Young Scholars Program

The Young Scholars program is for students in grades 5 and 6. Students are invited to conduct a research project and display it at the fair.  These projects will be judged and earn placement awards.  This competition runs concurrently with the CASEF junior and senior divisions event.

Students are expected to conduct an experiment and present a trifold display board.  Judging will take place during the fair setup.

How to Get Started

Students are encouraged to register online using StemWizard for Young Scholars.

When registering, the PRIMARY email will receive the notification information and the parent email will be copied.

If the sponsor is NOT the student or parent email, they will need to have the student log in information to check the progress and access to the student or parent email to monitor registration process.

Entry fee is $15 per project. Please mail check to the CASEF mailing address: c/ 103 Newport Road, Duncannon, PA 17020 or pay with credit card online (a fee with be added).

Questions, please contact the fair director: Casefdirector@gmail.com

Rules for projects

1.       Please follow safety protocol as appropriate for the experiment.  Are goggles, gloves, special equipment, sharp tools, chemicals, tools, electrical equipment, etc. needed?

2.       The project needs to be an experiment where a variable is tested.  No models or demonstrations of science concepts will be accepted.

3.       NO project may use human participants, animals, drugs/alcohol, firearms/explosives, nicotine products, hazardous materials/chemicals, microbes including bacteria and mold.

4.       Please plan for proper disposal of waste and chemicals.

What can I expect during the judging interview?

Young Scholars will be expected to discuss the following in the judging interview: 

1.       “Tell me about your project.” – give a brief (1 -2 minute) summary about your project.  It should cover what you investigated, how you did the experiment, what data did you collect (state the averages), what did the data mean, and give a conclusion statement.

2.       What did you find out when you did your background research?  Connect the background research to your project and hypothesis.

3.       Why was the topic interesting to you?

4.       What were the variables (what was the one thing you changed to be tested?

5.       How does the data explain the original question/problem?  How can the information you found out from your experiment be used?

6.       What was the most difficult part of the project?

7.       What was the most fun part of the experiment?

8.       How did you clean up or dispose of materials?

9.       What did you learn that surprised you?

10.   What would you do differently? How would you expand this project to learn more about the topic?  What else do you want to know about this topic?

11.   Explain how the display board was made/organized and how it tells the story of the project.

12.   What is your next project going to investigate?  Is this topic, or something new?

13.   Who helped you with the project and how did they help?

14. Why did you want to participate?