University of Utah Science & Engineering Fair
Pre-register

Teachers

Everything you need to guide students from their first idea to fair week: forms, rubrics and workshop documents.

Two students stand beside their project board, which shows a bar graph of their results, at the 2026 fair.

Get students ready for pre-registration

Grades 9–12 can pre-register now. Forms, rules and workshop documents are below.

Forms & resources

Guiding your students

  1. Introduce science fair

    Show students what a science fair project can do for them, and what one involves.

    Why compete?

  2. Help students pick and plan

    The Resource Center lays out the whole project, from first idea to judging day.

    Resource Center

  3. Hold your school fair

    Use the judging rubric and the blank judging spreadsheet below to run your own fair.

    Workshop documents

  4. Make sure qualified students register by February 10

    Students register on this site. Grades 9–12 also pre-register before district fairs, starting November 4.

    Student steps by grade

  5. Fair week

    Senior: Monday–Tuesday, March 8–9. Elementary: Wednesday, March 10. Junior: Thursday, March 11.

    Fair Week schedule

“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.”

Utah Science Core Curriculum

Teacher resources

Forms

If you still collect paper forms from grades 5–8, here they are. They can be filled in and signed without printing.

Workshop documents

How to select a science fair project (PDF, 410 KB)
Tips and a student worksheet for choosing an interesting project.
A quick guide to abstracts (PDF, 141 KB)
How to write a great project abstract.
Display board tips (PDF, 183 KB)
A few tips about display boards.
Projects often done by students (PDF, 45 KB)
Common projects to (please) avoid. Be unique!
Judging rubric (PDF, 111 KB)
A scoring sheet for projects.
Blank judging spreadsheet (Excel, 947 KB)
For scoring school and district fairs.
Understanding, grading and judging computer science projects (PDF, 220 KB)
How to judge computer science projects.
Science fair basics (PDF, 1.2 MB)
Demonstrations vs. experiments, the scientific method, the engineering design process, and grading.
Statistics for science fair, slides (PDF, 368 KB)
Slides from the "Statistics for Science Fair: Some Basics" presentation.
Statistics for science fair, cheat sheet (PDF, 354 KB)
An overview of statistics in science projects.
Getting projects to the next level (PDF, 1.0 MB)
Helping students build the best project they can.
Expectations for ISEF candidates (PDF, 208 KB)
What judges look for in an ISEF‑worthy project.

More resources