California State Science Fair
Awards Program 2013

Awards at the California State Science Fair are distinguished as either Fair Awards, which are determined by judges working for the Fair itself, or Special & Recognition Awards, which are presented by organizations external to the Fair in additional recognition of student achievements.

Fair Awards

Category Awards

The California State Science Fair awards the top four projects within each subject category and each age division as First Place, Second Place, Third Place, and Fourth Place. One project, and only one project, receives each award — there are no ties. In the case of awards given to a team project with two or more students named as co-authors, the cash award is divided equally among each co-author. All category award winners receive a medallion in recognition of their achievements. Category Award winning projects receive the following cash awards:

Category Awards	Junior Division	Senior Division
First Place	$250	$500
Second Place	$125	$250
Third Place	$75	$125
Fourth Place	$50	$75

In addition, the judges may elect to name a small number of projects of outstanding quality as Honorable Mentions. The projects will be recognized at the Awards Ceremony and on the Fair’s web site.

Project of the Year

Following the selection of Category Awards, two special committees of category judges (one for each age division) review every first place winning project in each subject category in order to select the best project in each division. These awards are $5,000 in the Senior Division, and $2,500 in the Junior Division.

Broadcom MASTERS™

In the Junior Division, every first and second place category award winner will be qualified into the Broadcom MASTERS, a national competition for students in grades 6-8, with a top prize of $25,000. The deadline for applying to this competition is June 17, 2013.

California State Science Fair Student of the Year

The California State Science Fair Student of the Year Award is described here. This $1,000 award is given to a senior in high school on the basis of his/her project and other activities.

California State Science Fair Teachers of the Year

The California State Science Fair Teacher of the Year Awards are described here. One teacher in each age division will be awarded $2,000. Be sure to nominate your teacher.

Special and Recognition Awards

Special and Recognition Awards are presented by various professional scientific and engineering associations, businesses, volunteer groups, and private individuals in recognition of outstanding achievement through science fair projects. Judging for the awards is done by the presenting organizations themselves, and is entirely separate from the judging for category awards and all other awards presented by the Fair which are listed above.

Special Awards

Special Awards are single awards valued at $500 or more and will be presented at the Awards Ceremony along with all of the Fair Awards.

In recent Fairs Special Awards have been presented by the American Chemical Society; the American Heart Association; Dr. Arnold O. and Mabel Beckman; California 4-H; the California Energy Commission; California Fuel Cell Partnership; California Sea Grant; California Shore and Beach Preservation Association; the Cardinal & Gold Award of Excellence; Chemical Waste Management; Institute for the Advancement of Engineering; Edwards Lifesciences; Five Star Legal and Wells Fargo; Hefni Technical Training Foundation; Sheila Kar Health Foundation; Lucky Stores; Los Angeles County Department of Public Works; California Disposal Association; Walmart; MLIM; MUSES of the California Science Center; the Neurology Award; Center for Plant Cell Biology at the University of California, Riverside; Rotary Club of Los Angeles; the Silicon Boule Award; SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering; Tau Beta Pi Engineering Association; the University of Southern California; and Zaca, Inc.

Recognition Awards

Recognition Awards are single awards valued under $500. Recognition Awards are presented to winners at their projects during the second session of category judging from 11:00 am - 12:30 pm, not at the Awards ceremony.

Recognition Awards at recent Fairs have been presented by the American Chemical Society; American Heart Association; American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (Orange County and Los Angeles County sections); American Vacuum Society; Association for Women Geoscientists; Bone Clones, Inc.; California Association of Professional Scientists; California Council of Geoscience Organizations; California Energy Commission; California Energy & Environmental Education Forum; California Environmental Health Association; California Native Plant Society; California Shore and Beach Preservation Association; California Science Center Volunteer Groups: Docents, MOSAIC, and MUSES; Center for Scalable and Integrated Manufacturing (SINAM); Health Physics Society; Institute for the Advancement of Engineering; NASA/JPL; Los Angeles Council for Scientists and Engineers; Santa Monica College; Science Buddies; the Sierra Club; Society of Petroleum Engineers; Southern California Chapter of the Health Physics Society; SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering; Stockholm Junior Water Prize; Tau Beta Pi Engineering Association; the Tom Reside Memorial Award; TRW; University of California, Irvine, Dept. of Earth System Science; UCLA Earth & Space Sciences Faculty; the University of Southern California; and the US Fish & Wildlife Service.