A little history…

It began very simply:

In 1950, a dozen or so ded­i­cat­ed sci­ence teach­ers from Pasade­na Uni­fied School Dis­trict, the Los Ange­les Uni­fied School Dis­trict, and the Arch­dio­cese of Los Ange­les got togeth­er to encour­age stu­dents who had shown an inter­est in the fields of sci­ence, math­e­mat­ics and engineering.

These ded­i­cat­ed indi­vid­u­als orga­nized a lit­tle sci­ence event, gath­ered sup­port from a few local busi­ness­es, and set up about 150 stu­dent projects in the old Armory Build­ing, on the cor­ner of Figueroa and Expo­si­tion.  Thus, the Cal­i­for­nia Muse­um of Sci­ence and Indus­try became a “home” for the Sci­ence Fair.

Awards and prizes were sim­ple in those days.  Rib­bons and medals were giv­en and a din­ner was held for the winners.

Orga­niz­ers of those ear­ly days and through the mid-60’s includ­ed folks like Stan Pear­son, Pasade­na USD, Dave Ran­dolph of LAUSD, Dr. Nor­ma Wilbur, L. A. Coun­ty Office of Edu­ca­tion, Charles Migli­az­zo, Sis­ter Clarice Folich, Father Caru­so of the Arch­dio­cese, Ger­ald Gar­ner, LAUSD, and Arie Kor­po­raal, who rep­re­sent­ed the Los Ange­les Coun­ty Office of Education.

“We were always rob­bing Peter to pay Paul,” said Ger­ald Gar­ner.  “It was lean times in the begin­ning, but this was the post-Sput­nik era and that brought about a renewed inter­est in science.”

“The Sci­ence Fair has always reflect­ed what was going on in the world,” added Arie Korporaal.

“In the 60’s, we became con­cerned about the envi­ron­ment and a great num­ber of the stu­dent projects reflect­ed this concern.”

The Dis­co era of the 1970’s showed a slight increase of inter­est in sci­ence and a height­ened empha­sis on envi­ron­men­tal­ism with stu­dent projects num­ber­ing around 200.  It was at this point that a non-prof­it 501 ©(3)organization was formed and a Sci­ence Fair Advi­so­ry Com­mit­tee was estab­lished.  Jim Hast­ings became the new Sci­ence Con­sul­tant for the Los Ange­les Coun­ty Office of Edu­ca­tion and, con­se­quent­ly, a Sci­ence Fair Com­mit­tee mem­ber, assist­ing Arie Kor­po­raal with Judg­ing.   A new judg­ing cri­te­ria was set and a new scor­ing guide was devel­oped by the Committee.

By the mid-80’s the Sci­ence Fair had def­i­nite­ly out­grown the Armory (over 400 stu­dent projects) and the Cal­i­for­nia Muse­um of Sci­ence and Indus­try, but it was the Whit­ti­er Earth­quake that forced the group to move—after the Armory and adja­cent build­ings were declared unsafe.  The new home for the next fif­teen years would be the Los Ange­les Sports Are­na.

Dar­rell Smed­ley was named Sci­ence Con­sul­tant for the Los Ange­les Coun­ty Office of Edu­ca­tion in the mid-90’s and served on the Sci­ence Fair Com­mit­tee for over 10 years.  His col­leagues hon­ored Mr. Smed­ley by cre­at­ing a spe­cial award for a stu­dent whose work most clear­ly reflect­ed the idea of “I Did It Myself”.  The Dar­rell Smed­ley Award is a per­pet­u­al award at the Sci­ence Fair.

Dra­mat­ic changes for the Sci­ence Fair occurred in the 90’s.  Funds for edu­ca­tion became more dif­fi­cult to obtain.  Inter­est in work­ing with­in the pri­vate sec­tor increased, and a strong pub­lic institution/private indus­try part­ner­ship evolved.

The first Sci­ence Fair Advi­so­ry Com­mit­tee mem­ber rep­re­sent­ing busi­ness and indus­try, Ron Tog­nazz­i­ni of the Los Ange­les Depart­ment of Water & Pow­er, joined the group and would also lat­er serve as Pres­i­dent for some three years.  Stu­dent projects increased in the 90’s (close to 800) and focused on recy­cling and var­i­ous envi­ron­men­tal issues.

By the year 2000, 50th Anniver­sary of the Los Ange­les Coun­ty Sci­ence & Engi­neer­ing Fair, the num­ber of projects had grown to over 850, with almost 1,000 stu­dents.  Some 40 rep­re­sen­ta­tives of busi­ness and indus­try joined in sup­port of the Fair with spe­cial stu­dent awards, schol­ar­ships and con­tri­bu­tions to the over­all operation.

Dean Gilbert joined the Los Ange­les Coun­ty Office of Edu­ca­tion as the new Sci­ence Con­sul­tant.  Under his direc­tion, the Sci­ence Fair moved to the Los Ange­les Con­ven­tion Cen­ter, where the event oper­at­ed on a grand scale.

In 2001, Russ Don­nel­ly and Beni­ta Horn of the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Water Dis­trict devel­oped a Men­tor Pro­gram to enable under-priv­i­leged stu­dents to par­tic­i­pate in the Fair.  Inter­ac­tive Sci­ence Activ­i­ties emerged in 2002 as excit­ing demon­stra­tions, dis­plays and hands-on activ­i­ties, pro­vid­ed by var­i­ous sci­en­tif­ic orga­ni­za­tions, were expe­ri­enced by both stu­dents and visitors.

By 2004, tech­no­log­i­cal advances were imple­ment­ed that allowed Mid­dle and High School stu­dents and schools to reg­is­ter on-line for the Sci­ence Fair, thanks to the efforts of the Edu­ca­tion­al Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Net­work (ETN) at the Los Ange­les Coun­ty Office of Edu­ca­tion.  And, in 2006, new web­pages were cre­at­ed, allow­ing Sci­ence Fair judges and vol­un­teers to reg­is­ter on-line.  Bar­codes were added to stu­dent projects, mak­ing the reg­is­tra­tion and judg­ing process more effi­cient.  In 2014, a spe­cial online pre-approval process was cre­at­ed for stu­dents plan­ning on doing projects involv­ing human sub­jects, tissues/cell lines, live ver­te­brate ani­mals, haz­ardous mate­ri­als and/or microbes.  This online process has increased effi­cien­cy for the Sci­ence Research Com­mit­tee in approv­ing projects and noti­fied teach­ers and stu­dents of results on an ongo­ing basis.

In 2010, the 60th Annu­al Los Ange­les Coun­ty Sci­ence Fair moved to the Pasade­na Con­ven­tion Center.

Projects num­bered close to 1,200 in 38 cat­e­gories.  The Inter­ac­tive Exhibits have grown to a 2‑day event, where var­i­ous sci­ence orga­ni­za­tions pro­vide inter­ac­tive activ­i­ties and engag­ing pre­sen­ta­tions for stu­dents that are show­cased for the 4,000+ stu­dent par­tic­i­pants and vis­i­tors yearly.

2010 was also the year we became affil­i­at­ed with the Intel Inter­na­tion­al Sci­ence and Engi­neer­ing Fair, allow­ing us to send between 2 – 7 top stu­dents year­ly to com­pete with stu­dent projects from over 80 coun­tries, gar­ner­ing many awards each year.

The Los Ange­les Coun­ty Sci­ence & Engi­neer­ing Fair is an ALL VOLUNTEER orga­ni­za­tion, with no paid employ­ees – all Advi­so­ry Com­mit­tee and Exec­u­tive Board mem­bers give of their time for free. The Fair’s Pres­i­dent over­sees the Committee’s efforts to plan and exe­cute the Fair, fundraise, pro­vide teacher train­ing, and recruit under-served schools with high minor­i­ty pop­u­la­tions as the Next Gen­er­a­tion Sci­ence Stan­dards are ush­ered in.

So, from sim­ple begin­nings, the Los Ange­les Coun­ty Sci­ence Fair con­tin­ues to reflect the world, and we see growth and progress all around us.  The one thing that has nev­er changed, how­ev­er is … It’s all about kids and sci­ence!