Anoka-Hennepin Schools A future without limit

 

Judge/Volunteer Training

Hi! Thank you for volunteering to be a judge at the Anoka-Hennepin District STEM Fair on Saturday, February 10, 2024, at Anoka High School. Without you, this fair does not 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 new 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 Am Making 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 have led me to make changes to how the Fair will be run this year and in the future. 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, 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

This year the Fair is being 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 Anoka High School between 7 and 7:30. Judges will be in teams of 2. Each team will be assigned 5-6 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 10-12 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 go talk to students individually at their projects. Another BIG change this year is that, instead of recommending projects to win medals, you will recommend projects that are exemplary to receive a personal invitation to attend the Regional Science Fair in March. You enter the project numbers online.

So what does all this mean to you? Good question! Instead of rushing to try 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.

The table below highlights the changes to the Fair. I have broken things down into the “Old Way” that we did things and the “New Way” that we will be doing things this year. Please read it over carefully.

Where Should I Go When I Get to Anoka High School?

• Project Judges go directly to the Cafeteria and find their assigned judging team table. Enter the school at the Main Entrance (Door 1) and just go straight until you reach the cafeteria (the school map is included in this packet.)

• Special Awards Judges go to Room 171

What Will the Schedule Look Like?

7-7:30

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

• Judges choose a table to sit at in the cafeteria. I will have judging folders at the tables. I need two judges per table.

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

8-9:00

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

• Just a reminder – you will have 5 or 6 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. 

9-9:30

• Students are at their projects, judges can visit individual projects and ask more questions. Judges can also fill out the online feedback form for each project.

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

9:30-10:00

• Judges go back to the cafeteria to prepare for the second shift.

• Students in shift 2 start setting up in the Field House.

10:00 – 11:00

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

• Just a reminder – you will have 5 or 6 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 and ask more questions. Judges can also fill out the online feedback form for each project.

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

11:30 – Noon

• Judges finish filling out any forms, and then they are free to leave.

Noon – on

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

What Should I Do When I Judge My Projects? 

           What Will Judging Projects Look Like This Year?

Good questions! The first thing you are going to want to do is to gather all of your students at the first project to present (start with the lowest numbered project that you are assigned). 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. Ask things like, “How did you come up with this project idea?”, What problems did you have doing this project?” and “What would you do if you had more time to work on this project?” Use your feedback form to help you come up with questions to ask. It is also okay to require the 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.

NOTE: Remind students that they need to fill out their feedback form for EACH project, too.

I think that spending 10 -12 minutes per project is more than adequate and, if you do that, you can count on having 30 minutes to finish filling out your forms or to go back to projects and ask some more questions. 

The next few pages include the Feedback Form and the Invited Students Form. After that you will find the map of Anoka High School.

Judging Form QR Code 

(this will also be in your judging folder,)

1. 

Anoka High School Floor Plan