Rules and Regulations

Eligibility/Limitations for Finalists and Student Observers

1. Each ISEF-affiliated fair may send to the International Science & Engineering Fair the number of student observers provided by their affiliation agreement. For the Ritchey Science & Engineering Fair, each year we send four senior fair finalist projects to compete at the International Fair and up to three student observers, who do not compete at ISEF. These finalists and student observers attend schools in the Ritchey SEF service area: Box Elder, Cache, Daggett, Duchesne, Logan, Morgan, North Summit, Ogden, Rich, and Uintah districts as well as charter, private (except St. Olaf and St. Joseph) and home schools in Davis and Weber Counties.
2. A student observer must be selected by an ISEF-affiliated fair, and be in grades 7-9 or equivalent. (The Ritchey SEF selects student observers from the 8th and 9th grades only.)
3. A student finalist (competitor) must be selected by an ISEF-affiliated fair, and be in grades 9-12 or equivalent and not have reached age 20 on or before May 1 preceding the ISEF.
4. Each student (or team) may be judged on only one project. That project may include no more than 12 months of continuous research and may not include research performed before January of the year preceding the year of the competition.
5. Team projects may have two or three members. The Ritchey SEF has elected to not send to ISEF more than 2 teams of two members OR one team of 3 members in any given year. Teams may not have had more than three members at a local fair. Teams may not substitute members in a given research year. All members of the team must attend the fair. Projects that begin as a team, must compete as a team.
6. Students may compete in only one ISEF affiliated fair, except when proceeding to a state/national fair affiliated with the ISEF from an affiliated regional fair. This includes students from the Davis and Weber school districts, who may attend the Ritchey SEF and compete in all category (Botany, Chemistry, etc.) judging, but not compete for the Ritchey SEF finalist or observer allocations. Davis and Weber school districts hold their own and separate competitions for their ISEF finalists at the Ritchey SEF. At this time, Davis and Weber school districts do not select student observers.
7. Projects that are demonstrations, ‘library' research or informational projects, ‘explanation' models or kit building are not appropriate for the ISEF.
8. All sciences (physical, life, social) are represented at the ISEF. A complete list of categories with descriptions is at https://student.societyforscience.org/isef-categories-and-subcategories. Ritchey SEF includes only 11 categories.
9. A research project may be a part of a larger study performed by professional scientists, but the project presented by the student must be only their own portion of the study.

Safety Protocols

The following items are not allowed at the fair. You are encouraged to take pictures and include the photos in your presentation.

• Living organisms, including plants
• Glass
• Soil, sand, rock, cement and/or waste samples, even if permanently encased in a slab of acrylic
• 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) that are in their raw, unprocessed, or non-manufactured state
• All chemicals including water. Absolutely no liquids can be utilized in the Project Display
• All hazardous substances or devices (Example: poisons, drugs, firearms, weapons, ammunition, reloading devices, grease/oil and sublimating solids such as dry ice)
• Items that may have contained or been in contact with hazardous chemicals (Exception: Item may be permitted if professionally cleaned and documentation for such cleaning is available). Filters (including microbial) may not be displayed unless the Display & Safety Committee can reasonably determine that the device was cleaned or was never used (please include receipts in your notebooks and/or logbooks)
• Sharp items (for example, syringes, needles, pipettes, knives)
• Flames and highly flammable materials
• Batteries with open-top cells or wet cells
• Drones or any flight-capable apparatus unless the propulsion power source removed.
• 3D Printers unless the power source is removed.
• Inadequately insulated apparatus capable of producing dangerous temperatures are not permitted
• Any apparatus with belts, pulleys, chains, or moving parts with tension or pinch points that are not appropriately shielded
• Any display items that are deemed distracting (i.e. sounds, lights, odors, etc.)
• Personal items or packaging materials stored underneath the booth
• Any apparatus or project material deemed unsafe by the Scientific
• Review Committee, the Display & Safety Committee, or the Society

Continuation of Projects

1. As in the professional world, research projects may build on work performed previously. A valid continuation project is a sound scientific endeavor. Students will be judged only on laboratory experiment/data collection performed over 12 continuous months beginning no earlier than January of the year preceding the competition and ending no later than May of the year of the competition.
2. Any project based on the student’s prior research could be considered a continuation project. If the current year’s project could not have been performed without the outcome of a past year’s research project, then it is considered a continuation for competition. These projects must document that the additional research is a substantive expansion from prior work (e.g. testing a new variable or new line of investigation.) Repetition of previous experimentation with the same methodology and research question, even with an increased sample size, is an example of an unacceptable continuation.
3. Display board and abstract must reflect the current year’s work only. The project title displayed in the Finalist’s booth may mention years (for example, “Year Two of an Ongoing Study”). Supporting data books (not research papers) from previous related research may be exhibited if properly labeled as such.
4. Longitudinal studies are permitted as an acceptable continuation under the following conditions:
   • The study is a multi-year study testing or documenting the same variables in which time is a critical variable. (Examples: Effect of high rain or drought on soil in a given basin, return of flora and fauna in a burned area over time.)
   • Each consecutive year must demonstrate time-based change.
   • The display board must be based on collective past conclusionary data and its comparison to the current year data set. No raw data from previous years may be displayed.
5. All continuation projects must be reviewed and approved each year and forms must be completed for the new year.

NOTE: For competition in the ISEF, documentation must include the Continuation Project Form (7), the previous year’s abstract and research plan and the abstract for all other prior years. Documentation must be labeled clearly with the year (ex: 2016-2017). Retention of all prior years’ paperwork is required and must be presented to the ISEF SRC upon request.