Gathering the Awards
Science fair sponsors normally will grant their own certificates and prizes. Outside associations, however, are considered “special judges” which include non-profit organizations such as the Air Force, agricultural societies, dental societies, women in medicine societies, and engineering associations. They also include large companies, especially those committed to serving community needs.

Special judging organizations will have a variety of awards including cash, savings bonds, or stock. In addition, most will have prizes such as calculators, sport bags, personal digital assistants, or backpacks. Obtain a commitment from your speech and hearing association for such awards. One successful approach is to have your organization budget money for awards and ask speech or hearing companies (especially if they are in your area or state) to support your efforts with prizes and/or additional cash. Often, these companies will have specialty gifts remaining from speech and hearing conferences that can be used for awards. An example request letter for you to use to tailor to your needs is located under the “Resources” link.

To ensure your awards are comparable to other organizations, obtain a list of past awards. Or, look at awards' lists from other organizations. One example is the Badger State Science and Engineering Fair in Wisconsin. If there is an awards ceremony at the end of the judging, you can jot down what organizations were present and what awards were issued. This will help guide you in budgeting and planning for future awards.

Judging the Projects
The science fair sponsor will have a list of projects for you to review before the fair. If the sponsor has a website, see if such a list can be downloaded or extracted into a file of prospective projects. For example, there are typically 1,000 projects at the Illinois Junior Academy of Science Fair held annually at the University of Illinois. The Illinois Academy of Audiology is able to extract a target list of projects to judge from its site, and relevant projects can be cut and pasted into an Excel spreadsheet. It may be difficult to identify the right projects for judging based on the title alone. So if you don't have abstracts to review, be prepared to scan the project floor early on the day of the fair to verify the relevance of each project.

The size of your judging team will depend on how many prospective projects there are and how much time has been allotted to judging. For example, there could be 5-6 judges working in pairs evaluating 10-15 projects over a 3-hour period. It takes about 20-40 minutes to greet and meet the student, examine her board, listen to her presentation, read her report, and ask follow-up questions. To broaden the judging pool, make an attempt to involve graduate students in the process. The students who have judged the Illinois science fair say they have gained a lot of satisfaction. They interact well with these young students and convey a strong enthusiasm about their chosen profession. Moreover, the junior and high school students seem to relate better to graduate students than seasoned professionals.

An important step in using science fairs as a recruitment tool is for you as the judge to greet each student, and introduce yourself, your profession, and your professional organization. Whether the student becomes a winner or not, you have the opportunity to interact with the student in a positive and uplifting way and explain what kind of work you do and what led you to that career. Tell them you will be there judging projects and may be back later to closely review their work. Then, give the students brochures to read (and keep in mind that – because the students stand by their project boards for long periods of time – they are likely to read the materials on speech and hearing science you gave them). A brochure from the American Academy of Audiology is available as a pdf file.

Because the type of projects and students vary each year, be flexible in how you distribute your awards. Some judging organizations give awards only to high school students. Others give awards to junior high students as well, but the better awards go to the high school students. In other cases, 1st and 2nd prizes are awarded based on the project alone, not the student's age. Since these are things that can be decided at the fair, be flexible in your approach. When you have made your selection, give the student a certificate (using our certificate sample from the “Resources” webpage, if you like). This document is printed onto certificate border paper (easily available from office supply stores). To embellish the certificates a bit more, you may wish to place embossed award emblems in the lower left-hand corner. 

Publicizing your Efforts
Once the wining students are selected, many science fairs will have an awards ceremony. These are ceremonies attended by proud parents, happy grandparents, siblings, close relatives, science teachers, and community members. As such, it becomes an opportunity to explain what we do as professionals and why we are at the fair. To conserve time and interest, it is best to announce the awards first. While the students are making their way to the podium, make short remarks about the field of speech-language pathology and audiology and the educational preparation. A sample speech given by graduate students in speech-language pathology who served as judges is available for your use under the “Resources” link.

As a pleasant follow-up, send a letter of congratulations to the students (template available from the “Resources” webpage). If the student has done a particularly nice job, consider asking him to show his project at your next convention.

Be sure to report your activities in your association newsletter. This is an opportunity to thank the association members for the financial support, the judges for their time, and the manufacturers for their prizes. The graduate students who judged the fair are fully capable of writing such an article and are quite happy to do so – especially if they can include a picture of themselves with award-winners.

A summary of the judging procedures may be downloaded and used as a handout for your student judges. (Note: this link is also available on the "Resources" webpage.)

Good luck, have fun, and bring in the best!