Judging Science Fair projects

[VCH]

Have you ever judged in one of these?

 

I'm doing one on the 31st (Grades 4 to 12).

 

Any advice on what to expect, and what questions to ask the participants?

There's a one hour orientation session the day of the judging for first time judges, but that hardly seems enough time to give me an idea of what I should be doing.

 

 

[Slawbug]

In Soviet Russia....

[Randomizer]

I've only been on the receiving end at Science Fairs. Try to ask questions about the science behind the project to see if the student knows what they did or just took a project that Mommy or Daddy did for them.

 

You pretty much only have a few minutes with each one. So don't focus on the exhibits appearance as much as what they can say about it.

 

Also don't volunteer to judge anything involving radioactivity. Those kids never shield it properly.

[Lilith]

I judged the poster section of the Science Talent Search last year. You'll probably be given some kind of scoring rubric: stick to it and try to be consistent in your scoring. If you feel as if you've been a little harsh on one contestant, don't be more generous to the next one to balance it out. Your scores should be normalised against those of other judges, so as long as you're either consistently a little harsh or consistently a little generous, it'll all work out in the end.