Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) will host the 12th Annual Massachusetts Region 1 Middle School Science and Engineering Fair from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday, April 27, in the campus’s Amsler Campus Center gymnasium.

The event is free and open to the public from 1 to 3 p.m. This year’s keynote speaker will be Paul Reynolds, a children’s book author who also is the co-founder of FableVision and the Reynolds Center for Teaching, Learning, and Creativity with his twin brother, Peter Reynolds. He will speak to students at 1:45 p.m. in the Amsler Campus Center gym.

About 150 middle school students from Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, and Hampshire counties will gather to present their research projects to a panel of judges. The top 40 students will qualify for the state competition at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester on Saturday, June 2, and the top 10 percent of the finalists may submit their work to the Broadcom Masters Competition.

More than 30 judges will assess their projects in the areas of biology, behavioral and social science, chemistry, computer science, earth and space science, engineering, environmental science, mathematics and physics. The students’ projects will be judged on several criteria, including scientific approach, innovation and creativity and presentation.