Overview

This article will guide you through organizing projects into logical groups and assigning appropriate judges to evaluate them. This structured approach ensures fair judging distribution and optimizes the evaluation process for both judges and participants.

Understanding Project Groups

Project groups are collections of projects that will be judged by the same team of judges. The YSC Portal uses these groups to:

• Organize similar projects together (by category, challenge, language, etc.)
• Create manageable workloads for judging teams
• Facilitate consensus discussions among judges who have seen the same projects

Creating Project Groups

There are two methods for creating project groups in the YSC Portal:

Method 1: Automatic Group Creation (Recommended)

The automatic method intelligently groups projects based on their categories and challenges:

1. Navigate to your regional fair in the sidebar menu
2. Click on Project Groups under the judging section
3. Click Choose an option at the top of the page
4. Select Create Project Groups from the dropdown
5. Configure the following options:
   • Group Size: Specify how many projects should be in each group (typically 2-6)
   • Day: Select which judging day these groups will be evaluated on
6. Click Create Groups

The system will automatically create groups, intelligently organizing projects by:

• Grade category (Junior, Intermediate, Senior)
• Challenge area (Aerospace, Digital Technology, etc.)
• Project language (English, French, Bilingual)

Method 2: Creating Individual Groups

For more customized grouping:

1. From the Project Groups page, click Create Project Group
2. Enter a name for the group
3. Select the judging day
4. Choose a language (English, French, or Bilingual)
5. Click Create

You'll then need to manually add projects to this group.

Managing Project Groups

After creation, you can manage your project groups through the Project Groups Manager:

1. In the Project Groups section, click on Project Groups Manager
2. View all project groups with their assigned projects
3. Use the filters at the top to narrow down groups by:
   • Grade category
   • Challenge
   • Day
   • Language

Customizing Project Groups

To modify automatically created groups:

1. Rename groups: Click the edit (pencil) icon next to a group name to give it a more meaningful name
2. Move projects: Click the three-dot menu next to a project, select Move to, and choose a different group
3. Adjust group sizes: Move projects between groups to balance workloads

Assigning Judges to Project Groups

Once your project groups are established, you can assign judges to evaluate them:

1. From your regional fair menu, click on Assign Judges
2. Click Choose an option at the top of the page
3. Select Assign Judges from the dropdown

Judge Assignment Options

The system offers two approaches to judge assignment:

1. Expert Judging Teams

This option matches judges to project groups based on their expertise:

• Assigns judges who indicated expertise in Life Sciences to Life Sciences project groups
• Assigns judges with Physical Sciences expertise to Physical Sciences groups
• Recommended for subject-specific evaluation

Configuration options:

• Team Size: Specify how many judges should be in each team (typically 2-3)
• Require Team Leaders: Enable if you want designated team leaders
• Judging Day: Select which day these assignments apply to

2. Multidisciplinary Judging Teams

This option creates diverse judging teams with mixed expertise:

• Ensures some judges are experts in the field while others bring different perspectives
• Useful for evaluating both subject expertise and communication skills
• Similar to the Canada-Wide Science Fair approach

Configuration options:

• Expert Percentage: Set what percentage of the team should be subject experts
• Team Size: Specify how many judges should be on each team
• Require Team Leaders: Enable if you want designated team leaders
• Judging Day: Select which day these assignments apply to

Fine-tuning Judge Assignments

After automatic assignment, you can customize the judging teams:

1. Go to Assign Judges to see all assignments
2. For any judge, use the three-dot menu to:
   • Make Team Leader: Designate this judge as the team leader
   • Lock Judge: Prevent this judge from being reassigned if you run the assignment process again
   • Move to: Reassign this judge to a different project group

Managing Unassigned Judges

If you have more judges than needed, they'll appear in the Unassigned Judges section:

• Keep them as backups for last-minute cancellations
• Manually assign them to groups that would benefit from additional judges
• Use them for special award judging if applicable

Tips for Effective Project Grouping and Judge Assignment

1. Balance expertise: Ensure each project group has judges with relevant expertise
2. Consider language needs: Assign bilingual judges to bilingual project groups
3. Avoid conflicts: Check for potential conflicts of interest between judges and projects
4. Balance workload: Try to give all judges a similar number of projects to evaluate
5. Lock valuable assignments: If you find perfect judge-project matches, lock them before making other changes
6. Consider diversity: Aim for diverse perspectives on each judging team