Since 1994, the Putnam Children’s Discovery Center has run the Tri-County Science & Technology Fair to celebrate student STEM projects from public, private, and home-schooled students from Westchester, Rockland, and Putnam Counties in New York State. 

What set the Tri-County Science & Technology Fair apart? From 1994-2024, it was the only New York State regional fair for Elementary, Middle, and High School. While most fairs were limited to one or two levels, we provided a continuous journey for students to fuel their passion for science and technology throughout their academic careers. During the pandemic, we also extended a warm welcome to Middle Schools in Nassau County.

But since 2025, we focus solely on High School projects in a virtual, on-line format, which lets us recruit a more diverse group of technical professionals beyond the New York area, creating more opportunities for judges to network with peers from other organizations.  

We expect over 150 virtual participants each year. Students present original research, and the top 4-5 entries advance to the the NYS Science Congress.  

Serving as a judge is more than scoring—it supports students, keeps you current with the latest research and technologies from HS students, and offers networking with other technical professionals.

• All good! So glad to be a part of it! Thank you!

• As a former school psychologist and current trainer of school psychologists it was great to have contact with such a bright and motivated group of students. I enjoyed the experience thoroughly.

• I like how the organizers are very well accessible by email. They promptly replied to any issues and took matters of fairness very seriously. I also like how there were sufficient judges recruited so that every student could get a fair and equal chance. This was not always the case at other fairs I have participated in.

• Excellent or you can say Outstanding organization.

• I think you all did an amazing job considering all the things you had to coordinate! Thank you so much!

• Honestly, I'm very impressed with your video instructions and the many ways to access materials.

• I thought the organizers did a wonderful job. It was a great experience - exciting to see our future.

• The fair was really exciting and the students had some really interesting work to present!

• Great organization, very good process, but lacking the live contact of other fairs. However, I think the strengths of the virtual process, which allowed me to participate despite being outside NY, far outweigh this limitation.

• It was a lot of fun and great to see how young minds work and process scientific and mathematical information.

• Keep up the good work, and thanks for the opportunity to participate

• Really enjoyed it, a great first experience, looking forward to next year

• Thank you for the opportunity to participate as a judge.

• The ability to view videos at one's own pace is a nice feature of the virtual format. I think organization was good.

• Thank you for your effort to provide this opportunity for students!