How am I judged at the Canada-Wide Science Fair?
Criteria and process
As a CWSF finalist, you will have the opportunity to present your project to a group of judges who will evaluate your work based on the
CWSF Judging Rubric. Judging takes place on Monday and Tuesday of the CWSF week and is a crucial part of the experience.
To summarize:
• Before the fair: As part of the CWSF registration process, finalists will self-nominate for up to three Special Awards. Before the CWSF, expert judges will review the nominations to confirm their eligibility for each Special Award. Finalists will be notified before CWSF if their project is not eligible for a Special Award they nominated themselves for. It’s important to note that this review does not consider the quality of your project, only your eligibility for the Special Awards.
• Monday judging: The first judging day is entirely devoted to Excellence Awards judging, and these judging sessions are all scheduled. You will be given your judging schedule ahead of time and it’s important not to miss one! These sessions are 20 minutes long, and you should prepare to take about 7 minutes to present your project to members of a multi-disciplinary judging team, with the remaining time dedicated to questions and further conversation. One or two members of the judging team will be knowledgeable in your field, the others will have a strong STEM background that may be outside your field. This structure helps to evaluate your ability to communicate your work to both expert and non-expert STEM professionals.
• Tuesday judging: On day 2, your judging sessions are only 10 minutes in length and might be both scheduled and unscheduled. Any scheduled judging times will be related to Special Awards, so not every finalist will receive a schedule for day 2. Unscheduled judging also occurs on Tuesday and is a continuation of Excellence Award judging. As much as possible, try to stay near your project on Tuesday and let someone know if you’re stepping away so they tell any judges who stop by.
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