12 Science Competitions for Middle School Students
If you are a middle school student interested in science, participating in a competition could be a unique and rewarding experience. They provide you an opportunity to apply concepts you have learned in school, and the hands-on experience is sure to ignite a passion for science at an early age. Competing against like-minded students also helps you gauge your standing among your peers.
Participating in competitions will not only test your academic knowledge but will also improve your time management skills, discipline, consistency, and teamwork. Some colleges give preference to students who have won a competition during school, so if you can deliver a strong performance in a science competition, your college application is bound to stand out!
To help you get started, we have curated a list of 12 science competitions for middle school students that you should check out!
Location: On-site, host institute changes every year; for the year 2025, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will be hosting the Olympiad
Participation Cost: Varies depending on activities but will be between $100- $350 per team (according to the previous year’s data)
Dates: May 23-24, 2025
Registration/Submission Deadline: To be announced
Eligibility: Middle School students can participate in Division B events, which are open to students between 6-9 grades.
Note: You can check out the divisions for 2025 here.
The Science Olympiad is not a single competition but a collection of multiple events that allow you to participate in a field of science related to your interests. The events are open to middle and high school students who can participate in the Division B and Division C competitions. You need to register as a team from your school at the state-level competition, and if you make it to the top of your state rankings, you are invited to the national finals at the host institute, which changes every year.
Most of the events and competitions will be held at the regional level in a single day, and details will be sent to you once the registration process is completed. You can register for any of the 23 STEM-related competitive events. You can check out the brief descriptions of the various events here!
By participating in the Science Bowl, you also stand a chance to win cash prizes and scholarships for your future studies!
Location: Virtual; you have to submit project proposals online. National Champions are invited to the National STEM Festival in Washington, D.C., which usually takes place in April.
Participation Cost: Free. You and your guardian will be provided with travel and accommodation costs if selected for the National STEM Festival.
Dates: Between October 2024 to April 2025 (tentative, based on the 2024 program)
Registration/Submission Deadline: Registrations open in October, and the submission deadline is November (tentative, based on the 2024 program)
Eligibility: Open to students in grades 6th–12th including home-schooled students who are residing in the U.S.
The National STEM Challenge is a project-based competition for all middle and high school students, in which the participants are expected to submit solution-based projects that tackle real-world problems based on the defined themes. In this competition, you will have to create a PDF presentation about your project, keeping it to 3 pages maximum with a minimum of 12-point font.
In this 2024 program, the themes were Environmental stewardship, Future foods, Health & Medicine, Power the Planet, Space Innovation, and Tech for Good. If you are a National Champion, you will be invited to the National STEM Festival in Washington D.C., which will be co-presented by the U.S. Department of Education and EXPLR!
3. National Science Bowl (NSB)
Location: Regional rounds are held in different locations every year. Science Bowl Finals are held in Washington, DC.
Participation Cost: Free.
Dates: Regional competitions take place between January and March 2025 and the Finals take place on April 24 - 28, 2025
Registration/Submission Deadline: Registrations open on October 7th, 2024
Eligibility: Open to students in 6th–12th grade. There are different competitions for middle school and high school students.
Since 1991, the National Science Bowl (NSB) by the US Department of Energy (DOE) has been a prestigious and highly competitive event aiming to test students’ math and science knowledge. Each year, the competition receives over 1,000 participants who use their knowledge across various subjects, including physics, energy, Earth science, chemistry, biology, and math, to contest in teams for cash prizes against their peers.
To participate, students must first compete in regional rounds. Teams of 4-5 students compete locally, and only the regional winners are invited to the Science Bowl Finals held in Washington, D.C. NSB provides a detailed resource pool to aid preparation, including the competition rules, tips for success, and various study materials to help teams give their best. Former participants have compiled these rules, which you can refer to here.
If you want to learn more about this competition, you can view our comprehensive guide here!
4. 3M Young Scientist Challenge
Location: Virtual. The final event takes place at the 3M global headquarters in St. Paul, MN
Participation Cost: Free
Dates: Submission window will open between January 2025 and May 2025 (tentative, based on the 2024 program). Finalists and state winners are announced in June and the final event takes place in October 2025
Registration/Submission Deadline: Registrations open in January
Eligibility: Open to students in grades 5th–8th.
The 3M Young Scientist Challenge is an annual science competition for middle school students organized in collaboration between 3M and Discovery Education. You will be required to work on an individual and original project concept and send in the submission as a 1-2 minute video.
These projects should align with one of the pre-determined challenges, which often relate to issues in STEM, and provide a viable solution to a real-world problem. After the submission period, finalists are selected to participate in a unique summer mentorship program, during which they collaborate with 3M scientists to develop their projects!
The competition culminates in a final event in October where selected finalists present their projects to a panel of judges, competing for the title of "America's Top Young Scientist" and the opportunity to win various prizes, including a substantial monetary reward, including the Grand Prize of $25,000. The top 10 finalists qualify for a prize of $1,000 each.
Location: Virtual. Submissions in the initial phase are to be submitted online. The pitch event and final event take place in person, and locations will be decided each year.
Participation Cost: Free
Dates: Teachers can submit their students' proposals between August and November 2024 (tentative, based on the 2024 program), with the event taking place in April 2025.
Registration/Submission Deadline: Registrations open in August
Eligibility: Open to students in 6th–12th grade from schools that are at least 50% publicly funded
This annual competition invites students from public schools to propose creative solutions to some of the most crucial problems in their communities using the expansive network Samsung has created. Apart from participating in the competition itself, You will also get one-on-one mentorship from a Samsung employee as you develop your project and build a prototype via conference calls!
Do note that you cannot participate directly and their application needs to be submitted by someone who is at least 21 years old and is from their school. You can participate individually or in a group and must have your teacher as one of the team members compulsorily.
While registering, you will be asked to identify a problem in your community and how you will solve it using STEM. This will be a huge factor in determining your chances of making it to the state and regional finals. You can check out a sample application form here.
Location: Virtual. The national winners will get to visit Washington D.C. alongside a guardian
Participation Cost: Free
Dates: You can work on a three-week, two-month, or three-month-long projects
Registration/Submission Deadline: The submission deadline will be in January 2025 (tentative, last year the deadline was extended to February first week)
Eligibility: Open to all K-12 students. Middle school students can compete in the category which is open for students in Grades 7–9.
Hosted by Toshiba & National Science Teaching Association (NSTA), ExploraVision encourages high schoolers to focus on real-world problem-solving in STEM. This is a program that encourages students from all interests, skills, and ability levels to combine their imaginations with the power of science to create a project toward future technology.
As a competitor, you are expected to form a team of 2-4 and research how current technology can be improved. Your project submissions must include an abstract, a description section, a bibliography, and five sample web pages. The project description is the main part and should not exceed 11 pages. This is what sample projects generally look like, and here are some of their winning projects!
7. American Rocketry Challenge
Location: Virtual. The National Finals will take place at Great Meadow in The Plains, VA
Participation Cost: $350 to participate in the finals with a team application fee of $165,
Dates: May 17, 2025, for the final competition
Registration/Submission Deadline: Registrations are currently open and will close on December 1 or when 1000 teams complete registration
Eligibility: Students from a single school in grades 6 through 12 can participate in teams of 3-10
The American Rocketry Challenge is the premier rocket contest in the U.S. and one of the largest student rocketry competitions in the world. It is open to middle and high school students in which they are asked to design, build, and launch model rockets, which will be a great test of their engineering and technical skills.
For the 2025 challenge, you are required to design a rocket that holds two eggs, stored on their side, to an altitude of 790 feet and a flight duration between 41 and 43 seconds. Read the rules here.
In this competition, you stand to win significant cash prizes and scholarships, and the winners get the opportunity to represent the United States in international competitions!
Location: Virtual
Participation Cost: Free
Dates: August 2024 to June 2025 (tentative, based on the 2025 program)
Registration/Submission Deadline: Registrations will begin in August 2024 (tentative) and the final submission will be in March 2025 (tentative, based on the 2024 program)
Eligibility: Students in grades 6-9 are eligible to apply to this program
eCYBERMISSION is an intensive and completely virtual STEM competition open for students in grades six through nine to develop solutions to real-world problems in their local communities. The competition encourages projects in a variety of subjects such as environmental science, energy, public health, and safety, promoting practical and community-oriented scientific inquiry.
In 2024, students participated in teams having 2 to 4 members and could participate in two tracks - Scientific Inquiry, which deals with questions they are trying to answer about a community problem, and Engineering Design, which deals with a problem that can be solved via some little infrastructure work.
Teams are judged based on how well they apply the scientific method and engineering design process. The awards for teams at regional, state, and national levels in terms of U.S. Series EE Savings Bonds ranging from $500 to $10,000!
9. National Robotics Challenge
Location: Marion, Ohio
Participation Cost: $85 per team and $15 per robot in addition (for the 2024 program)
Dates: April 3rd, 4th and 5th,2025
Registration/Submission Deadline: February last week 2025 (tentative)
Eligibility: Open to students in 6th grade through graduate school.
The National Robotics Challenge is one of the longest-established robotics competitions in the U.S. The challenge consists of 12 contest categories that test students' knowledge in a particular area of manufacturing, technology, robotics, and automation. The various challenges help students develop creativity, engineering, problem-solving, and leadership skills.
For this competition, you should familiarize yourself with CAD and other programming languages. Middle school students can participate in the Additive Manufacturing Challenge, Autonomous Vehicle Challenge, Box Bot, and Combat Robot (among others)!
This document for the 2024 program contains all relevant information regarding competitions, prizes, and registrations. The rules are expected to change every year.
10. NASA TechRise Student Challenge
Location: Virtual in the first phase and selected teams are invited to Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, CA to test their models
Participation Cost: Free
Dates: August 2024 to June/July 2025 (tentative)
Registration/Submission Deadline: Contest opens August 1,2024 with entries due on November 1, 2024
Eligibility: Open to students in 6th to 12th grade.
The NASA TechRise Student Challenge is administered by Future Engineers and asks students to design, build, and launch experiments on NASA-supported test flights. In the 2024 challenge, a team of students had to develop an experiment idea for one of the following NASA TechRise flight vehicles:
A High-Altitude Balloon with approximately four hours of flight time at 70,000 feet and exposure to Earth’s atmosphere, high-altitude radiation, and perspective views of our planet.
A Rocket-Powered Lander that will fly for approximately two minutes at an altitude of 80 ft (~25 m) over a test field designed to look like the Moon’s surface
Each winning team will receive $1,500 to build their experiment, a flight box in which to build it, and an assigned spot to test their experiment on a NASA-sponsored rocket-powered lander or high-altitude balloon flight. Winning teams will also receive technical support from Future Engineers advisors, who will help students learn the skills needed to turn their experiment ideas into reality.
This competition takes place in two phases. In the first phase, you are expected to send in a proposal for making the High-Altitude Balloon or the Rocket-Powered Lander using this document as a template guide. Originality and clarity of the idea, the potential impact on society, and feasibility are also a criterion for awarding scores.
11. CEF’s Challenge
Location: Initial rounds are virtual and the National Challenge takes place in Houston, TX
Participation Cost: Free
Dates: March 2025 to June 2025 (tentative, based on the 2024 program)
Registration/Submission Deadline: Registrations open in October and typically close in December (might be extended) with a submission deadline in March.
Eligibility: Open to 5th-8th grade students from the U.S. and Canada
The CEF’s Challenge is CEF’s (Chemical Educational Foundation) flagship program, which is exclusively for middle school students in which they initially participate in regional challenges to qualify for the National Challenge and present their video and research in response to the theme of the challenge, which changes every year. Usually, you are expected to propose the formation of a start-up company to investigate sustainability questions and community-based solutions.
The first stage is when students participate in teams of 3-4 and attempt a 40-exam question administered by your school. This is a qualifier for the regional challenge, in which students will have to answer 40 questions individually once more. Regional participants then need to submit a 5-7 minute video, which will be the basis of their selection for the National Challenge.
Location: Virtual
Participation Cost: $125
Dates: May 24, 2025
Registration/Submission Deadline: Registration are currently open with deadline beingMay 16, 2025
Eligibility: The competition is exclusively for middle school students
The National Biology Bowl is a virtual team competition for middle school students that began in 2019, which follows the rules of the National Science Bowl and exclusively deals with biology and its subsets. The competition covers important topics like Cell Biology and Genetics, Human Physiology, Animals, Plants, Evolution, Behavior and Ecology. The competition follows a round-robin format and the top eight teams compete for the bragging rights for the national champion.
The initial stages of the competition will have two halves of eight minutes, each with a two-minute break. The championship round will have halves of 10 minutes, and the break will last for two minutes. You can find the rules here. All rounds of the competitions will take place via Zoom.
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Image Source - NSB Logo