Judging

There are two types of judging that takes place during the Science Fair. One is called "Category" judging and the other is called "Special Awards" judging.

Category Judging

The term "category" refers to the 13 fields of science into which student entries are grouped. The purpose of Category judging is to select the student entries that will be awarded 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and honorable mention place awards that are awarded by the science fair itself (the "fair awards"). In addition, Category judging selects the Grand Prize winners for the fair.

Category judging is performed by a team of judges lead by a team captain. Once the fair awards winners have been selected, the 1st place winner in all of the categories are judges by the team captains to determine the winner(s) of the Grand Prize.

Category judging takes about 4 to 5 hours to complete. Category judges are expected to check in at 7:00AM so that judging can begin at 7:45AM following a brief organizational meeting.

Special Awards Judging

The purpose of Special Award judging is to select student entries that will be awarded special awards which are donated by sponsors of the fair. In addition to providing the award itself, these sponsors also typically send one or more employees or members to review the student entries and select the students to whom they will award their prize.

Special award judging can be performed at any time during the period 9:00AM to 12:00PM.

Registration for Special award judges is handled by the Special Awards committee. Please do not use this site to register as a special award judge.

For information concerning donating a special award and volunteering to be a special award judge, please see the main Dr. Nelson Ying Orange County Science Exposition web site