Eligibility & requirements

Eligibility

  • Any New Mexico student in grades 6-12 is eligible – all public, private and home-school students.
  • Student research or development  must reflect original work by the student – theoretical work in an area of pure mathematics or physics, an engineering project, or development of a scientific computer model. Literature searches or experimental replication are not acceptable for this competition. Works that use generative artificial intelligence will be disqualified. 
  • Students may work with a mentor and receive help, as long as assistance is appropriately acknowledged. 

General requirements 

Components of the NMJAS competition are:

  • Conduct original research project or engineering design.
  • Register for the competition.
  • Write and submit a research manuscript.
  • Develop and deliver a 10 minute presentation.

An overview of what students should expect is shown in the graphic below.

  1. Although a project need not be entered in a science fair, the paper MUST reflect actual work by the student – scientific experimentation, theoretical work in an area of pure mathematics or physics, development of a computer model, or engineering project. Papers that simply replicate an experiment or document a literature search are not acceptable for competition.
  2. Each project should have a single author and presenter. In certain cases, with approval of the Regional and State Director, team projects (2 students) may be allowed. But judging rules are the same as for single presenters.
  3. A Registration Form should be submitted online by the deadline for each region. Manuscripts will be submitted separately.
  4. The $15 entry fee can be paid during registration by credit card or PayPal, or by sending a check or school purchase order. This one-time fee covers both regional and state competitions.
  5. The written manuscript and oral presentation carry equal weight in the overall scoring.
  6. The first, second, and possibly third place winners of Regional Competitions will advance to the State Competition. Students should review suggestions by judges for ways to improve the manuscript and presentation, and make changes accordingly. There is no further entry fee for the State Competition.

Technical Paper Requirements

  1. Projects must be registered before submitting the manuscript for consideration. Papers may be submitted electronically, either by email or uploading to this website. Each region has a different submission mechanism and deadline.
  2. You may receive help in structuring, proofreading, and typing your paper. However, please acknowledge all assistance in your acknowledgment section.
  3. New this year: You may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a project resource; it must be used ethically, be cited, and given proper acknowledgement.
    • You may use AI as a research tool to identify background information such as previous research, datasets, methods, and algorithms. You are responsible for verifying the validity of the source of this information.
    • You may use AI as an editing tool to improve grammar, sentence structure, and overall clarity, or to find errors or adhere to word limits. However, the final products submitted must be in your own words.
    • You may not use AI in the generative mode to create original content such as text or images, experimental methods or protocols, data generation or analysis, or computer code.
    • In acknowledging AI assistance, you will identify which AI tool was used, how you used it, and the prompts that you used so that the output can be reproduced.
  4. For the detailed components and formatting requirements of your scientific paper see The Manuscript. All papers include a cover sheet, title page, manuscript body, appendices, and acknowledgments. Papers should be written in Microsoft Word or saved in pdf format.
  5. Before submitting your paper, review the manuscript checklist.
  6. Each paper will be reviewed by and scored by multiple judges before oral presentations using this manuscript judging form.

Oral Presentation Requirements

  1. Regional oral presentations may be held virtually or in person, depending on the region. The State competition will be held in person at the state science fair in Socorro. 
  2. If there are more than 12 papers submitted in any region/division, the regional director will select a maximum of 12 projects for the oral competition based on manuscript scores. Students will be notified as soon as possible if they are not advancing to the oral competition. If any region does not have entries that qualify for the state competition, the state director may distribute those slots to other regions with qualified entries.
  3. Presentation time limits will be strictly enforced. Each presenter has 10 minutes maximum for the presentation and 5 minutes after the presentation for judges’ questions. Although other presenters, parents, sponsors, teachers, and friends may attend, only judges are permitted to ask questions.
  4. PowerPoint must be used for the oral presentations if the oral presentations are in person. Requirements and procedures for presentations are listed separately.
  5. The order of oral presentations will be determined by the regional or state director. Failure to appear for the competition on time and ready to present may result in disqualification.
  6. Multiple judges will review and score each presentation using this oral presentation judging form.
  7. In order to promote professional courtesy and to minimize distractions, all presenters are strongly requested to stay for the entire paper session.

For sponsors and/or mentors

Students will identify sponsors or mentors when registering. You will receive notification when the student registers.

You should oversee that rules are followed, so that students are not disqualified. Use this checklist so that there are no omissions or misunderstandings. 

If you have questions or concerns, feel free to contact your Regional Director or the State Director. But please……do so well before the date of the competition.

Page revised: October 2025