Science Fair Rules

The rules below have been adapted from the rules for the Salt Lake Valley Science & Engineering Fair. Students advancing to the SLVSEF are advised to carefully review the specific rules for SLVSEF.

General Rules and Ethics of Project Entries

All exhibits must conform to the following rules if they are to be selected for exhibition at the Salt Lake City School District Science Fair. The rules should be followed throughout the development of the science project. Project supervisors should oversee and insure compliance with all rules before exhibition. The Salt Lake City School District Science Fair Committee cannot be held responsible for errors in interpretation or failure to comply with these rules:

1. Projects:
   • INDIVIDUAL PROJECT. The project must be the work of a single student and must concern itself with a single subject; or
   • TEAM PROJECT. The team must consist of no more than three (3) participants. If the team project continues for more than one year, no new participants may be added. One team member can leave a team if the number of participants does not drop below two (2). A team project may never be exhibited as an individual project.
2. Only research done in the current year can be displayed on project boards. Failure to comply with this rule will deem a project ineligible for participation in the science fair.
3. Any project involving human, animal or pathogenic subjects must be approved by a science teacher and school administrator before experimentation begins.
   • Human Consent Form
   • Informed Consent Form
   • Vertebrates Consent Form
   • Pathogen Consent Form
4. Students, including each team member, must keep a dated, step-by step, day-by-day journal recording development of the project including all references, procedures, original data, and other relevant material. Only spiral or bound notebooks are acceptable.
5. The project must be based on work carried out in compliance with all local, state and federal health, safety and environmental regulations and standards.
6. Exhibits shall be accepted for display upon the express condition that neither the Salt Lake City School District Science Fair or any other Fair sponsor shall be held responsible for the loss or theft of, or any damage to exhibits, or exhibitor's personal property.
7. Students must participate fully in all Fair activities including the Awards Ceremony. During judging and exhibition times, the exhibitors must remain with the project. An award may be forfeited if an exhibitor does not attend the Awards Ceremony.
8. Students may, at times, have procedures performed by a scientist or other person(s) that he/she cannot or did not perform. Credit must be given to the scientist or any other person performing any part of the student’s research, collection of data, experimentation, analysis of data, etc. Since the student’s journal/ log is considered an historical document of all procedures pertaining to the student’s research and experimentation, credit must be given to the person(s) performing any/ all activities not directly performed by the student researcher, in the journal/log.
9. Failure to comply with all rules and regulations will lead to disqualification/ failure to qualify.
10. Only participants, judges, teachers, and fair officials are allowed in the judging area during judging.
11. Items Not Allowed at Project Display
    • Living organisms, including plants
    • Taxidermy specimens or parts
    • Preserved vertebrate or invertebrate animals
    • Human or animal food
    • Human/animal parts or body fluids (for example, blood, urine)
    • Plant materials (living, dead, or preserved) which are in their raw, unprocessed, or non-manfactured state (Exception: manufactured construction materials used in building the project or display)
    • Laboratory/household chemicals including water
    • All hazardous substances or devices (for example, poisons, drugs, firearms, weapons, ammunition, reloading devices, and lasers)
    • Dry ice or other sublimating solids
    • Sharp items (for example, syringes, needles, pipettes, knives)
    • Flames or highly flammable materials
    • Batteries with open-top cells
    • Awards, medals, business cards, flags, endorsements and/or acknowledgements (graphic or written) unless the item(s) are an integral part of the project
    • Photographs or other visual presentations depicting vertebrate animals in surgical techniques, dissections, necropsies, or other lab procedures
    • Active Internet or e-mail connections as part of displaying or operating the project
    • Glass or glass objects unless deemed by the Display and Safety Committee to be an integral and necessary part of the project (Exception: glass that is an integral part of a commercial product such as a computer screen)
    • Any apparatus deemed unsafe by fiar officials (for example, large vacuum tubes or dangerous ray-generating devices, empty tanks that previously contained combustible liquids or gases, pressurized tanks, etc.)