SSP Middle School Program finalists displaying their research to the public at the National Academy of Science.

The SSP Middle School Program is the only U.S. national science competition for science fair participants in grades 5–8. Students are selected annually from a national field of thousands to participate in the finals of this competition. Gathering in Washington, D.C. each October, the 30 finalists present their projects to judges, fellow students and the public.  In addition, finalists work in teams on a variety of scientific experiments to judge their science, reasoning and communication skills.

Congratulations to

SSP Middle School Program 2008 Entrants!

Across the country, over 7,500 students were nominated for the Society for Science & the Public Middle School Program 2008 at science fairs throughout the spring.  The following is a list of nominees who came to the site to register.

SSP Middle School Program 2008 Nominee List

Over 1,900 of these nominees submitted an online entry by the deadline.  They have won an entry prize and are now part of the next phase of competition.

Currently, SSP Middle School Program evaluators are scoring all the entries we have received and with their scores and final review by the SSP Middle School Program judges, we will narrow the pool to 300 semifinalists.  Semifinalists will be announced mid-August.  From the semifinalists, 30 finalists will be chosen to win an all expense paid trip to Washington DC in October 2008 where they will present their original science project and compete in scientific experiments to receive to honors. Finalists will be announced mid-September. 
Have a great summer!  To view the finalist and semifinalist lists, please continue to check our website.  For great summer science writing, check out www.sciencenewsforkids.org. 

SSP Middle School Program 2008 Nominee List

The SSP Middle School Program was born from our commitment to serving the middle school science fair audience as we have done for 9 years with Discovery Communications through the Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge.
Society for Science & the Public is proud to offer this program to encourage middle school students to pursue their interest in science and independent research.