Everyone knows what a classic science fair looks like: Students standing next to tables covered in paper mâché volcanoes and handwritten posters, while local scientists and teachers act as judges. Flip the Flair turns that model on its head by having graduate researchers present their work to elementary and middle school students, who act as judges and in the process learn a lot about research. And now a new resource will help people create their own.

    Originally a collaboration between Virginia Tech’s graduate students, Roanoke Public Libraries, and the Center for Communicating Science and other campus sponsors, Flip the Fair is a hands-on, outreach-oriented science communication event intended to help researchers learn to present their findings to new audiences and to engage and empower children.     

    First held in 2022 at the Melrose Branch of Roanoke Public Libraries, the event has grown from 150 attendees to 450 in 2025.    

    With interest growing, Virginia Tech organizers have created a toolkit with step-by-step instructions to help other people successfully plan and hold their own Flip the Fair events.

The toolkit includes
  • The core goals of Flip the Fair
  • Sponsorship examples
  • Budgeting best practices
  • Ideas for soliciting support from your community
  • A planning timeline for the event
  • Methods to recruit student researchers to present
  • Ways to get media coverage
  • Supplies list

    The Flip the Fair toolkit can be found on the Resources page on the Center for Communicating Science website and is navigable through the menu on the toolkit's main page.

    The toolkit’s authors are graduate student Flip the Fair organizers Gates Palissery and Amanda Hensley, with contributions from and website design by CCS associates. Its production was supported by the National Science Foundation under Award No. 2412389. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in the toolkit are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

By Ruby Warnick, Center for Communicating Science undergraduate intern