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Judge/Volunteer Training

Hi! Thank you for volunteering to be a judge at the Anoka-Hennepin District STEM Fair on Saturday, January 25, 2025, at Champlin Park High School in Champlin, MN. Without you, this Fair doesn’t happen and I am so grateful that you are willing to share your time and talents with our students! This packet is my way of telling you about the format for the Fair and to train you in on what you will be doing. Please feel free to get back to me with any questions/comments/concerns.

Why I Made Changes

Many of you have been judges in previous years and the Fair was set up so that each judging team had a certain number of projects that each judge had to visit and then score. Students waited around until a judge came to them and, if lucky, I had enough judges to get each project judged three times in the 2.5 hours that the Fair ran. Well, many factors led me to make changes in how the Fair is run. First of all, our already large Fair (we have the largest STEM Fair in the State) became even larger. I went from 800 projects a year to over 1,200 and my judging pool went down (I went from getting more than 300 volunteers every year to under 200 this year). I can’t cover all of my projects under the old format with the numbers that I have. 

As you can see, from the numbers alone, something had to change. I also have struggled for years with kids standing around doing nothing while they waited and having kids leaving early because of other commitments that they have on the day of the Fair. I also struggled with the fact that many students would opt out of the whole science fair scene once the District Fair was done. I wanted to find a way to get more kids to decide to go on and compete in the Regional Science Fair in February. It just seemed like there must be a better way to engage the students and give my judges the chance to interact with the students more. 

The Changes

The Fair is now broken down into two separate shifts. The first shift runs from 8-9:30 and the second shift runs from 10-11:30. Judges will need to start arriving at Champlin Park High School between 7 and 7:30. Judges will be in teams of 2. Each team will be assigned 7- 9 projects per shift. Your assigned projects will all be right next to each other in the Field House. When judging starts at the beginning of the shift, the judges AND the students will go to each of the projects (start with the lowest number project that you have and just go up from there). This is a BIG change from previous years. This way, the students are more involved and I hope to foster more discussion. To that end, there is a new scoring sheet for the judges to use (you can see it later on in this packet). You won’t be awarding points to the projects; you will be giving feedback and encouragement instead. While you are at each project, the students will ask questions of the presenter, too. Plan on spending around 8 minutes at each project and then the students will go back to their respective projects and the rest of the judging time is when judges can talk to students individually at their projects.

So what does all this mean to you? Good question! Instead of rushing trying to get to all of your projects in the allotted time, you will easily get to all of your projects and have time to spare to go back to any that you need more information about. You will get to give feedback to all of your students (an aspect that both judges and students really like about the Fair) and you will get to encourage students to continue on with their research at the next level of competition. Another nice point is that your projects for each shift will be in the exact same location in the Field House. That’s right – the second shift will be just like the first except for the fact that you will have different students.

NOTE: Depending upon the number of judges and the number of projects, there may end up being only 1 shift at the Fair. I will let you know as soon as possible.

The table below highlights the changes to the Fair. I have broken things down into the “Old Way” that we used to do things and the “New Way” that we now use. Please read it over carefully.

Where Should I Go When I Get to Champlin Park High School?

• Project Judges enter the building through either Door E3 or E4 and follow the signs until you get to the Cafeteria and sit at a table with a numbered folder on it. Due to the number of judges that I have, I need one person at each folder BEFORE I get any teams of judges. 

• Volunteers enter the building through either Door E3 or E4 and follow the signs until you get to the Cafeteria and go to the Volunteer Table(s). Kris Bakkum is the teacher who oversees the volunteers.

NOTE: There is a map of Champlin Park High School at the end of this packet with everything labeled on it.

What Will the Schedule Look Like?

7-7:30

-Judges arrive at Champlin Park High School and go to the cafeteria.

• Judges pick a table to sit at. I need 1 judge per table. Once I have one judge per table, then I can have two judges per table.

• Judges eat breakfast and go over the projects that they will be judging during the first shift.

8-9:10

• Judges are in the Field House going through their projects. 

• Just a reminder – you will have 8 - 10 projects to judge that are right next to each other in the Field House. You need to gather the students whose projects you are judging together and go as a group from one project to another. Start with the lowest numbered project that is assigned to you and go up from there. 

9:10 -9:30

• Students are at their projects; judges can visit individual projects.

• At 9:30, the first shift of projects is all done. Students may leave.

9:30-10:00

• Judges go back to the cafeteria, preparing for the second shift. There will be snacks available.

• If there is a 2nd shift, students start setting up in the Field House. If there is no 2nd shift, judges are free to go.

10:00 – 11:00

• Judges are in the Field House going through their projects. 

• Just a reminder – you will have 7-9 projects to judge that are right next to each other in the Field House. You need to gather the students whose projects you are judging together and go as a group from one project to another. Start with the lowest numbered project that is assigned to you and go up from there. 

11:00 – 11:30

• Students are at their projects; judges can visit individual projects.

• At 11:30, the 2nd shift of projects is all done. Students may leave.

11:30 

• Judges are free to go.

Noon – on

• Judges start planning to be a judge at next year’s Fair.

Information for Project Judges:

• What Should I Do When I Judge My Projects? 

• What Will Judging Projects Look Like This Year?

Good questions! Here is a list of what you should do:

1. Gather all of your students at the first project to present (start with the lowest numbered project that you are assigned). 

2. Ask the presenter to introduce him/herself and then let him/her describe what he/she did. Try to steer away from a canned speech to more of a discussion between the presenter and the audience. You can help this out by asking the presenter questions. Here are some example questions for you: 

• How did you come up with this project idea?

• What things surprised you when you were doing this project?

• What problems did you have while doing this project?

• What would you do if you had more time to work on this project?

• What was your teacher's role in this project?

• Next year's class is doing a science project; what advice do you have for them?

• What did you learn about scientific research?

Encourage the other students to ask the presenter questions. The students need to be involved and it is helpful for them to see the work that their peers are doing. 

I think that spending 8-10 minutes per project is more than adequate and, if you do that, you can count on having 30 minutes to go back to projects and ask some more questions. 

How Will Judges Give Feedback?

The most important way is through your discussions with the students. I have also made a short form that you can fill out using your phone. Here is the QR code for it:

 

Students will have their own form to fill out for each project, too.

Information for Volunteers Only:

• You will report to the cafeteria. There will be tables with volunteer signs on them.

• Kris Bakkum is the teacher in charge. She will direct you throughout the morning.

• Volunteer jobs range from watching over the cafeteria while the judges are judging to helping with the food. The key is for you to be flexible and willing to do whatever needs to be done. There will be down time, so feel free to bring something to read or work on.

Here is a floor plan of Champlin Park High: