North Jersey Regional Science Fair 2016

North Jersey Regional Science Fair -- 2016

The NJRSF for 2016 was held at Rutgers, New Brunswick, March 11-12, 2016. The awards were announced March 12, at the awards ceremony. The top awards include 5 students named to attend ISEF, from four different schools in the region, including Bergen County Academies, Colonia High School, The Dalton School (the school is in NY, but the student lives in NJ), and Watchung Hills Regional High School. We had an outstanding year at ISEF.

Final information for the fair

Team Projects in 2016

We are hoping to send team projects to ISEF again in 2016, although our commitment to that has to be pending fund-raising efforts. We began sending teams a few years ago, in 2010, after we got a grant from AT&T (resulting from the Netflix Award won by a group of staff members at AT&T Labs Research) for the purpose. As of 2013, that award needed to be backed by contributions, so we are seeking sponsorship.

Changes for 2016

The pre-screening that was implemented last year at the last minute, due to over-subscription of the exhibition venue, is planned to continue for this year. Hence, students should note the following:
- The pre-screening is a first judging phase for the fair. Therefore, any project that is entered (and approved) at the entry deadline is assumed to be officially entered in the fair, and the documents posted on the web will reflect that entry. This practice may be of importance to students who wish to mention their NJRSF participation on college applications. What the screening does is to select the projects that will actually be exhibited at the fair in March.
- The screening will start shortly after the entry deadline in early Feb. It will be based on the research plan and abstract submissions.
- Any project for which a readable research plan is not present will be excluded from the screening (and hence from the exhibition).
- Any project not approved by the SRC will likewise be excluded.
- The abstract is not required, but it is a good idea to have it there, since it tells us what what you actually did, not what was planned.
- The screening results will be posted on your entry status page when they are released.
THERE IS A NEW REQUIREMENT FOR VERTEBRATE PROJECTS. This was announced to the advisors last year, but we are making it part of our formal rules this year. In addition to the usual ISEF requirements (form 2 etc), and local SRC approval (if your school has a local SRC), we will require that the NJRSF SRC also approve the work prior to the start of experimentation. If you are doing a project that involves vertebrate subjects, please make sure you adhere to this new rule.

Important Dates:

Dec. 1, 2015 -- Precertification of all projects that fall under ISEF certification rules.
Feb 6, 2016 -- Entry deadline. All students involved in individual or team projects must have their projects registered on the website by this date, and all ISEF forms (except form 1C) submitted. The submission of ISEF forms is performed entirely on-line this year. See the links on the top page of this site for details. You should note that the deadline for ISEF form submission is earlier (Dec 1, above) for any project that involves hazardous equipment or materials, vertebrate animals, human subjects, biological microorganisms of any kind, or recombinant DNA. Once you have completed the project registration, you should find content in your Entry Status screen (see Student dropdown menu), which will detail the remaining steps, including advisor certification, category certification, form submission, and payment of entry fees. Note that we want all students to sign up in 2016 for an SSP ID on the website of the Society for Science and the Public (the organization that runs ISEF).
A note to students who remember our process from past years: you will no longer receive an entry form by email after entering. This is now one of the forms to be submitted electronically, and it is available on our Forms Download Page. Note that digital signatures are NOT required for 2016, but the web system will now attempt to acknowledge them automatically (this was a change for 2013). (Due to the variety of signature formats, this only works sometimes, not always--so forms might show up as unsigned on your status page even though they have digital signatures.) Your other option is to have the associated adults sign the forms on our website, after you submit them via our online submission process. And the student must do the same thing if you do not use digital signatures. In this context, please note that viewing the forms in your browser and signing them there, using the Adobe Reader plugin, is NOT the same thing!
Feb. 6, 2016 -- Entry deadline. By this date you must have submitted your entry registration form, along with your ISEF forms. It is especially important that you have your research plan submitted by this date.
Feb 29, 2016 -- If applicable to your project, Form 1C must be submitted by this date, if you are unable to submit it with your other forms due in early Feb or on Dec. 1. Note that the Form 1C is not required for pre-certification.
Mar. 4, 2016 -- Abstract deadline. Your abstract must be submitted by this date. The abstracts are to be submitted electronically. (Note you must be logged in on the website in order for this process to work properly.) Please note that you are to submit the *text* of your abstract in the online form.. No other format is accepted. You should try to submit at least a preliminary abstract by the entry deadline (above) so that that information can be used in the pre-screening phase, but you can revise abstracts until the day of the fair. Abstracts are manually reviewed before they are posted on the site.
March 11-12, 2016 -- NJRSF-2016, Rutgers University

Lists for 2016

Projects registered for 2016 Note this will only show projects that are ALREADY APPROVED by the SRC.
Abstracts of projects, NJRSF-2016 Once your abstract is submitted and accepted, it will show up on this list.

Fair Information Packet

The final information packet for the fair is now ready for distribution. This contains maps, the schedule, and final instructions for students, parents, and advisors.