NOTICE: For the 2024 TNJSF, students and teachers must go to https://tnjsf.zfairs.com to login.
The 2024 TNJSF will be held March 22-23, at the Kean University STEM Building.

Major Announcements for 2024

This year (2023-24) marks the 41st anniversary of the North Jersey Fair.
  • In 2023, we affiliated with the Terra Fairs rganization. The official name of the fair is now the Terra North Jersey STEM Fair or TNJSF.
  • As in 2023, students should go to tnjsf.zfairs.com to create an account or to enteer the fair.
  • We are planning to release a new process to REPLACE the ISEF Forms submission that has been required since the fair began in 1983-4. If you have existing forms, we will accept those for 2024, but we are hoping most of you will use the new process, since we feel it will be far easier for everybody to use. Please watch for an announcement about this new system on or about Oct 1.
  • As of Sept 21, 2022, the new site is ready foir use: https://tnjsf.zfairs.com. The registration opening has been delayed by an issue with zFairs, which we hope to resolve shortly.
  • The TNJSF-2024 will be held at Kean University, in Union, NJ, March 22-23.
  • (Sept 19, 2023): The 2023 forms have not yet been updated. Please use them if you need to. We will have new forms and instructions posted by Oct 1. These forms are also available via the links on the new website. If you did work over the summer and used forms from the ISEF site, just let us know, so that we can check whether they need manual processing. Projects started after Sept 1 should use these forms. The upload process will be part of the registration procedure, so it is not yet available.
The Terra North Jersey STEM Fair is a high school student competition in all STEM fields, in which students, individually or in groups, present a wide variety of projects. Most of the projects are investigative in nature, posing and attempting to answer some question or problem, either through experimentation and design or in a theoretical sense. All areas of science, math, and engineering are included. The fair accepts entries from ten counties of northern New Jersey: Bergen, Essex, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Morris, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union, and Warren. The home page for the TNJSF is https://tnjsf.zfairs.com.

Our Mission

The mission of the TNJSF is to support, encourage, and recognize student involvement in scientific research. It is our belief that students can only truly appreciate the creative nature of the scientific process if they have actually experienced it themselves. In addition, we endeavor to provide resources which further this overarching goal, including giving students various opportunities to interact with professional scientists and engineers. The opportunity to partake of the TNJSF itself as well as the other resources we offer is intended to be open to all high school students in the northern NJ region.

ISEF Trips

Since its inception, the NJRSF has sent over 150 students to the International Science and Engineering Fair. These trips are supported by the general funds of the fair, which are drawn both from major corporate sponsors and from support by individuals. Starting in 2023, the ISEF finalists for the Terra NJSF will be directly supported by the Terra organization. We welcome all contributions to the fair effort. For details please email tnjsf@terraed.org. See our Individual Contribution page for further information.

Territories for ISEF-affiliated Fairs in the Region

Students in other NJ counties not covered by another ISEF affiliated fair, may enter the TNJSF. All counties south of Mercer are covered by Delaware Valley Science Fairs. Students with individual projects in Mercer County should enter the Mercer Science and Engineering Fair, run by the Mercer Science and Engineering Club, Inc. (This fair does not accept team projects, so those projects can enter the TNJSF under our agreement with ISEF.) Students in Hudson County should enter the Jersey City Medical Center/RWJ Barnabas Health Hudson County STEM Showcase. Students in all programs at the Bergen County Academies should enter the BCA Research Expo.

The TNJSF provides the only route for students from the ten counties named above to gain entry to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), administered by the Society for Science and the Public in Washington, DC. A list of helpful links are given at the left for information on these associated entities.

In cases where the region is in question (i.e. for teams that cross fair boundaries), then an ISEF rule presides, which states that no student may enter more than one regional fair affiliated with ISEF. That also means that a student may not enter as an individual in one fair and as a team in another. One student can only be involved in one project in one regional fair.