March 14, 2013

Faculty, grad students needed for science fair

by Andrea Hahn

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Organizers of the annual Illinois Junior Academy of Science Region 8 Science Fair at Southern Illinois University Carbondale are seeking judges for the contest.

The Thursday, March 21 event will bring to campus approximately 400 junior high and high school students from throughout Southern Illinois. Event organizers say they need about 150 judges to evaluate projects in 18 different categories.

Interested judges should indicate which areas they want to judge.  The categories are Aerospace Science, Astronomy, Behavioral Science, Biochemistry, Botany, Chemistry, Computer Programming, Consumer Science, Earth Science, Electronics, Engineering, Environmental Science, Health Science, Materials Science, Mathematics, Microbiology, Physics and Zoology.

Judging is from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the SIU Student Center ballrooms.  The science fair projects are open to the public from 1 to 4 p.m., with the awards ceremony beginning at 5:30 p.m. in the SIU Student Center auditorium.

Though the College of Science sponsors the event, judging is open to any SIU Carbondale faculty or graduate student.  The first judging session meets at 8:45 a.m. with a brief orientation and distribution of assignments, and ends at 11 a.m.  The second session meets at 10:45 a.m. for orientation and assignments, and continues until 1 p.m.  Judges may sign up for both sessions.  Judges will work in teams of two, typically with one faculty member and one graduate student.  Most judges will evaluate five or fewer projects. 

Approximately 60 of the evaluated projects will be eligible to compete at the state science fair in May.

For more information, contact Diane Fritcher at dfritcher@math.siu.edu.