Student Researcher Information
All students (with individual & team projects) who wish to participate in the Colorado Science & Engineering Fair must:
- be a 6th – 12th grade student in a Colorado public, private, parochial, home or on-line school; and
- participate in only one Regional Science Fair located in the county where they go to school (or live if home-schooled); and
- be chosen by their Regional Science Fair to represent that region at the CSEF; and
- abide by all International Science & Engineering Fair, CSEF and Regional Science Fair rules, regulations and policies that currently exist regarding pre-college science and engineering research.
The Colorado Science & Engineering Fair is affiliated with the Regeneron International Science & Engineering Fair (ISEF). For this reason, all students participating in the CSEF must adhere to the international rules and guidelines set forth by the Society for Science’s Scientific Review Committee. These rules outline the forms, levels of supervision, and risk assessments that are required for all projects as well as those that involve human subjects, vertebrate animals, potentially hazardous biological agents and hazards chemicals, devices and activities.
Please remember that these rules are in place to ensure the safety of the student researcher as well as the subjects (human or animal) that they may be working with in their study. They are NOT trivial and are based on what working scientists must adhere to as well as federal laws and regulations.
Questions about these rules and guidelines can be directed to the CSEF Scientific Review Committee or the ISEF Scientific Review Committee at any time.
High school students and teachers can find tips for completing the forms on the High School Rules, Guidelines & Forms page (middle school students can also opt to use these ISEF forms). You can also download the complete ISEF 2027 Rules & Guidelines Booklet.
Middle school students and teachers can find tips for completing the forms on the Middle School Rules, Guidelines & Forms page (for middle school students ONLY – do not mix with ISEF forms). You can also download the complete Middle School Rules & Guidelines Booklet.
Once chosen to represent a Regional Science Fair at the CSEF, each STUDENT finalist must:
- choose a CSEF category to compete in (please note that category judging captains will review abstracts prior to CSEF to comply with the CSEF Category Change Policy (pdf) and will make recommendations for category changes accordingly); and
- register for the CSEF via MySciFair – ONLY students who have won the right to represent their regional science fair and have received an official CSEF Finalist Flier from their Regional Fair Director are to use this registration form; and
- to find your region’s specific registration link, please visit the Regional Science Fair page within this website; and
- submit your abstract in MySciFair under the Files tab; and
- upload all of your ISEF/CSEF forms in MySciFair under the Forms tab; and
- pay the $45/student registration fee via check (mail to CSEF; PO Box 772; Wellington, CO 80549) or Venmo (@Courtney-Butler-114) by April 1st; and
- submit a copy of the CSEF Finalist’s Permission Form (signed) to the CSEF Director; and
- submit your digital project materials in MySciFair under the Files tab.
NOTE: Each Regional Science Fair has its own personalized registration deadline at which point, all students’ paperwork, abstract submissions and registrations MUST be submitted into MySciFair. Check the Finalist Handbook, page 4 for details.
The Colorado Science & Engineering Fair has decided to continue requiring students to submit digital project materials as part of their registration process. This allows judges more time and freedom to review each student’s work before the day of judging interviews and it opens up the students’ projects to a much wider audience than those in the immediate Fort Collins area. We have purposefully eliminated any time for the Special Awards Judges to see project boards the day of judging and Grand Awards Judges have never had enough time to do a thorough job.
This is your chance to convey what you did with your project with more than just a written abstract.
We have prepared templates for the various types of projects presented at the CSEF – please feel free to modify them as needed up to 12 pages.
- Science Project Presentations:
- Engineering Project Presentations:
- Mathematics/Computer Science Project Presentations:
Along with your digital presentation, you must have a physical project board to display at the CSEF. All presentations must follow the display & safety regulations outlined in the Finalist Handbook (pages 14-15). The following are a few items that are typical problems found during the Display & Safety Inspections at CSEF:
- ALL items you want to present to the judges MUST fit within the allotted volume of 240 cm high, 122 cm wide and 76 cm deep. NOTHING can be set in front of the table as part of the project display.
- Students must have their ISEF/CSEF forms at their project for signing by the SRC.
- ALL photographs, images, graphics, data tables, graphs, etc. must be INDIVIDUALLY credited (even if everything was done by the student). Items from the internet must have the specific URL for that image (do not credit Google Images).
- No glass or glass objects are allowed at the display (this includes equipment used during experimentation).
- No live or dried plant material is allowed at the display.
- No food is allowed as part of the display (do not glue food items to your board as we will make you take them off).
- No liquids (other than water for consumption by the student) are allowed as part of the display.
- No laser pointers are allowed to be used during judging.
- No sharp objects may be part of the display.
- Acknowledgements of any kind must be in an identified area of the project board.
Failure to follow these display & safety guidelines may result in disqualification from the CSEF.
The following are digital publications that students, teachers and parents might find useful:
- The 2027 CSEF Middle School Rules & Guidelines (pdf) is an option for only 6th – 8th grade students to use instead of the Regeneron ISEF forms. If a student uses these rules and forms, they must follow ALL of the rules for middle school students and not pick and choose between the ISEF forms and these.
- The 2027 CSEF Finalist Handbook (pdf) includes the necessary information for students who have qualified to compete at the CSEF by their Regional Science Fair.
- The 2027 CSEF Program (pdf) includes all of the Finalists’ project information and programmatic information for the days of the science fair.
- The 2027 CSEF Awards Ceremony Program (pdf) includes information on the organizations that provide the special awards.
Detailed schedules and information on the following activities can be found in the Finalist’s Handbook (pages 10 – 13). All activities (except where noted) will be held in the Lory Student Center (LSC) on the Colorado State University – Fort Collins campus.
- Scientific Review Committee Interviews (by invitation only) will be held via Zoom 2 weeks prior to the CSEF.
- Digital Project Presentations must be submitted in pdf format to MySciFair by March 26th.
- Display Inspections of the digital project presentations will take place immediately following the submission deadline and corrections must be made by the Sunday prior to the CSEF or the project presentation will not be made available to the judges.
- Pre-Interview Project Reviews will take place in MySciFair during the week leading up to the CSEF.
- Display & Safety Inspections of physical project materials and Official Photos will take place in the LSC Grand Ballroom on Thursday of the CSEF between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. Each regional science fair has their own suggested check-in time for Thursday, April 8th. Please see page 4 of the Finalist Handbook for details.
- Grand Award Judging Interviews will be conducted on the Thursday of CSEF from 12:45 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
- Special Award Judging Interviews will be conducted on the Thursday of CSEF from 1:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
- Student Choice and Poster Art Contest balloting will take place on the Friday of CSEF and are due at the CSEF Registration Booth by 2:00 p.m.
- The Guest Speaker for 2027 is TBD and will take place on Friday of the CSEF in the LSC Theater at 9:00 a.m.
- CSU Tours and Presentations will be held in various campus locations (leaving from the LSC) on Friday of the CSEF between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Pre-registration for tours will open sometime the week of March 8th.
- CSEF will be Open to the Public on Friday of the CSEF from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and on Saturday of the CSEF from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. (students are required to be at their projects during this time) in the LSC Grand Ballroom.
- Awards Ceremony will take place on Friday of the CSEF at Timberline Church beginning at 6:00 p.m. (doors open at 5:30 p.m.).
- Pizza Party will take place on Saturday of the CSEF outside of the LSC Grand Ballroom starting at 11 a.m.
- Project Teardown may begin at 11 a.m. on Saturday of the CSEF. All projects must be taken down by 1 p.m.
As an incentive to participate and to reward outstanding research, the CSEF offers many different types of awards to the student entered into the CSEF each year. Some of these students must opt into to be eligible.
- Grand Awards of 1st, 2nd 3rd and Honorable Mention are awardedin each of the 12 categories for both the Junior (6-8 grades) and Senior (9-12 grades) Divisions.
- Student Choice Awards of a special memento, certificate and $100 are given in both the Junior and Senior Divisions. Finalists vote for their favorite projects (ballots are due by 2:00 p.m. on Friday of the CSEF).
- A Poster Art Contest (pdf) is held where any student in Colorado may submit an entry for the next year’s artwork for the Finalists to vote on. The winner receives a certificate and $100. The winning artwork will be printed on the covers of the next year’s CSEF publications and be used as inspiration for the t-shirt design.
- Technical Writing Awards (pdf) are available to students in both the Junior (Elemer Bernath Memorial award) and Senior (Ralph Desch Memorial award) Divisions. To be considered for this award, students must prepare a technical report as if they were planning on being published in a scientific or technical journal. The winners receive a certificate, $100 and his/her work published on the CSEF website.
- Pioneers of Science Awards are sponsored by individual Board of Directors members and the winners are chosen based on their enthusiasm for their project and their future potential as a scientist/engineer. Each winner receives a certificate, information on the pioneer of science the award is named for and $50.
- Special Awards and Scholarships are provided by a variety of scientific organizations, businesses, universities and individuals according to criteria that they set. Check out the latest list of Special Award Organizations along with the criteria for the award and which CSEF categories are eligible for the award.
Nominate your teacher for the CSEF Teacher of the Year award sponsored by Lockheed Martin! Nominations for the 2027 CSEF will be accepted until March 1st. Check out the CSEF Teacher Hall of Fame!
Nominate your teacher for the Colorado Association of Science Teachers Award! Nominations for the 2027 CSEF will be accepted until March 31st. One middle school and one high school teacher will be selected and receive $150 and a free one-year membership to CAST. Past winners of this award are not eligible.
