64th Fair Events 

Hosted by The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley  at the UTRGV Brownsville Campus, co-sponsored by Texas Southmost College and supported by Brownsville ISD.

February 16, 2024 - 4:00 – 7:00 pm Project Check-In and Set-Up

February 17, 2024 - 9:00 am Junior & Senior Division Judging

February 17, 2024 - 1:30 pm Senior Division Grand Champion Judging for selected projects

Friday, 2/16/2024  4:00-7:00 pm

Check-In and Project Set-Up

Location: refer to above maps

Project Check-in will begin at 4:00 pm; we cannot accommodate earlier check-ins. Each project’s specific room location will be available on site and will be sent by email no later than Friday morning. Lists will be available to you upon check-in also. Project boards or posters will be set up first in their assigned building/room and then inspected for safety. The display and safety guidelines can be found HERE so that you can check boards/posters in advance. All students must print and bring a copy of their printed Abstract Form (1 per project) since the STEM Wizard program does not provide us an option to mass print the Abstracts for everyone. 

Reminder: Abstracts cannot be taped/pasted to the board or poster, only to the table. The only item required is the board or poster, which must remain overnight. All other approved optional items (notebook, binder, laptop, tablet, model, etc.) may be brought home and then returned Saturday morning (an approval form to do so is NOT needed). 

High School students only: Print and bring a copy of Form 1C and Form 7 (if applicable) for each project to be displayed. 

Saturday, 2/17/2024     8:30 AM – 7:00 PM

8:30 AM: All students required to be at project boards.

Busses park in designated areas after drop-off.

9:00 AM – 12:00 PM: Students remain at project in their assigned room for in-person judging interviews. Each project will have 2-3 interviews by a team of judges who will determine winners together. Project judging criteria used by judges can be found HERE, which is aligned to the criteria used at the affiliated state and international competitions.

12:00-12:15 PM: Project tear-down for all middle school projects only. All middle school projects must be removed from Jacob Brown. (High school projects must remain in their rooms and cannot be removed.)

12:15-1:15: Schools provide their own lunch to students. Each school will have an assigned room. You may also eat outside. Those room locations inside the buildings marked on the map will be provided Friday via email.

1:30-4:00 PM: Outreach activities and lab tours. Students and teachers will be provided a schedule to rotate through various events, including science and engineering lab tours and a presentation from UTRGV about financial aid and scholarships! Your group’s schedule will be provided by Friday via email. High school students will end at 3:45 pm to remove their project boards at that time. NO PUBLIC VIEWING WILL BE HELD THIS YEAR

4:00-4:30 PM: Project tear-down for all high school projects. They will need to be placed in vehicles/busses at this time. All high school projects must be removed from their building.

4:45 PM: Doors open for awards ceremonies at the TSC Jacob Brown Auditorium on the north side off of International Blvd; open to the public. This is a combined awards ceremony for middle school and high school awards.

5:00 PM until ~7:00 PM: Awards ceremonies: category awards followed by special awards.

• 1st-5th place will be awarded in each category.

• 1st & 2nd place in each category are eligible to advance to the Texas Science & Engineering Fair at Texas A&M University in College Station from March 22-23, 2024.

• 4 Grand Champion high school projects will be announced and eligible to advance to the Regeneron International Science & Engineering Fair from May 12-17, 2024, in Los Angeles, CA.

End of competition events; depart from the campus. 

Sincerely,

Tim Sears

Fair Director, 64th Annual RGV Regional Science and Engineering Fair 

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley