Judging Tips for Junior & Senior Projects 2012 Scott Ferguson, Ph.D. Atlantic Turf & Ornamental Consulting

New Procedure Instituted in 2009  ALL judging conducted Saturday, 8 AM until noon  Two Teams:  Place Judge Teams  For each category – Captain members  Determine places  Notify State Bid Team of potential projects  State/International Judge Team  Identify State bids Friday night and Saturday morning – with input from Place Judge Teams  Chose International bids

Why a New Procedure?  1993 to 2008:  place judging in AM, state and international in PM, often until 6 or 7 PM – rough on students and judges  IR County only ones to do this  2008: all afternoon to select 20 out of the 22 projects!  Goal of New Procedure :  Create judging structure that allows all judging to take place on Saturday morning only  Insure that:  Projects are viewed fairly and consistently  The process is professional  Process is anonymous – i.e. no visible sign indicating to a student that they have or have not been selected

State – International Teams  This year: total of 20 projects to State  May have 1 junior team and 1 senior team – then 18 individuals  We will send the 20 top projects  2 International (Seniors only)  2 individuals or 1 individual and 1 team  Junior SI Judge Team  Scott Ferguson, May Lui  Senior SI Team  Brian Mayo, Richard Morgan

Place Judge Teams Procedures  For each category – Captain members  Responsibilities  Determine places  Notify State Bid Team of potential projects  Each project to be judged by each judge – one judge at a time  By 11:30 judging should be completed  Meet with your team (back in library) to tabulate scores and award 1 st, 2 nd and 3 rd places  Note: if there is only 1 project in the category, it gets 1 st place (no matter the quality), however, that doesn’t mean it qualifies to be reviewed for a State Bid

Judging Areas  Scientific Thought (25 points max)  Thoroughness (20 points)  Creative Ability (20 points)  Skill (20 points)  Clarity (15 points)  Possible 100 points

What Should Judges Look For?  Scientific thought  Is the Hypothesis clearly stated and testable?  Were the objectives well defined?  Does the procedure follow a logical sequence  Thoroughness  Does the student understand why a Control is necessary?  Was the sample size appropriate?  Replication? Minimum of 3 (Note: if there are <3 replications do not consider the project worthy of a state bid)  Use metric units? Required at State  Creative ability  Does the problem show originality (in idea or approach)?  Is the backboard neat and free of spelling, grammatical errors

What Should Judges Look For?  Skill (Technical skills/expertise demonstrated)  Detailed Log - with dates.  Does the data on the board agree with the data in the Log?  Was the data analyzed thoroughly? (Junior level – means only – no “sophisticated” analysis expected)  Clarity  Is the abstract clear and written correctly  Can the student explain and understand what was done and why  Where can this research lead to in the future

What Should Judges Look For in the Presentation ?  Backboard: neat, arranged in logical order  No major spelling or grammatical errors  Verbal – EXTREMELY IMPORTANT  Did the student effectively explain the project (a student should be able to explain the most complex of projects so that the judge can understand what was done)?  Did the student speak loudly?  Did the student make eye contact at least occasionally ?  It is OK for the student to refer to the backboard and Log

Graphs Wrong Way!

Graphs Right Way! Cm growth in 4 weeks Amount of fertilizer per week Plant

Comments for Students  Please take the time to write a few constructive comments  The students will see these so please be constructive  Especially important for those going on to State because they have time to change their boards, even perform more experiments

Final Points ( This is what I tell the students)  The primary goal of a science fair project should be for the learning experience – not to win.  Winning is nice but don’t use it as the only criteria to determine whether or not you were successful  The skills learned in conducting the research and presenting the project will help in other areas of academic life  Have fun!!!

Major Points for State Bids  Project’s thoroughness  Procedure in a logical order (easy to follow)  Appropriate Control  Replication  If <3 do not consider for state  Data analysis – did the data support the conclusion?  Junior: means (standard deviation a bonus)  Senior: more advanced statistics – ANOVA, linear regression, etc

Major Points for State Bids  Log  Did it reflect the work conducted?  Data in Log agree with data on Backboard?  Backboard  Neat  Logical order  Correct spelling  Presentation  Did they effectively explain the project?  Confident  Knowledgeable  Answer questions

Questions