Monday, February 15, 2010

1. Check-in and pick up your judging packet.
2. Grab a cup of coffee and a Danish or maybe even something more nutritious. The breakfast/munchies spread will be open all morning!

1. Welcoming remarks and general instructions.
2. Meet with your category captain at the assigned table for your category to determine your strategies for interviewing the students.  Please do not overwhelm an individual student with too many judges interviewing him/her at the same time.  We also do not want students standing around with long periods of time and no one interviewing them.

1. All students in every category should be interviewed by at least three judges (or more).
2. Your team will decide how to score and rank the exhibits. An individual judge's scoring sheet will be provided which you can use as appropriate.
3. Take all the time that you need to talk with the students and to review their exhibit -- as long as you finish by 11:00 AM.
4. Return to the Judges Area in the Exhibit Hall by 11:00 AM so that your team can discuss and decide on the place winners. There will always be only one first place winner. The number of 2nd, 3rd and Honorable Mention winners vary from category to category – your category captain will know how many winners are allowed for your category.

Ties, except for first place, are acceptable if the team really feels there is a need. Also, we require that all places (i.e. 1st, 2nd and 3rd places) be awarded.

5. The Judging Captain will then record the exhibit numbers for the selected place winners on the official Awards Form.

6. Each team is expected to fill in a Critique Sheet for the 1st place winner. This information is invaluable in assisting the student to prepare for competition in the State Science and Engineering Fair.
7. If you need to discuss an entry, please return to the judges' area. Never discuss an entry anywhere near the students.
8. The breakfast/munchies table will be available all morning long. Please help yourself when the mood strikes you!
9. Once your team has selected all the winners you are free to leave with our THANKS! for gifting us with your valuable time. If you want even more fun, please consider doing some special award judging as described below.

Special award judges will be admitted to the hall during this period so that they can select the winners of the special awards. If you are also doing special award judging, please complete your normal judging assignment before starting your special award judging.

If you have completed judging and selecting the winners for your category, and you have a few more minutes to spare, please consider doing some "Special Awards" judging. If you are so inclined please report to the "Special Awards" table in the student's portion of the hall.

The judging captains will meet and form the "Final Judging Team" to perform the grand prize and trip awards judging.

Selection of grand prize and trip awards.