Judging process
The National Science & Engineering Competition is split into two streams: Science/Maths (for projects focused on investigation, discovery and the scientific method) and Engineering/Technology (for projects focused on invention, design and manufacture).
The two streams are always judged separately as the Science/Maths stream judging process places more emphasis on the processes used in the project (for example, a student may design an excellent set of experiments and carry them out perfectly but still gain a negative or unexpected result and it would be unfair for them to be penalised for this as it is the nature of the scientific method). The Engineering/Technology stream judging process places more emphasis on the outcomes of the project as the resulting object that has been created should be of an excellent standard and should definitely fulfil the aim of the project.
As explained on the How it works page, there are two different routes to the Competition finals - regional fairs and online entry. The sections below explain how entries are judged in each of these stages.
How are projects judged at regional fairs?
The regional fairs are heats for projects to compete for places in the National Science & Engineering Competition finals. All projects that attend the regional fairs and which meet the eligibility criteria for the Competition will be judged at the fair. Each project will be visited by judges, who will speak to the student(s) about their projects and will score them against a set of criteria (see below).
At each regional fair the best projects, subject to eligibility checks, will be put forward to the Competition finals, held at The Big Bang Fair the following March (i.e. a project judged at a regional fair in June 2011 may receive a place in the Competition finals in March 2012).
How are projects judged if you enter via the online entry form?
If you enter the National Science & Engineering Competition via the online entry form you will need to submit a written summary of your project. This summary must be no longer than four pages of A4 and should be in a font no smaller than size 10. However, you should include as much detail about your project as possible as this is what will be sent out to the judges to be scored. For more information about how best to prepare your project summary have a look at the Project summary guidance page. This page contains examples of project summaries from previous successful competitors to offer you some insight into what you should aim for with your project summary.
Once the deadline for entries (31 October) has passed, all the project summaries are sent out to subject expert judges. These judges will read through the summaries and will score them against the criteria (see below). The best projects in each age category will be invited to attend the Competition finals at The Big Bang Fair in March 2012. The results letters will be sent to all entrants by the end of Decemeber 2011.
How are projects judged in the Competition finals?
All the entrants who gain a place in the Competition finals will be invited to attend The Big Bang Fair on 15-17 March 2012. All finalists will be judged several times on 15 March, not only for the core National Science & Engineering Competition finals but also for a variety of sponsor and disciplinary prizes. The judges will all come to the finalists' stands to talk to them about their projects and will usually operate in pairs. The judges will make notes on a scoring sheet while they speak to the finalists and then will score the projects against the set criteria. The criteria that the judges will be using are listed below.
For the Junior and Intermediate age categories,the majority of decisions about the core prizes will be finalised by the end of 15 March. However, in the Senior age category, the judges will select a shortlist of five Science/Maths projects and five Engineering/Technology projects on 15 March and these projects will then undergo a further stage of judging - the Competition's Celebrity Finals on 16 March.
There will also be more judging on 16 March for more sponsored prizes and for any projects that also qualify for two other competitions being held on site - the CREST National Finals and the Young Engineer for Britain Competition.
What are the judges looking for?
In all three sets of judging (regional fairs, online entry and Competition finals) the judges will be looking for projects that score highly against the following main criteria:
- Project concept - what was the motivation behind your project and what were your aims?
- Project process - how well did you plan and organise your work? What sort of experiments and research did you do? Were you innovative or creative in your approach?
- Project outcome - how well did your project achieve its aims? Is your final product or report of high quality? Does your project have a 'real-world' application?
- Personal skills - how well did you deal with any problems or challenges? How well do you communicate your project? Does your enthusiasm shine through?
The judging in the Competition finals will be more in-depth but the judges will still be using the same main criteria in their conversations with the finalists. The criteria used in the Celebrity Finals will be different as the quality of the projects is under no doubt by that stage and instead the celebrity judges will be more interested in learning more about the individuals and teams themselves.
Date Published: August 03, 2011