Maine State Science Fair

The Maine State Science Fair (MSSF) is an exciting opportunity for Maine high school students to pursue their interest in science and present results of their projects to fellow students.

Judges for the science fair come from across Maine and include scientists, engineers, mathematicians, teachers, and other STEM professionals.

The 2020 Maine State Science Fair will take place Saturday, March 28 at the Alfond Arena at The University of Maine, Orono. MSSF is open to all students from all public, private, parochial and home schools (Grades 9-12) throughout Maine and is organized by The Jackson Laboratory and the Reach Center, a program of the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance.

Student registration deadline is January 20, 2020.

Download results from the 2019 MSSF, including scholarships, category awards, special awards, and the Maine ISEF Finalists.

Your topic should be something that interests you and causes you to ask questions or stimulates your curiosity. You could use science or engineering to solve a problem in your school or community. Ask questions about the topic. Do you know the answers? Does someone else know the answers? The possibilities are endless!

What is already known about this topic? What questions are other people asking? What has yet to be discovered? Utilize background research resources in your school, library, online, or ask the experts.

Ask your essential question and form your hypothesis. Boil your ideas down to a single question or problem. Write a hypothesis or begin to sketch out a design solution.

Students should register their project on Scienteer, a web-based science fair project submission and review system. Your teacher will provide you a registration link that is specific to students at your school. If your teacher does not have the registration link, ask your teacher if they have completed the School Registration form.

Submit the required forms, online, using Scienteer. Scienteer works by asking students to answer a questionnaire about their project. Scienteer then determines which forms are needed based on the student’s answers. Students then fill in a series of web forms, which will automatically populate the official Maine State Science Fair forms.

If your project involves human participants, vertebrate animals, potentially hazardous biological agents or hazardous chemicals, activities, or devices, you must submit additional information and detailed plans regarding personal safety, justification and safe use of vertebrate animals, and protection of human subjects, among other topics.

If you haven't created your Scienteer account, ask your teacher for the school-specific registration link.

Projects NOT involving hazardous materials, hazardous biological agents, human subjects, or vertebrate animals may begin at any time — prior review by the Maine State Science Fair Scientific Review Committee is not required. However, if your project DOES involve hazardous materials, hazardous biological agents, human subjects, or vertebrate animals it is subject to prior review by the Scientific Review Committee. You will be electronically notified that you may proceed.