STEM Research Speaker Competition

The STEM Research Speaker Competition recognizes outstanding scientific research by 9th - 12th grade students.  Up to 24 students will be invited to compete in the Speaker Competition at the Florida Regional Junior Science, and Humanities Symposium.  Students who have conducted a research project, written a research paper and abstract, and demonstrated outstanding presentation skills are encouraged to apply. 

Competition Details

• 24 Students Accepted
• 12-Minute Science Talk with up to 6 Minutes of Questions from Expert Judges
  

Opportunities for Winners

• First, second and third place winners of the Florida JSEHS will be awarded a scholarship ($2,000, $1,500 and $1,000 respectively) to the University of his or her choice.
• The first through fourth place winners will receive a sponsored trip to the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium to be held April 22nd - 26th, 2025 in Chantilly, Virginia.  
• The first and second place winners to represent Florida at this national competition will compete for an additional $12,000 in scholarship prize money.
• The third and fourth place winners, along with the Competitive Poster Session winner, will represent Florida at the national poster competition for cash and prize awards. 

Please note: Students must be a citizen or permanent resident of the US or US territory to be eligible for these government-sponsored awards, travel, and National Competitions.

All Symposium participants attend the STEM Research Speaker Competition presentations which are given in concurrent sessions. 

All applicants must apply through the National JSHS Ideal-Logic system. 

Applicaiton Process and Core Rules of the Competition

Registration & Competitive Application 

Changes to regional registration and competitive application process. 

1. Anyone under 18 must have a parent or guardian sign release forms (National JSHS and University of Florida) before they can submit their registration. An email goes to the parent /guardian. Everyone should be advised to check spam /junk folders.
2. Competitive students will submit for consideration for both the Speaker and Poster Competitive Sessions. This means a paper, abstract, and Statement of Outside Assistance are required for all competitive submissions. Students may be invited to either competitive session based on review of their application materials by a University of Florida review panel. 24 students will be invited to present in the speaker competition and up to 20 students will be invited to present in the competitive poster session. If a student would only like to be considered for one session, they can email jsehs@cpet.ufl.edu with their session request prior to the application deadline on December 20th, 2024. 
3. Ideal Logic automatically saves. This is true even if a student participant, or anyone else, goes into the wrong registration type, starts to answer, and then exits and begins the correct registration type. It is possible, in these circumstances, for someone to have more than one registration open. The registrant will see both when they log in and can cancel the wrong one from their dashboard. Since you can only register once, when they submit / finalize one registration, the other will not be accessible anymore either to the registrant.
4. Once a registrant hits submit, everything is final. Registrants, including student participants, cannot log back into their registration after they have submitted. They cannot go back in and make changes or add documents after hitting submit. This is a big change from CVENT, so please be aware of this. If you plan to submit an updated version of your paper, abstract, etc., you will not be able to. 

Core Rules - Updated for 2025!

Core Rules of the Competition can be found on the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium Website. 

Please note that all regional competitions will follow these guidelines.