Guidelines to Sharing Research

Presentation and Display Guidelines

All project posters, research papers, and videos must abide by the ISEF Rules and Guidelines before being submitted. Failure to follow these guidelines, including Display and Safety Rules, could result in your project being disqualified.

Project Display Overview

Students have the choice of creating a display using a single panel or trifold board. We encourage students to use a single panel board this year, matching the requirements of the Minnesota State Science & Engineering Fair. The Rochester Regional STEM Fair will provide a single panel board to students at no additional cost upon request. A wooden stand will be provided to all students to hold their boards upright.

A graphic showing a comparison and pros and cons to board types
Required Information

Title and Name of Author(s)

  1. Research Questions/Engineering Goal (Quadrant 1)
  2. Methodology/Project Design (Quadrant 2)
  3. Data Analysis & Results (Quadrant 3)
  4. Interpretation and Conclusions (Quadrant 4)
Arrangement of Information

Present the required information in a "quad chart" format, divided into four quadrants. If using a trifold board, use the center board to make a quad chart and put any additional information on the side boards. Quad charts are intended to be mostly visual and provide a high-level summary to judges. The display should follow the guidelines of the Minnesota State Science & Engineering Fair, available online here and summarized below:

  • Each quadrant should be printed on 1 sheet of paper, 8.5" by  11" or smaller
  • Up to 2 additional sheets of paper can be included
  • Maximum of 7 sheets (including 1 sheet for the title)
  • Example provided by the Minnesota State Science & Engineering Fair. Project by 2022 participant Stavya Arora
Optional Documents

You may bring a printed abstract and a binder of supplemental documents or images.