Student clinic and Teacher/parent workshop on Oct. 15

Both events will be at the Santa Clara County Office of Education. The Student Clinic (for parents, too) will answer questions about finding a topic and developing the project from idea to display and oral presentation. The Teacher/Parent Workshop will answer questions about filling in the application forms and where to get help for supplies and ideas for projects. The workshop is strongly recommended for any parent who may need to supervise a Parent-Sponsored Project.

Learn How to Spread the Word!  High School Alumni, come to a workshop on doing presentations at your local elementary schools. We need to start the youngsters off right, and you can help to make that happen. Santa Clara County Office of Education, Oct 15, 7-8 PM. At the training you will do an experiment you can do as a demonstration, get an experiment kit, take home activities for families, and posters for the teachers. RSVP with Heidi Black blackh@esuhsd.org

The 2020 Rules Changes page is still being revised, but one big change is already in effect: the Behavioral Science field of study has been discontinued (see the note below from the SRC). In addition, the SCVSEFA Category Judging Criteria have been revised to emphasize independent work, project understanding, and clarity in answering judges’ questions. ISEF has expanded its Ethics Statement and rewritten the Roles & Responsibilities of Students and Adults.

Watch this space for an early-October announcement that the 2020 Synopsys Championship application process is open. Beginning in September the science fair web pages will be updated for any changes to rules or forms by SCVSEFA or ISEF.

Meanwhile, first time participants may want to read the pages in the Rules & Registration section about Project Types and Categories as well as Eligibility. The Students section explains the Process of starting a project and Planning & Preparation.

Congratulations to our outstanding Santa Clara County students! Winners of the 2019 Intel ISEF in Phoenix, Arizona, were announced on May 16-17th. Ten Grand Prize winning projects from the Synopsys Championship and two top winners from CSEF competed with 1800 students from more than 80 countries.  Fourteen students from the Synopsys Championship were recognized with category and special awards, and Allison Jia was honored as an Intel Foundation Young Scientist for her project, Modeling Neurodegeneration in vitro: A Dynamic Study of Tau in a Microfluidic Chamber System via Quantum Dot Labeling. Thank you to all who participated and facilitated the effort to help our top students present their research.

Congratulations to our outstanding Santa Clara County students! More than 100 Synopsys Championship participants made the trip to Los Angeles to compete at the California State Science & Engineering Fair on April 29-30.  Winners were announced at the awards ceremony on April 30th and are posted on the CSEF web site.  SCVSEFA has a summary page of all the winning participants from the Synopsys Championship. Thank you to all who participated and to the volunteers, parents and teachers who helped our students present their fine work.

Beginning on Friday, April 12th, the unclaimed awards from the Synopsys Championship Awards Ceremony will be available at SCCOE – Santa Clara County Office of Education.  SCCOE is open Monday-Friday, 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM except on major holidays. The awards may be picked up by either a student’s teacher or a student’s parent. Parents may not pick up awards belonging to other students, and people picking up awards must show ID.  The awards will be at SCCOE through April 30^th. 

Santa Clara County Office of Education
1290 Ridder Park Drive
San Jose, CA 95131-2304

Phone: (408) 453-6500 

If you are a high school student representing the Synopsys Championship at the California Science and Engineering Fair this year, you have the opportunity to win a trip to Intel ISEF.  In order to be eligible you will need to submit the Intel ISEF forms you filled out for the Synopsys Championship – but you need to submit the forms that have been signed by SCVSEFA’s SRC personnel.

Dr. Burrell will have your signed forms at the Awards Ceremony and she will be available after 2:45 to distribute this paperwork. The forms will be filed by project number, so please make sure you bring your project number with you.

The 2019 Synopsys Championship Awards Ceremony is set for the afternoon of April 7th at the Heritage Theater in Campbell.  See the Winner Summary page for a list of students who will be invited to the ceremony. 

The Awards Ceremony is an ‘Invitation Only’ event for each student plus 2 guests. Middle school students should arrive at 12:40 PM. High school students should arrive at 3:10 PM.

If any students have changed their email addresses since applying to the 2019 fair, they should notify fairmanager@science-fair.org at once.

Judge Feedback Forms for students are already in the mail to their teachers. Thanks to our volunteers for quickly sorting through all those forms.

The names of students who may apply for the 2019 California Science and Engineering Fair (CSEF) were posted on the official CSEF Qualified Students webpage on Monday, March 18th.  The list contains names of both the Eligible students and Alternate students.  The listed students should go to the California State Science Fair CSEF website and follow all registration instructions! Registration is online and must be completed by April 10th.

There is a list on this web site of Qualified and Eligible Students and they will also receive an email indicating their status.

• Eligible students (not Alternates) must send the $45 Registration Fee and Signature card to CSEF as soon as possible after submitting their application online.
• Alternate students will be notified  by email from CSEF in early April if they can take the place of an eligible student who did not register; then they must also register online.  Even though alternates must meet the same Submission Deadline as qualified projects, alternates should not pay the Application Fee after submitting their application. If accepted, alternates will then be instructed to pay the Application Fee and submit other ancillary materials (which must be received before they will be allowed to participate in the Fair).  The Final Decision Date for all applications is April 14th.

Questions about the CSEF and further fairs??

Medical Release forms and forms for Financially Sponsored Students and chaperones are available here.