Judging at the Greater Vancouver Regional Science Fair

Ahhh, the 31st Annual Greater Vancouver Regional Science Fair. Students, judges, parents, teachers, and many others gathered at the Student Union Building at UBC to view science fair projects. The event ran on for 3 days with judging done of Thursday and awards and public viewing on Saturday. I had the honour to be one of judges for a couple of awards. My first time being a judge was at the Vancouver District Science Fair held at Langara College on March 7th of this year. However, this is my first time judging for the Greater Vancouver Region, so plainly said, I was excited! 

I arrived at UBC in the early afternoon and went to the judges' room to meet my team and gather all the information I needed - badge, list of projects I was going to judge, criteria sheet, etc. 

Judge at the 2013 Greater Vancouver Regional Science Fair

Both the ballroom and the party room at the SUB were filled with science posters, models, intelligent brains, as well as excitement and nervousness. As I entered the room, I'm instantly reminded of my high school days. In the past, I have participated in a couple of science fairs, but my projects never got me far. In fact, I never took science fairs seriously and I thought they were just held by my own school when I was in high school. In reality, science fairs can open many doors (and is a lot of fun because you get to meet lots of other students who share the same interests!).

Projects in the SUB

I had a list of projects that were nominated for a certain award, so I went to each of those projects and the student(s) there gave me a small presentation about their work. It's very amazing to see so many students with a range of innovative ideas. As a judge, I first asked what grade they were in so that I'd have an idea of their knowledge and their thoughts. I tried my best to give lots of positive feedback for their strengths as well as some suggestions in areas that they could explore further. Of course, not every project that I viewed was in my field of study, and I actually managed to learn new things from them! I was actually very impressed with some of the presentations. Even though for some, I could tell they were nervous  (flushed cheeks, sweaty palms), they still gave very good talks.

Projects in the party room

One thing that I was especially surprised about was a student having statistical analysis and calculating p values. That's great and absolutely essential, but I was thinking, are you kidding me? I learned that stuff in my second year of undergraduate and you're in grade 8 and talking to me about p values. And even when I asked a question to see if they know what they were calculating, it did seemed like they know. At that point I was wondering if high schools changed their curriculum now and are just way too advanced for me, but it turns out that they had a mentor. Still impressive.

UBC Faculty of Science representing! 

Of course, a great place for the Faculty of Science to be there and talk to (many) interested students.

A glimpse of the judges room where we come back to our group, discuss the projects, rank them, and grab a bite. What's for dinner? We had a choices from chicken to vegan options. I got the turkey pesto wrap with a giant cookie and I chose apple juice. There were also baskets of fruits for us and I picked up an apple. 

Judges' room

Turkey pesto wrap

Apple + apple juice...? hm

After everyone in my group was happy with the rankings and our stomachs were happy, the second judging session was about to start. Back to judging! 

Overall, I had a lot of fun as it brought back memories of my early science days. Also, it's a wonderful feeling to see so many young ones so intelligent and innovative with their projects.

And a very nice mug as a souvenir. Thank you!