December 2025 - Official Rules and Guidelines of the PTA Science Fair will be released

Dec-February 2026 - Call for Entries at Units

Feb-March 2026 - Project Deadlines, Winners Announced and Advance to Council

March 27th, 2026 - Advancing entries must be digitally submitted to Council via Google Sheets

April 8th, 2026 - Project boards must also be turned in at the April President’s meeting at the district office

April 24th, 2026 - All advancing projects will be displayed at OUSD's Science Night at SCC and district-level winners will announced 

• There are two divisions with different requirements:

  • Primary Division (grades Tk-5): 

    • Trifold presentation board

    • Student video

  • Secondary division (grades 6-12):  

    • Trifold presentation board,

    • Student video,

    • List of Citations,

    • Lab Notebook

• See Official Rules and Guidelines here for more details about Final Submission Requirements

• All advancing Entries should be shared with Council using the Submission Form spreadsheet no later than Friday, March 27, 2026.

 Before getting started, PTA units should have the following in place:

• A due date for science projects (at least two weeks prior to March 27)

• A date for your Science Fair event 

• A Google email/account dedicated specifically to the PTA Science Fair Chair

If you have not already, register your unit to let Council know your PTA is participating!

Make a copy of Intent to Participate Form (optional) and the Submission Form 

1. Click HERE to access a copy of the PTA Science Fair Submission Form

2. A Google Drive screen will come up and will ask if you would like to make a copy of the form. Click “Make a copy.”

3. A new form will open and will automatically be saved to your Google Drive.

4. It will show a popup window that says “Missing File Upload folders.” You MUST click “Restore” in order to collect responses and have them saved and accessible. 

Editing Your Entry Form

1. Make changes specific to your unit:

2. Go to the top-left corner—next to the purple form—Rename the file to “(Your School’s Name) 2026 PTA Science Fair Submission Form.

3. In section 1 of 5, rename the form

4. Under project Submission Deadline, enter in your specific date for your PTA’s Science Fair, including due dates and when winners will be announced.

Publish the form and copy the link to your Information Packet (Step 2)

1. Customize the Cover Letter

2. Include Official Rules and Guidelines

3. Include optional inserts for Primary or Secondary Divisions

4. Save your finalized documents as pdfs. 

5. Merge your files into a single pdf using an online tool such as Adobe.  This is your PTA Science Fair Information Packet.

Important steps to Promote Your Program:

• Share your school's PTA Science Fair Information Packet (step 2) on your school newsletter,  on social media, website and/or print several copies for the school office

• Create your own school PTA Science Fair flyer by customizing this pdf with your Due Date and your Contact info and sharing!

Create Your Spreadsheet

1. Click the Responses tab in your Google Form, then click the Sheets icon to create your MASTER SPREADSHEET

• The spreadsheet will automatically populate with any new submissions

Review and Format Your Spreadsheet

1.  Review all entries to make sure each submission is complete 

2.  Sort the Master spreadsheet by Highest Grade (column K). 

   • If this value was not entered correctly, manually enter it onto the spreadsheet first. 

   • If this is an individual project, enter the student's grade level.

3. In the Uploads columns (T-U in Primary and W-Z for Secondary) check to see if there are multiple files entered. If yes, insert a space before the comma and after each file address to convert it to a link (video)

IMPORTANT: Share Your Spreadsheet and Folders to "Anyone with the link can view"

1. In the speadsheet's "Share" settings,  select "Anyone with the link can view"

2. In your Google Drive, update the Share settings of the uploads folder, (ex. "ABC School 2026 Submission Form PTASF (File responses)")  to "Anyone with the link can view"

Share Your Entries with Your Judge(s) Online

1. Make a copy of your Master Spreadsheet and name it Judge's Spreadsheet. 

   • This should be sorted by Column K, highest grade level.

   • Update Share settings so anyone with the link can view

2. Hide columns A-I and L-Q containing student contact information

3. Add a column at the far left for a Blind Entry Code (Numbers, Letters, Initials)

Record Project Scores on Scorecard

1. Provide judges with the Rubric + Scorecard pdf to record project scores. They should refer to the Judge's Spreadsheet to view images of the presentation boards, student videos, etc. 

2. The project with the highest total score from each grade level determines which will advance to Council PTA Science Fair.

Advancing Winning Entries to Council

1. To let Council know which projects advance from your school, highlight the rows of the top scorers from each grade level in your Master Spreadsheet by the Coucil due date

2.  Click the Share icon to share the spreadsheet with sciencefair@oucpta.org 

3. Collect physical presentation boards of projects that advance, bundle boards with string and deliver to Council at the designated Presidents Meeting (see Timeline)