Criteria for Judging Science Projects for NWSES

 1) Selection of research question by formulation and statement of hypothesis or problem.

• Shows originality and creativity-whose idea was this?
• Clear statement and appropriate scope of question to be investigated
• Is this a continuation project? If so, has there been an expansion of the concept?

2) Experimental design and appropriate use of materials and methods

• Clear definition of variables and use of controls
• Sufficient description and understanding of methods used

3) Collection and analysis of data

• Appropriate and sufficient data collected to provide conclusions
• Appropriate number of replicates done
• Appropriate statistical tests used to analyze data

4) Interpretation of findings and relationship to previous work in the field

• Understanding of the meaning of the data
• Limitations of the design, data collection, and interpretation
• Relationship of the results to prior knowledge

5) Communication of findings in writing, graphically, and orally

• Design and appearance of poster
• Clarity of graphics and legends, ease of following the story
• Appropriate ratio of text to graphics for the particular project
• Clarity and depth of oral presentation and discussion
• Facility and knowledge shown during questioning
• Clarity and thoroughness of notebook and written paper

6) Understanding of research question and findings, and appropriate contributions to the project

• How did this project extend our knowledge of the field?
• What are some potential next steps in further exploring the question?
• If the project was carried out in a major research facility, what were the original contributions of the student to the thinking and the experimental work?
• If a team project, did team members contribute equally?

Criteria for Judging Engineering Projects for NWSES

1) Selection of engineering project by formulation of problem and criteria for solution.

• Shows originality and creativity-whose idea was this?
• Clear statement and appropriate scope of problem to be investigated
• Is this a continuation project? If so, has there been an expansion of the concept?

2) Experimental design and appropriate use of materials and methods

• Clear definition of variables and use of controls
• Sufficient description and understanding of methods used
• Generation of several possible solutions to the problem

3) Collection and analysis of data

• Appropriate and sufficient data collected to provide conclusions
• Appropriate number of replicates done
• Appropriate statistical tests used to analyze data
• Incorporation of appropriate modifications for repeated testing

4) Interpretation of findings and relationship to previous work in the field

• Understanding of the meaning of the data
• Limitations of the design, data collection, interpretation
• Have the solutions been tested in the real world?
• Is this solution an improvement over previous work?

5) Communication of findings in writing, graphically, and orally

• Design and appearance of poster
• Clarity of graphics and legends, ease of following the story
• Appropriate ratio of text to graphics for the particular project
• Clarity and depth of oral presentation and discussion
• Facility and knowledge shown during questioning
• Clarity and thoroughness of notebook and written paper

6) Understanding of design problem and findings, and appropriate contributions to the project

• How did this project potentially solve the problem?
• What are some alternative steps that might be tried?
• If the project was carried out in a major research facility, what were the original contributions of the student to the thinking and the experimental work?
• If a team project, did team members contribute equally?

Scoring

In the high school division each project should be ranked in these six categories with a range of 1-5 for each, where:

1 = lacking
2 = adequate
3 = good
4 = very good
5 = outstanding

Middle school division judges need not use the ranking system.