Teachers

The 2024 Fair will be conducted IN PERSON on the campus of Purdue Fort Wayne on Saturday, February 24, 2024.

Downloads (updated 1/10/24)

Letter to Parents	Contact Information & Media Consent
Display rules	Campus Map
..	*Photo Display approval form (*complete this form only if a photo of a person OTHER than the student research appears on the display)

Event Schedules by Grade

Grades K-3
Grades 4-5
Grades 6-12

How do I...

• register as a teacher?
• register student projects?
• set up a school level IRB?
• determine which category to which a project belongs?
• determine whether a project is eligible for advancement?
• determine how many projects our school can advance?
• pay for project registration?

Teacher Registration

August 8, 2023 - March 9, 2024

All teachers who will be registering students for the Regional fair must be registered as a teacher on the State fair website, Science Education Foundation of Indiana, Inc. (SEFI). SEFI is the organization that oversees state-wide fair guidelines and maintains consistent standards for Regional Fairs, instituting a centralized registration procedure for all fairs. SEFI also provides funding for the Indiana senior division students who advance to the International Science and Engineering Fair.

If you registered students for last year's (2023) Regional Fair, you can simply reactivate your teacher account by logging in using the email address from last year and your assigned password. If you don't have your password, click FORGET YOUR PASSWORD? and it will be emailed to you. If you forgot which email address you used, email the regional fair program assistant for that information.

If you are new to the fair, you will need to create an account and a password will be emailed to you. Please make sure you select the correct school from the drop-down list. Our regional fair is listed as Northeastern. To login or to create an account go to www.sefireg.org. Once you submit this electronic form, the Fair Director will need to login and approve your account. You will receive an email notifying you that this has occurred.

Student Registration

Once your teacher account is created or reactivated from the previous year, you can register your students. We ask that you only register students who you are advancing to NEIRSEF.

Directions for how to create student accounts by entering their names can be found in this video or you can login and click on “Instructions” and it will explain how to enter your student projects.

You can click the “Add Students” breadcrumb and add the students names (last, first) in the Student Signup box. This will generate log ins for your students. Click on the “Your Students” breadcrumb to get the students’ user names and passwords. If you have two or three students who completed a group project, click on the “Group Project Wizard” breadcrumb.

Once the student accounts are created, the students will need to log in and add information (or you can enter this for them if you prefer). Please complete all sections, noting that gender and ethnicity are optional. It is very important that the student enters a personal email address rather than a school email address, as most school filters understandably will not allow direct communication from someone outside of the district. A parent or other caregiver email in the student is welcome, too. This email will be used for communication about NEIRSEF or the State fair (HSEF).

All student accounts must have the correct project title (name) and grade level entered. Students in grades 6-8 must complete a research plan and abstract in order to be approved by the NEIRSEF SRC/IRB. Students in grades 9-12 must complete the research abstract and the proper ISEF forms. Email Dr. Coppola to schedule a Zoom if you need help with any parts of these. More information is available below and on the For Student pages (see buttons on the left).

Rules for Permissible Projects

Teachers supervising projects in grades K-8 should refer to the Rules for Indiana Elementary and Middle School Science Research.

Teachers supervising projects in grades 9-12 should refer to the 2024 ISEF International Rules and Guidelines. Senior Division projects that involve human subjects (including anything you are testing on yourself), vertebrate animals, or potentially hazardous chemicals, activities, devices, or biological agents are required to apply for an SRC/IRB Pre-Experimentation Review BEFORE research can begin.

See the For Students information for your grade levels (K-5) (6-8) (9-12) for more details on the forms students should complete.

Setting up a school level IRB

Each school is invited to set up their own Institutional Review Board (IRB) to handle student research projects that involve human subjects (see p. 5 of Rules for Indiana Elementary and Middle School Science Research 2019-2020 and p. 5-11 of ISEF Rules 2023-2024). All projects (grades 4-12) involving Human subjects must complete two ISEF forms (Form 4 and the Human Informed Consent Form) and must submit to review before experimentation begins.

A school IRB is required to have at least three members:

- A school administrator (preferably principal vice principal)
- A medical or mental health professional (School nurse, school psychologist, medical doctor, physician's assistant, etc.)
- An educator

NEIRSEF will maintain an IRB to review any research proposals in the event that a school does not create an IRB. NEIRSEF review will require up to 2 weeks to complete, and student research involving human subjects cannot begin until it is approved by the IRB.

How Many Projects May I Advance to NEIRSEF?

Junior Division (grades K-3), we strongly encourage schools to advance two students from each allowable grade. However, if you feel your best projects are from the same grade or your school does not require all grades to do projects, you may send multiple projects from a single grade (as long as you don’t exceed the total allowable entries from your type of school).

Junior Division (grades 4-8), we strongly encourage schools to advance one student from each allowable grade. However, if you feel your best projects are from the same grade or your school does not require all grades to do projects, you may send multiple projects from a single grade (as long as you don’t exceed the total allowable entries from your type of school).

In 2024, grades 4 & 5 may send 2 per grade level for a total of 4. Grades 6-8 may advance one additional project for a total of 4.

Senior Division (grades 9-12), we allow you to advance up to FIVE total projects to NEIRSEF.

To summarize:

• Elementary schools with grades K-3: 2 entries per K-3 grade level
• Elementary schools with grades 4-5: 2 entries + 1 additional (must be grade 4 or higher) [for 2024, 2 additional for a total of 4]
• Elementary schools with grades 4-6: 3 entries maximum + 1 additional (must be grade 4 or higher) [for 2024, 2 additional for a total of 5]
• Middle schools with grades 6-8: 3 entries maximum + 1 additional
• Junior High schools with grades 7-9: 2 Junior Division entries (grades 7-8) + up to 3 Senior Division projects.
• Jr/Sr High Schools with grades 7-12: 2 Junior Division entries (grades 7-8) + up to 5 Senior Division projects
• High Schools with grades 9-12: up to 5 senior division projects

Paying for Fair Registration

A $10 registration fee per project (not student) is due by Friday, February 16, 2024 at 5:00PM EST. If you need additional time, please email in advance.

Payment options

• Online using credit card - Click here to open link in new window
• Invoice - email Dr. Perkins Coppola at perkinsm@pfw.edu
• By Mail using check, make it out to Purdue FW include NEIRSEF in the memo line, and send it to the following address:

Allyson Mills
2101 E. Coliseum Blvd.
Kettler Hall KT 155
Fort Wayne, IN 46805

 

Senior Division Teachers ONLY

All Senior Division projects planning to attend the Fair will need to complete the first three ISEF forms (1, 1A, and 1B). Based on the questionnaire responses, the sefi.org web site will tell you which others you will need to fill out. Students can find these at their page or you can go to the ISEF web site.

Students can upload these forms to their account as PDFs, one at a time or the entire packet. In the past we recommended one at a time because it’s easier to see that you’ve uploaded each document. But either way will automatically trigger an email to Dr. Amy Perkins at Purdue FW. He will be the person reviewing the students’ projects to determine whether they are exempt or they need a full review of the IRB committee.

You may advance up to five projects to NEIRSEF, but you may have more than 5 that need an IRB review. That’s okay. Send as many as you have.

Important Dates for 2024 fair

August 8, 2023
- Teacher Registration opens. Register at http://www.sefi.org/register/
- SRC Pre-Experimentation Review opens.
   (Senior Division only) For projects that involve human subjects and animals

January 12, 2024
- Deadline for SRC Pre-Experimentation Review.
   (Senior Division only) For projects that involve human subjects and animals

February 9, 2024
- Teacher Registration deadline
- Student project registration deadline
 Register only the students who are advancing to NEIRSEF
   (All Divisions) On the SEFI web site, include: address, phone, grade, date of birth, project title, email, and category.
   Gender and ethnicity is optional but requested.
   (Junior Division - 6th-8th) In addition to the items above, complete the research plan and abstract
   (Senior Division) Complete the research plan and abstract and the appropriate ISEF forms. Contact us for help.

February 16, 2024
- Deadline for payment of Fair project registration fees.

February 24, 2024
- Date of the 2024 Regional Fair (NEIRSEF)

April 6, 2024
- Hoosier Science and Engineering Fair, Grades 4-12, IU Indianapolis, Indianapolis

May 11-17, 2024
- Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, Los Angeles, CA