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The OUSD STEM Fair is a celebration of student STEM learning across the District, building on the 68 year tradition of the Oakland Science Fair.
The 2026 STEM Fair will be the biggest ever! Students, families, teachers, and the community are invited to the STEM Fair at the Oakland Coliseum on Wednesday, May 6, 2026 from 4:30 - 7:30 pm, to honor and celebrate our students’ work. In addition to viewing student projects, this free event will include food, music, and hands-on STEM activities for students and families.
Unlike a traditional Science Fair in which students work on projects outside of school, the purpose of the OUSD STEM Fair is to showcase and celebrate the STEM learning that students are doing in OUSD schools. As such, many projects are formal presentations of labs, projects, or activities that students completed in their classrooms. These projects showcase students’ mastery of grade-level knowledge and skills from courses such as science, math, engineering, computer science, health, data science, and more--all while highlighting the creativity and ingenuity of our OUSD scholars.
STEM Fair background & goals
Project guidelines
Categories
Timelines
...and more!
Do you need tri-fold boards?
Do you need tri-fold boards?
OUSD received a one-time donation of tri-fold boards from the Synopsys Outreach Foundation to support students' participation in school-wide and district-wide science fair and STEM fairs.
OUSD Planning Resources
OUSD Planning Resources
Project Template - Google Slides
Here's a Project Template in Google Slides aligned to the STEM Fair Project Checklists. Students can make a copy, fill in the content, add some formatting to make it their own, and then print the pages and add them to a tri-fold board.
Project Checklists
Check out the OUSD STEM Fair Project Display Recommendations, aligned to the practices of the Next Generation Science Standards, the Common Core Standards, and the judging criteria for the International Science & Engineering Fair (ISEF). Please print these and share them with your students and families!
Comprehensive Planning Resources
Check out these Planning Resources curated by OUSD Teachers that include scientific inquiry lessons, lists of Science Fair questions, Rubrics to assess and judge projects, templates and tips for designing Science Fair posters and displays and more! This Drive folder includes resources for:
Project Ideas & Recommendations
Project Ideas & Recommendations
Early Elementary - Class Projects
Early Elementary - Class Projects
In preschool and early elementary grades, (generally TK, K, 1st) students are learning what a science fair is--that it's a chance for scientists to share what they've learned about the world with their community. In preschool, TK, kindergarten, and 1st grade, it's recommended that students participate in whole class projects.
All students participate by sharing their ideas and recording predictions or observations. Then the teacher assembles student work samples and other artifacts onto a display board.
Most early elementary class projects eflect the science investigations that students do in the Springtime as a part of the FOSS Science Curriculum.
See below for outstanding examples of early elementary class projects.
Korematsu Discovery Academy, TK
Korematsu Discovery Academy, TK
Mrs. Pirner's TK Class
Laurel Elementary, Kindergarten
Laurel Elementary, Kindergarten
Mrs. Cox's Kindergartners
Elementary Group Projects
Elementary Group Projects
In grades 2-5, students generally work in pairs or groups. Student groups may choose to investigate different, but related questions--or all investigate the same question. Either is fine! Think of the science fair project as a "final draft" of the work that students already do in their FOSS investigations. When students investigate questions related to what they're already learning in science, they bring prior knowledge of concepts, vocabulary, and investigation design to their project. Also, their FOSS kit will have the majority of the materials you need.
Check out these outstanding projects--in English and Spanish--by fourth graders at International Community School. Students completed these projects during the FOSS Environments Life Science unit.
ICS, 4th Grade
ICS, 4th Grade
Ms. Daseler & Mr. Estrada
Ms. Daseler & Mr. Estrada
Isopod Food Preferences: What Foods do Isopods Prefer?/ Preferencias alimentarias de los isópodos: ¿Qué alimentos prefieren los isópodos?
ICS, 4th Grade
ICS, 4th Grade
Ms. Daseler & Mr. Estrada
Ms. Daseler & Mr. Estrada
Hot or Cold: What Temperature Conditions do Isopods Prefer?/ ¿Calor o frío? ¿Qué condiciones de temperatura prefieren los isópodos?
ICS, 4th Grade
ICS, 4th Grade
Ms. Daseler & Mr. Estrada
Ms. Daseler & Mr. Estrada
Soil Investigation: What Soil Type do Isopods Prefer?/ Investigación del suelo: ¿Qué tipo de suelo prefieren los isópodos?
TK-8 Science Fair Project Ideas in FOSS
TK-8 Science Fair Project Ideas in FOSS
If you're new to Science Fair projects--have groups of students create tri-fold displays as a "final draft" of the FOSS investigation you're already doing. This means students may all have the same focus question--but they'll have their own predictions, observations, data, analysis and conclusions!
If you want students to investigate different, but related, questions (like the outstanding projects from Ms. Daseler and Mr. Estrada's 4th graders at ICS shown above), take a FOSS Focus Question, but switch out the variable.
Look in the links under "Family Resources & Extensions" found on ThinkLink for every FOSS module for ideas of additional investigations.
Check out this document, created by OUSD teachers, with Science Fair Question Ideas related to FOSS for each grade.
Keep a running "Science Fair" ideas Anchor Chart in your classroom to capture ideas all year long. When it's time for Science Fair at your school, have teams select questions from the list. These will likely be questions related to the content of your classes that you just didn't have time to explore--before your FOSS kits were picked up.
>>>>If you need materials from a different FOSS kit than you currently have,
contact herberta.zulueta@ousd.org <<<<
Middle School Math Project Ideas
Middle School Math Project Ideas
A math investigation project could look like a poster display where students share a question that they are trying to answer using the mathematics that they have learned in their math class this year. They will then display their mathematical reasoning, models, visualizations, and other artifacts to show how they answered their question. Finally, they will share the answer that they came up with to their question. See the "Math Investigations" page of the STEM Fair Project recommendations for a student-friendly project checklist.
Here are some other ideas of standards-aligned tasks that would make good math projects. These tasks come from our OUSD Core Curriculum Guide that our community created before there were CCSS-aligned curricula available. Oldies but goodies!
Here's a student math project from the 2025 STEM Fair, based on one of the tasks from the old OUSD Core Curriculum Guides.
Max Rau-Berg
7th Grade
Bret Harte Middle School
Computer Science & Engineering Projects
Computer Science & Engineering Projects
Students in middle and high school computer science or engineering courses can take any unit project and turn it into a submission for the STEM Fair. Some examples include:
Data Science projects
Final projects from the LEGO Physical Computing unit
Mini-projects from the Animations & Games unit (i.e. interactive cards)
Students' "Create Task" from AP CSP
Pinhole Cameras
Redesigned hand-crank toys
Safer building designs
Accessible page-turning devices
Rockets
...and more!
The difference between a general end-of-unit project and a STEM Fair project is relatively minor. Think of the STEM Fair project board as a way to document students' entire design process--from providing a bit of background information for the public audience, to describing their task or challenge, to documenting the different ideas they had and their process from planning to final product. Students will end with elaborating on what they learned and what they'd like to do next, if they had more time and resources.
Check out the page on "Engineering & Design Projects" on the STEM Fair Project recommendations document for a student-friendly project checklist.
If students' final work product is a digital product, Chromebooks, projectors, and table-top screens will be available at the STEM Fair, to accompany students' tri-fold displays.
Oakland High School
Oakland High School
Computer Science
Oakland High School
Oakland High School
Innovative Design & Engineering Academy (IDEA)
High School STEM
High School STEM
High School courses that utilize Project-Based Learning will have strong projects for the STEM Fair--including Senior Capstone projects. This includes final projects from:
Engineering
Architecture
Public Health & Bioscience
Sustainable Design
Computer Science
Data Science
Physiology
Environmental Science
Depending on the students' final product, it's possible that no additional work is needed to make their project STEM-Fair ready! In some cases though, projects would benefit from a bit of elaboration on project background, process, and end-of-project reflection to align their project from class with what judges will expect at the STEM Fair. Check out the page for "Engineering & Design Projects" on the STEM Fair Project recommendations document for a student-friendly project checklist.
If students' final work product is a digital product, Chromebooks, projectors, and table-top screens will be available at the STEM Fair, to accompany students' tri-fold displays.
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