Steve Jobs' 8th Grade Science Project Sells for $34,375

A science project that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs built for his 8th-grade science fair sold at auction for $34,375.

Jobs was attending Cupertino Jr. High when he designed the project, which is titled "What is the SCR?" The lot includes a display board built from plywood with three explanatory panels and a 10-page report with the same title.

The left panel has a wooden model of a "typical silicon-controlled rectifier with its four alternate layers of P- and N-Type semiconductor material," while the center test circuits demonstrate the basic principles and characteristics of the silicon-controlled rectifier, as well as how it is most widely used. The right panel has a diagram and description of a 25-amp silicon-controlled rectifier.

The project is labeled with Jobs' name, and the accompanying report is titled "What is the Silicon-Controlled Rectifier by Steve Jobs, Science, Mrs. Yakel, Feb. 29, 1968."

A note included on the project instructs judges to plug in Circuit II and the oscilloscope to see it operate, and it asks them to "please unplug!" the device after testing it.

Jobs' science fair project came from John Chovanec, Jobs' stepbrother. Chovanec's mother, Marilyn, married Paul Jobs in 1990 and continued to live in the Jobs family home in Los Altos. After Paul Jobs died in 1993, Steve Jobs declined to collect some of his personal belongings that remained in the home. Chovanec apparently asked Jobs to collect the items several times and at one point said he would keep the items himself instead. "Fine, but I don't want to be bothered about it again," Jobs reportedly responded.

Chovanec previously sold other items from Jobs' early years, including posters, magazines, bow ties, a desk, and more. A 1977 Apple Computer poster sold for $659,900, while an Apple–1 Byte Shop wooden case owned by Jobs sold for $254,375. The bow ties sold for $113,580.