High School Science Fair season is underway!

Late August means hot, hot weather, return to school, and for STEM kids across the nation, the beginning of the next science fair season. For example, the 76^th annual Los Angeles County Science & Engineering Fair (LACSEF) will be held March 8-9, 2026.

Some students start with their school’s own science fair, where a strong performance can earn them a spot at their county or regional science fair. For other students, depending on their school and location, the county or regional STEM fair marks the beginning. This is the case where I live, in Montgomery County, Maryland, where students in the county can register directly for ScienceMONTGOMERY.       

In a small state like Wyoming, the path to ISEF begins with a regional science fair. Finalists from these fairs can move on to the Wyoming State Science Fair, from which one or two may be invited to ISEF.  

ISEF-affiliated science fair projects can be performed individually or in groups of up to 3 students.

Even local science fairs have a pretty hefty logistical burden these days. The reasons are safety, legal, and compliance with ISEF guidelines and standards. All fairs want to know in advance what students’ projects are about and whether they will be performed safely, in appropriate facilities, and under appropriate supervision.     

Fortunately, students and parents don’t have to go it alone. STEM fairs all the way up to ISEF recognize that mentors can benefit students immensely and have proscribed policies for crediting and disclosing the involvement of mentors.

What to look for in a STEM project mentor

Adult mentors for high school STEM competition projects can be parents, family friends, teachers, professors, graduate or undergraduate students, or professionals. Students don’t require a mentor, but many find that their projects and learning are vastly enhanced from the guidance of a good one.

Whatever type or form of mentor you choose, look for these characteristics:

• Integrity
  • The emphasis should be on the student’s learning and development, not on winning prizes. A mentor with integrity will never do a student’s project, or major portion thereof, for them.
• Research Acumen
  • Although the mentor doesn’t need to be a global expert in the specific field of the student’s project, the mentor should have plenty of research experience, a track record of publications, and a reputation in their field. They should know every element and phase of a research project inside-out and be able to spot common pitfalls, fallacies, and other traps students are likely to encounter early, and skillfully guide them back on track.

• Understands Scope
  • High school STEM projects are a different animal than science and engineering projects performed by PhDs and career technical professionals in universities, companies, and government laboratories. A good mentor must have a solid understanding of what is reasonable for high schoolers to accomplish in the allotted time (remembering the students have their schoolwork too), with the resources available, and according to their skills and preparation. This is simultaneously the most fun and most challenging aspect of my mentorship work. It’s even tougher because most students have little awareness of their own limitations themselves! A huge part of my job as a mentor turns out to be keeping the students’ projects reasonable in scope and level of difficulty so they have a chance at making progress and creating something of value.
• Understands the Judges
  • A good mentor will have served as a STEM fair judge before. Most STEM fairs are upfront about their evaluation rubrics. Mentors don’t necessarily “teach to the test,” but they remind their students at the right time about how their projects will be evaluated. Many students are under the mistaken impression that they need to produce a sophisticated, complicated or “advanced” project to have a shot at placing as a finalist. In fact, many professional scientists seem never to have shaken this misconception. In truth, a simple and elegant project is much more likely to wow the judges and lead to a high score. Something too complex is bound to fail with little to show for the students’ work, and also raises suspicions that the student had excessive assistance.

---

“Something that’s simple is easier to work with than something that is complicated, and you’re going to make more rapid progress with a simple technique than a complicated one.”

George Whitesides, 2024

---