A Look at the 2025 Hawaii State Science & Engineering Fair

The 68th Hawaii State Science & Engineering Fair was held at the Neal Blaisdell Exhibition Hall on March 31 - April 2, 2025. It was a wonderful event, filled with cutting edge science and enthusiastic young investigators. Filmed and edited by the AWESOME Pearl City Highlands Elementary School Media Club, take a look at our fabulous event and meet some of our participants.

Congratulations, Dr. Pascale Pinner!

Last month, Dr. Pascale Pinner from Hilo Intermediate School was inducted into the National Teacher’s Hall of Fame! Dr. Pinner has been a teacher for over 37 years, not only in the classroom but also through interdisciplinary, service-learning, and independent research projects. She is an incredible mentor to so many local students. We couldn’t be prouder and happier that she won this award. Check out this feature on Hawaii News Now and read the beautiful write-up by the Hawaii State Teacher’s Association. Photo credit: HSTA.

The 2024 Hawaii State Science & Engineering Fair

The 67th Hawaii State Science & Engineering Fair was held at the Neal Blaisdell Exhibition Hall on April 1 - April 3, 2024. The whole event was a huge celebration of science. For the first year ever, we held our Elementary STEM expo in-person. Our youngest investigators had a blast sharing their projects with the public. We even had a special visitor surprise our elementary kiddos - Lieutenant Governor Sylvia Luke. Filmed and edited by the Pearl City Highlands Elementary School Media Club, take a look at our wonderful event and meet some of our participants.

Resources for Science Projects at Home

In light of the global pandemic, the Science Fair community encourages students and teachers to think outside of the lab when approaching research this school year. The Society for Science & The Public has created a collection of resources to assist students and teachers with conducting research outside of the traditional laboratory environment. Visit here for more information. Don’t give up and get creative!

HSSEF Update Due to COVID-19

Due to the rising health concerns of the coronavirus pandemic, HSSEF 2020 at the Hawaii Convention Center on April 8-10th has been canceled. The safety of our students, teachers, judges, volunteers, and staff remain our top priority. We realize the hard work of all parties involved, and are therefore, working fervently trying to develop the means to hold a virtual science fair instead. Details of the virtual fair will be announced soon. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Mahalo,

The Hawaii Academy of Science

Film: Science Fair

Join us on Friday, November 9, 2018 at 7:00 PM at the Doris Duke Theatre to watch the premiere of the documentary “Science Fair.” Directed by Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster, this film follows the journey of several students as they compete in the International Science & Engineering Fair (ISEF) for the nomination of Best in Fair. Four of Hawaii’s very own students will be there to speak about their science projects and share about their experience at the 2018 ISEF. The Honolulu Museum of Art is proud to participate in Science on Screen, an initiative to offer creative pairings of current, classic, cult, and documentary films with introductions by notable figures from the world of science, technology, and medicine.

Museum Members: $10; General Admission: $12

2018 ISEF Results

Congratulations to all of the Hawaii Delegates who participated in the 2018 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from May 13th to 18th. We are so proud of each and every one of them. Several of our Hawaii students won awards! The results of the Fair are listed below.

Hawaii Delegation 2018 Pittsburgh.jpg

GRAND AWARDS

3RD PLACE IN SYSTEMS SOFTWARE
Samuel Cadotte, Kalaheo High School
Using SONAR, LIDAR, and Computer Vision to Assist the Visually-Impaired
$1,000 Award

3RD PLACE IN ANIMAL SCIENCE
Sonja Giardina, Hilo High School
Effect of Fragmentation, Isolation, and Bleaching on Coral Reef Fish Assemblages
$1,000 Award

4TH PLACE IN BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE
Benjamin Weiss & Kaitlynn Weiss, Kalaheo High School
Improving Facial Expression Recognition in Parkinson's Disease Using Meditation
$500 Award

SPECIAL AWARDS

NATIONAL ANTI-VIVISECTION SOCIETY SCHOLARSHIP
Erin Kajihiro, Moanalua High School
Development of Animal Component-Free Media for the Cryopreservation of Drosophila S2 Cells
$10,000 Award

ORACLE ACADEMY SCHOLARSHIP
Samuel Cadotte, Kalaheo High School
Using SONAR, LIDAR, and Computer Vision to Assist the Visually-Impaired
$5,000 Award

Congratulations, Davey Huang!

Davey Huang, from Iolani School, has been selected as one of 40 finalists for the 2018 Regeneron Science Talent Search, which is one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors. It's a tremendous honor to be recognized as a Scholar, but an even more tremendous achievement to be selected as a Finalist. Finalists were selected from a pool of highly qualified entrants based on their project's scientific rigor and their potential to become world-changing scientific leaders. Each scholar and their school is awarded $2000, and each finalist will receive a minimum $25,000 award. Finalists will compete in Washington, D.C. on March 8-14, 2018. Congratulations, Davey! We are so very proud of you and wish you luck in March!

See the full article here.