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1. Group your awards by
project category. For
instance, give out first, second, and third places for the category of
Biology. Do the same for Physical Science, and so on.
Keep the number of categories small. 2. Group
your awards by grade level, instead.
If your school is small, this may be the better way to go.
For instance, give out first, second, and third place award for
fifth graders, and so on.
In some instances, you might not want to consider grouping
projects at all. 3.
Consider giving multiple awards.
Some schools hand out blue, red, and white ribbons such as those
seen at county fairs. Multiple
awards should also be given when a single category has within it many
worthy candidates for awards. There’s
little harm in giving out two “firsts” for Biology, for example.
4. Don’t provide your
judges with scoring sheets. Point
systems can’t capture the diversity of science projects, and they slow
down the judging process to the point where judges can’s converse with
all of your student participants.
5. Do
provide your judges with a map. Gather
together all projects that are competing for the same awards, and then
provide a printed document that states where each one may be found.
This handout should also contain the name of the project, and the
names of the students associated with the project. 6. Give
the judges a form on which they may fill in the names of the winners.
Provide multiple copies to serve as “scratch pads” so that
students might be ranked before and after they have discussed their
projects with the judges. 7. Allow the judges sufficient time to inspect every project without the students present. When that has been done, it is time to bring the students to the judges for interviews. Do this by escorting your students to the judging area in small groups. 8. Make
yourself available to the judges once the projects have been evaluated.
We’d like to point out the projects we liked best and tell you
how to improve them before they come to the regional fair. 9. Provide
the South Central Fair Director with an estimate of the number of
students involved. The
greater the number of students, the greater the number of judges we’ll
need to send. A large science fair may take all day to judge; a small fair
may require only a few hours. |
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