Supervisor Qualifications

Projects may require dif­fer­ent lev­els of super­vi­sion, based on their top­ic. All stu­dent research projects involv­ing tissues/cell lines, human sub­jects, live ver­te­brate ani­mals, haz­ardous mate­ri­als and activ­i­ties and microbes need super­vi­sion and must com­ply with guide­lines from the Inter­na­tion­al Sci­ence and Engi­neer­ing Fair (ISEF) as mod­i­fied by the Los Ange­les Coun­ty Sci­ence & Engi­neer­ing Fair.

Descrip­tions and qualifications:

Teacher/Advisor (Adult Spon­sor) is the per­son in whose school or lab the stu­dent is work­ing. This indi­vid­ual must have a sol­id back­ground in sci­ence and should have close con­tact with the stu­dent dur­ing the course of the project. The Teacher/Advisor must be famil­iar with the reg­u­la­tions that gov­ern poten­tial­ly dan­ger­ous research as it applies to a spe­cif­ic stu­dent project. Some exper­i­ments involve pro­ce­dures or mate­ri­als that are reg­u­lat­ed by State and Fed­er­al laws. If not thor­ough­ly famil­iar with these reg­u­la­tions, the Teacher/Advisor should help the stu­dent enlist the aid of a qual­i­fied Bio­med­ical Sci­en­tist.

The Teacher/Advisor is ulti­mate­ly respon­si­ble, not only for the health and safe­ty of the stu­dent con­duct­ing the research, but also, for the tis­sue, human sub­jects and/or ani­mals used in the exper­i­ment. The Teacher/Advisor must review the student’s Research Plan to make cer­tain of the following:

(a)    Exper­i­men­ta­tion is done with­in local, state and fed­er­al laws and the Los Ange­les Coun­ty Sci­ence & Engi­neer­ing Fair Project Screen­ing Guidelines.

(b)    Required online pre-approval is com­plet­ed by the stu­dent involved in the project and oth­er super­vis­ing adults and approved by the SRC pri­or to the start of research; and

©   The qual­i­fi­ca­tions of any Bio­med­ical Sci­en­tist adhere to list­ed cri­te­ria below.

The Teacher/Advisor is respon­si­ble for ensur­ing that the student’s research is eli­gi­ble for entry in the Los Ange­les Coun­ty Sci­ence and Engi­neer­ing Fair.

Bio­med­ical Sci­en­tist: A qual­i­fied Bio­med­ical Sci­en­tist should pos­sess an earned doctoral/professional degree in the bio­log­i­cal or med­ical sci­ences as it relates to the student’s area of research. How­ev­er, a master’s degree with equiv­a­lent expe­ri­ence and/or exper­tise in the student’s area of research is accept­able when approved by the Teacher/Advisor. The Bio­med­ical Sci­en­tist must be thor­ough­ly famil­iar with local, state and fed­er­al reg­u­la­tions that gov­ern the student’s area of research.

The Bio­med­ical Sci­en­tist and the Teacher/Advisor may be the same per­son, if that per­son is qual­i­fied as out­lined above. A stu­dent may work with a Bio­med­ical Sci­en­tist in anoth­er city or state. In this case, the stu­dent must also work local­ly with a Des­ig­nat­ed Adult Super­vi­sor who has been trained in the tech­niques the stu­dent will use.

Des­ig­nat­ed Adult Super­vi­sor is an adult who is direct­ly respon­si­ble for over­see­ing stu­dent exper­i­men­ta­tion. The Des­ig­nat­ed Adult Super­vi­sor need not have an advanced degree, but should be thor­ough­ly famil­iar with the student’s project and must be trained in the student’s nec­es­sary research tech­niques. The Teacher/Advisor or the par­ent may act as the Des­ig­nat­ed Adult Supervisor.

If a stu­dent is exper­i­ment­ing with live ver­te­brates and the ani­mals are in a sit­u­a­tion where humans influ­ence their behav­ior or habi­tat, the Des­ig­nat­ed Adult Super­vi­sor must be knowl­edge­able about the humane care and han­dling of the ani­mals. If the Des­ig­nat­ed Adult Super­vi­sor is not knowl­edge­able, the Teacher/Advisor must ensure that the stu­dent enlists the help of an Ani­mal Care Super­vi­sor.

Ani­mal Care Super­vi­sor is the per­son required for all non-human ver­te­brate ani­mal projects. This per­son must be famil­iar with the prop­er care and han­dling of research ani­mals used in the project. The Bio­med­ical Sci­en­tist, Des­ig­nat­ed Adult Super­vi­sor or ani­mal care pro­fes­sion­al can usu­al­ly serve as the Ani­mal Care Super­vi­sor. Ani­mal Care Super­vi­sor may also be the Site Sci­ence Fair Coordinator.