About Us

GATEway Science Fair History:

GATEway is Rochester's Chapter of MCGT (Minnesota Council for the Gifted and Talented), a statewide 501(c)(3) non-profit organization for parents and educators of gifted children. GATEway advocates for academic challenge in Rochester Public Schools and offers annual programs open to the public.

GATEway held its first science fair in 1990, which has grown to be the organization's largest program. The fair is open to ALL interested students in grades 3-6 currently enrolled in any public, private or home schools in the greater Rochester area. The science fair is non-competitive: no ribbons or prizes are awarded. Dedicated volunteers put in over 2000 hours preparing for and working at the event. Thanks to all of our sponsors and partners, we regularly have 200-250 elementary aged participants. Overall, we estimate that around 1000 people attend the science fair, including student participants, accompanying family members, reviewers, general volunteers, and visiting members of the public. We receive overwhelmingly positive feedback on our parent survey. Many of our fair participants go on to succeed in later grades in the competitive Rochester Regional Science and Engineering Fair.

Since 2012, the GATEway Science Fair organizers have offered free workshops and classroom outreach to help “demystify” the process of preparing a science fair project, creating a display board and talking to reviewers about the project.

We are always looking for more people to join our Science Fair planning team! Opportunities vary in time commitment and responsibility. Please email gatewaysciencefair@gmail.com.