Help Your Student Prepare for Judging

Judges arrive one and a half hours before students arrive to receive training and to evaluate the projects based on the boards and notebooks. Judges are encouraged to take notes and write down questions they have about the projects during this time.

Once students arrive, each project is judged twice during a 45-minute period. The amount of time judges spend with each project depends on a judge’s project load. For example, if judges have ten projects to interview in the 45-minute period, they have 4-5 minutes with each project.

Many students come prepared with a brief speech about their project, which is great practice and preparation. However, please be aware some judges may prefer to skip this and proceed directly to asking questions. Also consider that when judges allow a student to give their speech, it decreases the time they can ask questions.

How Projects Are Scored

Judges use the engineering rubric for the engineering category and the science project rubric for all other categories. Judges input their scores into a software that normalizes the scores.

Normalizing scores involves adjusting them to a common scale so they can be compared fairly. Normalizing scores is like translating different judges' scoring styles into a common language, ensuring that a project's score reflects its quality, not the quirks of the judge. This makes it easier to understand and compare scores accurately, creating a consistent and reliable judging system.

For example, examine the scores below:

If project scores were simply averaged, the projects would rank like this:

104

102

101

105

103

But with normalized scores, the variations in judging styles are eliminated and the projects rank like this:

101

104

105

103

102

Supporting Your Student After Judging

Our goal for students participating in STEM fair at any level is to give all students a chance to deeply invest in authentic learning and have the real world experience of communicating their learning and experiences with others. We encourage parents to help students to focus on the positive feedback from judges, teachers, and other observers as well the personal satisfaction they should have for engaging in the process. 

To this end, scores will not be released to students or parents. The judging timeline does not allow for judges to provide feedback other than a numerical score, and without that context, the scores alone do not provide students with actionable information.

Judging and Next Steps

ASD STEM Fair is allotted a certain number of spots at the regional fair, CUSF. This allotment determines the number of winners we award at the fair. Winners are provided with information to register for CUSF the night of the district fair. It is the responsibility of parents/guardians and students to register for CUSF before the deadline.

This is not meant to be a comprehensive list, however if you can answer all these questions in depth, chances are the judging interview will go smoothly.