Student Resources

NEOSEF students
This page is designed primarily to help you find answers to your questions about science and engineering fair projects ranging from before starting your project all the way up to applying for and attending the Northeast Ohio Science and Engineering Fair.  On this page you will find links to areas to help you plan your project as well as links to rules and regulations and other valuable information you will need prior to attending the Fair.

A great source of help and ideas is the “Elements of a Successful Project” section in the Student Handbook.  Follow the handbook link below.  You can also search the web for ideas or visit the Great Lakes Science Center or the Cleveland Museum of Natural History to be inspired and to perhaps get a few ideas for a project.  Also at various times during the school year, successful science fair projects from the previous year may be viewed at the Great Lakes Science Center.

The Board of Directors of the Northeastern Ohio Science and Engineering Fair Directors wish you success with your project and hope you continue towards a career in a STEM related area of interest.  Use the links below to access additional information.

Students please note:

All NEOSEF applications will need to be uploaded to our online registration page on Stem Wizard. We are using only online registration this year; paper applications will no longer be accepted.

For help navigating the online registration site, please review our Registration Help Videos.

Getting Started

Getting started with your science or engineering project is sometimes the hardest part of the task.  What should I do?  How will I do it?  I’m not a scientist or an engineer at least not yet, so can I really do this?  Can anyone help me?  All of these questions and more immediately come to mind.

First things first!  Don’t panic!  You are not the first student in the universe who has ever been challenged with doing a science or engineering project.  There is a lot of help available and you just need to tap into this information.

First you need to trust yourself.  You can do this.  Trust your own instincts and ability.  You don’t need to be an A student.  It helps but is not necessary for a great project.  Start by asking yourself what subjects am I interested in?

Starting this way will put you in an are in a subject area in which you are comfortable.  Then you can begin to ask yourself questions about things you might have wondered about in that area.  Say you are interested in baseball for example.  You might ask yourself, I know how to throw a curve ball, but what affects the curve when you throw the ball?  Are there limits to the amount the ball can curve?  Say you are interested in electricity.  You might ask yourself, I know what makes electrons flow, but can this flow be controlled?

Once this is done, you are well on your way to a successful project.  Check out the “Elements of a successful project” section of the NEOSEF handbook for more details.