Judging a Science Fair - I Would Hate To Be The One Doing It!

I would hate to be the one judging a science fair. Now if it was one where everyone got a prize of some sort, I could probably handle that, but I think it would be so hard to judge the hard work the students put in to coming up with interesting science fair projects.

Luckily these days, judges don't just walk around and pick one they like. When I was a kid it seemed that the one with the coolest display or had the most bells and whistles always won, where my project was just as cool but not a showboat project. Everyone back then had this mind-set that bigger was better, and we have luckily learned over time that is not always the case.

The other problem back in those days was the projects that the parents got into and obviously helped the kids make. Some dads were better at shop projects than mine was. Or the moms were interior decorating hobbyist who had fancy cloth and stuff to make the display with.

Parents over doing it can still be an issue, but there are ways to grade a project that do not take any of those thing into account. You focus on how the project was done, and give credit for a neat organized display. Judging a science fair these days seems to be pretty fair, as they must address all the parts of the project from start to finish and not just the display. Most science fair project are expected to follow the scientific method, and these steps are spelled out clearly in the assignment that is sent home.

The scoring is done through what is called a rubric. You take a list of categories, which ends up being each step of the process, and a score of 1 to 5 is given for each step. Add them all up and divide by the number of steps and you have your score. If you are giving awards, the top scores would win the prizes or get the blue ribbons.

Some of the categories would be, the hypothesis and or question how it was worded and was it specific enough? Were the steps to doing the project clearly spelled out and do the steps listed make sense? The conclusion must come directly from the data and not what you think. Was the written report complete, spelled right and did it use good grammar? The display board would be marked not only on the over all look, but if all the pieces there that should be, and if it is easily readable and if there are pictures or drawings. It makes judging a science fair really put the emphasis on the assignment and how the kids did the project, which is how it should be.

There might be a separate rubric set for the top score, say there were 5 project with a perfect score to choose the one that would be the top prize of the science fair.

Even with this fairer system of judging a science fair, I am pretty sure I still would not want to be one of the ones rating the kids. There are so many cool ideas that the kids come up with, I would want to give a prize to everyone!

I maintain a website with some additional information on One Day Science Projects where there are valuable resources and information on what a teacher looks for in good science fair projects [http://onedaysciencefairprojects.com/good-science-fair-projects/]

Read more information here about the rubric for judging a science fair.