PTA Science Fair

The PTA Science Fair was formed by Orange Unified Council PTA to encourage hands-on scientific thinking and exploration.

Important Dates

  • Submissions Due: Mar. 13

    After we collect the submissions, they will be judged out of a maximum of 100 points. The winning project for each grade level will be announced on Mar. 27 and will advance to the next level of judging.

  • Community Science Night: Apr. 24

    The winning entries from all OUSD schools will be judged and then displayed at Community Science Night at Santiago Canyon College. The winning project for each grade level will be announced.

  • AHES STEAM Night: May 8

    All PTA Science Fair entries will be displayed at AHES STEAM Night, which will take place on campus in the evening.

We are excited to invite AHES students to participate in the first ever PTA Science Fair! This program is FREE to enter and is open to ALL STUDENTS.

Please read the Full Guidelines below. Only entries that follow the guidelines will be eligible to win.

If you have any questions, please email President@ahespta.org.

Submit Entry

  • The PTA Science Fair was formed by Orange Unified Council PTA to encourage hands-on scientific thinking and exploration.

  • All AHES students are eligible to enter! Students must be in the TK-12th grade and shall enter in the appropriate division for their grade.

    • Primary Division – students in grades TK-5

    • Secondary Division – students in grades 6-12

  • Students may work individually or as a team of up to three students. Each student is only allowed to enter one project.

    Team projects will be placed in the same categories as individual projects. Judges will have higher expectations of team projects in comparison with the work done by one student.

    Teams will compete in the grade level of the member of the highest grade. Students in different divisions cannot be on the same team.

  • Entries are reviewed at school and regional levels. One winner from each grade per school will advance to the district-wide PTA Science Fair of OUCPTA. Each PTA determines its own reviewers for the program. Entries will be evaluated primarily on the creativity, methodology, and presentation of the student’s project.

  • Primary and secondary division must submit the following:

    • (1) Entry Form, completed online

    • (2) Presentation Board, tri-fold up to 36 x 48” in size

    • (3) Student Video about the experiment

    Secondary division (6-12th grade) entrants must submit the following, in addition to the requirements listed above:

    • (4) List of Citations

    • (5) Lab notebook

Submission Guidelines

  • Presentation Board

    Students must create and submit a tri-fold presentation board about their experiment.

    Presentation boards should be heavy duty, tri-fold boards up to 36x48” in size.

    When the presentation board is finished, take a digital photo and save your image file before uploading to your submission form.

    The original physical presentation board will be presented at the school’s PTA Science Fair.

  • Student Video

    Students must create and submit a Video for the judges to view about what they did (summary of your question/problem), how they did it (procedures), and what they learned (results and analysis, conclusions, applications, and next steps)

    Recommended Length of Video
    - 30 seconds for Primary Division (TK-5)
    - 60 seconds for Secondary Division (6-12)
    - Maximum of 90 seconds.

    Explanations should be concise and longer videos will not be judged more favorably than shorter videos.

    For team projects, each student must participate and be given equal time.

    Student(s) must be visible throughout the video.

  • Lab Notebook (6th Grade only)

    Students in 6th grade and up must use a Lab Notebook while conducting their science experiment. The Lab Notebook serves as a log that documents what you did, how you did it and why someone else can repeat it.

    An image of each page should be submitted. File types accepted: jpg, jpeg, png and pdf

    Can be handwritten or digital, but pages should be dated, signed and legible

    Information that should be included are raw data, observations, photos/drawings taken of the experiment, and calculations.

  • Citations (6th Grade only)

    While doing research, it is important to cite a variety of resources including books, magazines, and journals.

    See APA Citation Guide for guidelines.

    Secondary division students must properly cite a minimum of five resources.

View Full Guidelines

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