Navy’s annual STEAM Fair is back! It’s an all-day, school-wide event featuring opportunities for student-led projects and for students to view all the amazing ideas from Navy Elementary students. Participation in the Fair is free and open to all Navy students in grades K-6. To register your child, please complete the form at the bottom of this page.

STEAM Fair Theme

The theme for this year’s fair is “Ignite Your Spark: STEAM Starts with Passion”. This year we are asking students focus on a personal interest that they are passionate about (music, sports, gaming, art, environment, animals) and coming up with a project that drives exploration and problem-solving in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. Students will be asked to explain their passion and provide additional details on how their passion drove them to innovate through STEAM.

One area of passion for a lot of our Fairfax County Public School students is taking climate action. Climate change may seem like a big issue that affects the whole world, but there’s a lot you can do right here at school and in FCPS. Local students from Thomas Jefferson High School have agreed to help Navy Elementary students with a passion for climate action make an impact through the STEAM Fair. See the attached document for Climate Action project ideas:

Climate Action

One of the judging criteria for this year’s STEAM Fair will be how well does the student integrate and describe their passion into the STEAM fair project. Students are encouraged on their posters and poster boards to include a section on additional background about their passion and how they become interested involved in that passion. During the STEAM Fair, judges will ask students to talk about their passion and how it shaped the execution.

The website Jason Learning is also a good science resource and is available to students through their Google login.

Student Led Projects

STEAM Fair projects are about asking questions like “Why?,” “How?,” or “What if?.” Projects can fall into one or more STEAM-related fields. Students can:

 Use scientific, engineering, or design methodologies to discover answers to
their questions,
 Create a model or presentation to show how something works, or
 Explore and present theme-related topics through the arts (visual, music, etc.).

Whatever the project, the ideas and work should come from the student. It is important that students conduct their own research, experiments, and discovery—even if the experiment or design doesn’t work!

Parents should use their best judgment in deciding when to get involved, such as when there is a potential safety issue. For especially young students, parents may provide some guidance.

Project Teams

Work on your project independently, work with a partner, or work with a team—it's your choice!
All participants must be current Navy Elementary students. Partner or team members can come from different classes or grades. Maximum team size is Four.

Information Guides

Before starting on a project, students and parents should review the following information guides to understand the rules, guidelines, and procedures for the STEAM Fair:

• 2026 STEAM Fair Information Packet
• Science Project Guide
• Engineering Design Project Guide
• Benefits Integrating Arts into STEAM
• Climate Action

Judging

Our goal in hosting the Fair is to encourage exploration and discovery and to promote a deep, lifelong passion for STEAM. The STEAM Fair is not a competition between students. Instead, projects are evaluated on their individual merits and within grade-level expectations. On the day of the Fair, students will present their projects to our judges who will evaluate them using the Judging Rubric linked below. Projects that show extra effort may receive gold, silver, or bronze ribbons for their
team members. 

2026 Navy STEAM Fair Judging Rubric

Northern Virginia Science and Engineering (NVSE) Fair

New this year, selected winners of the STEAM Fair (grades 1-6 only) will be given an opportunity to compete in the Northern Virginia Science and Engineering (NVSE) fair. More information can be found at the following
web site Welcome | Sci-Engineering-Fair.

Volunteers Needed

A big event like the STEAM Fair is only possible with help from volunteers. Specifically we need people to help with set up, execution, judging, and clean up. 

Click Here To Signup

Registration

Click here to register for the 2026 STEAM Fair.

Questions?

Please contact Daniel Courain at setonhall10@gmail.com for more information on how you can help make the STEAM Fair a success by entering a project or volunteering.