Judges & Volunteers

There is no selection process for judges. Judge registrations are accepted until our roster is full and everyone who registers as a judge will be assigned to a judging team. Please register only if you are committed to judging at the fair.

Judges must be available from 10am-5pm.  We invite anyone interested in supporting the fair, but not available for the full day, to sign up for other volunteer positions through the volunteer link.

Judges need to give their full attention to the students they are interviewing, so children are not allowed to accompany judges.

We do our best to assign judges based on category requests, but we often have an imbalance of scientific interests between judges and fair participants.  However, we are confident that anyone with a basic understanding of the scientific method can judge most of the projects in our fair.  Each category has an experienced captain who has expertise in the category and will support the judging team as needed.

Yes, but please make the judge coordinator aware of this when you fill out the judge registration form.  The judge coordinator will determine what judging team you can be assigned to that will avoid potential conflicts of interest.

Yes!  Please share this volunteer opportunity with anyone who might be interested in volunteering for the fair.  When we have a full roster of judges we will close judge registration, but there may still be other volunteer opportunities available for the fair.  

We cannot guarantee assignment requests, but if you would like to be assigned to a judging team with your friends/colleagues, please indicate this on your judge registration and we will do our best to accommodate your request.

Yes!  Please donate through the website or contact the fair director for more information on sponsor opportunities.

Judges will be standing for several hours, so comfortable shoes are critical.  Judges do not have a dress code, but we ask that you be respectful of the importance of the event for our students and remember that you are interacting with minor students in a professional capacity.

About a week before the fair, you will receive an emailed pdf with information about judging logistics, directions to the fair, and scoring criteria.  Please review this information before the fair.