Science fair projects with animals: why not, and plants instead

The rule

🔊 No live animals at the fair. Living things stay home, and projects that test animals need forms and a teacher's review at every level up to the international fair.

Peabody has no animal projects, and that's checked in code: every project is held to a list of words before it can be shown, and animals, pets and bugs are on it.

Sources: Lowville elementary science fair rules; UNM STEM-H Center, K–5 research project rules and forms (revised 11 Aug 2022); Society for Science, ISEF International Rules and Guidelines. Your school's sheet wins. The rules in plain words has every shared rule with its source, and Is my project OK? checks an idea of your own.

Why, and what to do instead

An animal can't say yes to being tested, it can be frightened by a busy gym full of people, and a test a child hasn't thought through can hurt it. That's why the international rules most regional and state fairs follow ask for forms and a review committee before any project with animals that have a backbone starts, and why the school fairs we read keep live animals away from the fair. A review takes weeks, and a family with a fair date usually doesn't have them.

A plant asks the same kind of question a pet would, without any of that. A bean bends toward the window, roots turn to grow down, seeds may sprout sooner somewhere warm, and crowded seeds have to share the light and the water. You can measure all of it with a ruler and a logbook. If your heart is set on animals, watching is different from testing: a nature journal of the birds at a feeder changes nothing for the birds, though it isn't usually a fair project, because nothing is changed and measured. Ask your teacher early, because some schools allow watching-only projects, with no touching.

• 📖 For grown-ups: why animals are out of the science fair