Committee

Scientific Review Committee (SRC) forms are REQUIRED if your project involves invertebrate or vertebrate animals, human subjects, recombinant DNA, tissue, pathogenic agents, or controlled substances. IMPORTANT: If your project involves any of the preceeding conditions, forms need to be dowloaded, completed and dated BEFORE experimentation begins. SRC forms may be found HERE. the forms specific to your project needs and must be completed and approved before your project can be judged.