AgriScience Fair Information Here
Purpose
The National FFA Agriscience Fair recognizes student researchers studying the application of agricultural scientific principles and emerging technologies in agricultural enterprises. The agriscience fair is for middle and high school students. Participation begins at the local level and progresses to state and national levels.
Rules
- All studies not meeting the criteria of the National FFA Agriscience Fair, but are otherwise permissible must be conducted in a Regulated Research Institution (RRI). A Regulated Research Institution is defined as a professional research/teaching institution that is regularly inspected by the USDA and is licensed to use animals covered by the Animal Welfare Act and may also be subject to U.S. Public Health Service Policy. Also included are federal laboratories such as National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control. In addition, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and research institutes that utilize research animals that are not covered by the Animal Welfare Act but have been operational Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and are in compliance with U.S. Federal laws are included in this definition. In these studies, proper documentation must be presented and the project must be reviewed by the National FFA Organization prior to experimentation.
- A research project may be part of a larger study performed by professional scientists, but the project presented by the student researcher(s) must be only their own portion of the complete study.
- Data may not be added to the research project after state level selection. Projects may not have more than one year of data included. See “Extension of Agriscience Fair Projects” for additional information about extension projects.
Event Format
Students can compete in the national agriscience fair in one of six categories:
- Animal Systems
- Environmental Services/Natural Resource Systems
- Food Products and Processing Systems
- Plant Systems
- Power, Structural and Technical Systems
- Social Science
Students can compete in the national agriscience fair as an individual or with a team.
- Division 1 – individual member in grades 7 and 8
- Division 2 – team of two members in grades 7 and 8
- Division 3 – individual member in grades 9 and 10
- Division 4 – team of two members in grades 9 and 10
- Division 5 – individual member in grades 11 and 12
- Division 6 – team of two members in grades 11 and 12
Scoring
See National FFA Handbook (page 22-26)