Affiliate your science fair with Thermo Fisher JIC

Are you a science teacher or school official interested in promoting science, technology, engineering, and mathematics among your middle school students? Do your students complete independent science or engineering projects? Does your school host a science fair for 6-8th grade students? If so, make sure they have opportunities to share their work on the national level by joining the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge (JIC) program as an affiliated science fair.

Thermo Fisher JIC-affiliated science fairs have the opportunity to name their top 10% of 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students as nominees for the national competition. Nominees complete the Thermo Fisher JIC online application. Entries are judged during the summer, and in early fall, the Top 300 students are named. From among the Top 300 , 30 students are selected as finalists and win an all-expense-paid trip to the national finals week in Washington, DC to showcase their projects, compete in teams and visit historical sites and organizations that celebrate innovation. The top prize is a $25,000 education award with numerous other awards andprizes offered throughout the process to both students and educators. For more information, see our FAQs .

We also allow school fairs to affiliate with Thermo Fisher JIC directly in situations where Society affiliated science fairs do not exist, or do not host middle school students. Follow the steps below to learn more information about affiliating your fair:

  1. Find out if your area has a Thermo Fisher JIC fair – visit our Find a Fair page.
  2. Check out our Affiliated Fair Guidelines to see if your fair meets the criteria to affiliate.
  3. If you think your fair is eligible to affiliate, email us at jic@societyforscience.org