WHAT R JUDGES EXPECTING?

[h8science]

AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!
i'm freakin out. I have no idea as 2 what the judges r goin 2 wanna see.

this is my last year at my sKool, beign an 8th grader and all, and evry1(especially teachers) r expecting an awesome display board.
it has 2 b amazing!!!!!

[barretttomlinson]

Hi,

Relax, this is not the end of the world. If you have not already done so, read the science buddies project guide:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ndex.shtml

Particularly the pages under communicating your results.. Pay attention to how to organize and present your display board. Here is the page on what to expect from judging:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ging.shtml

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... tips.shtml

Remember to have fun. I hope this helps. Have a great fair!

Best regards,

Barrett L. Tomlinson

[paulsdecarli]

I've been a science fair judge for over ten years, so I can tell you what I think is important....or not important. I am always impressed by seeing a lab notebook containing the original data as it was taken down. The lab notebook does not have to be pretty; sometimes it's hard to be neat when recording results or observations. I also appreciate a neat research report that explains the project's objectives, describes the experiments, and presents the results. I really like to see evidence that shows something was learned from the project, even when things don't work out as planned. For example, I gave high marks to one project that concluded that their measurement techniques could not distinguish between A and B, and then showed that the difference between A and B had to be equal to or less than X, the sensitivity of their measurement.

On the other hand I gave bad marks to a beautiful project, a model of a siege engine, because the student's parents had done almost all of the work.

[paulsdecarli]

I just finished judging another Science Fair. My two co-judges and I disagreed on one project. I thought the participant deserved to be a finalist, where he/she would be interviewed by the judges, but I was out voted. My fellow judges were upset by the fact that the display was mostly devoted to glitz, fancy photos taken off the internet and text discussing the importance of the project (testing various kinds of batteries). There was just one small graph giving the results of the experimental measurements and just a few sentences describing the experiments. The student had also prepared an elaborate report, but again, most of the report was background information with very little about the experimental measurements.