All students in grades 9-12 in both public and private schools, whether or not they are enrolled in a science class, are invited to participate.
Two types of papers can be entered for the PS3: Experimental Research and Library Research papers. Preference will be given to Experimental Research papers.
Experimental research begins as a question and involves actual experimentation to gather data that will help answer the question. A research project may also be a field study or an engineering project. A field study involves monitoring some aspect of the environment, such as types of birds in the Kawainui Marsh. Engineering projects include designing, building and testing a device. Only experimental research papers are eligible for the national JSHS competition.
Library research papers involves selecting a topic or problem and doing extensive reading in books and journals; then writing an organized report of your findings. Library research papers are acceptable for presentation at the PS3, but are not eligible for the JSHS competition.
Students may present a report on work done as part of a class project (for extra credit) or as a science fair or summer research project. Only one student is allowed on a project. A team project from the science fair can be entered if only one team member writes up the report and presents only the research that he or she worked on. The student should also fully acknowledge all the work that was done by the other team member(s).
The student papers will be reviewed by a scientist or expert in the field. The students with the better papers will be invited to participate in the PS3. It is strongly recommended that students use the reviewers' comments to improve their papers before presentation at the Symposium.