The Connecticut Science & Engineering Fair needs about 300 judges for a successful Fair each year. Individuals with experience in the physical sciences and in the life sciences are needed to participate as judges on one or both of the two days indicated below. Judges are needed for regular category judging, special category, and special awards judging. If you know of someone who would like to participate as a judge, please refer them to this page. We appreciate your interest in our program and welcome your participation as a judge. Please register by Monday, March 1.

Get Names and Contact Info of Judging Chairs for each Category

Judges Registration Form Judges Page (To access the judge’s page you must fill out a registration form and be approved to judge.)

Background Check

Consistent with other academic competitions

You will receive the link once you submit your judging registration.
As part of your volunteer application process with the Connecticut Science & Engineering Fair, we need you to complete a quick basic background check for Criminal Records and National Sex Offender Registry Records. This process is very simple and will take less than 5 minutes. You will need to provide 1) legal first name and legal last name, correctly spelled; 2) date of birth; and 3) Social Security Number (SSN) – Note that SSN is optional. There is a button to click to override it. Fees are paid by the Fair.

Judging Opportunities

The following brief descriptions may help you decide which of the judging activities you prefer. Preliminary Judging will be virtual for the 2023 Fair. Finalist Judging will be in-person for the 2023 Fair.

This year, we plan to offer a virtual live judging session for all participants.  This has been a long-time goal for the Fair – this might be a child’s only opportunity to have a positive, exciting interaction with a professional scientist or engineer.

Judging will take place over the course of two weeks:  preliminary judging during Week 1 (March 7 & 8) and finalist judging during Week 2 on March 15.  We have a flexible schedule for you to judge as much or as little as you wish to best fit your schedule.  Get a detailed Fair schedule HERE.

Preliminary Judging (Virtual) – Tuesday, March 7 and Wednesday, March 8
*View all of the projects in your assigned category
*Work jointly with other judges on your team
*Rank projects into 1st (highest), 2nd, and 3rd honors
*Students are present to describe their work to the judges during a 10-minute virtual interview

Finalist Judging (In-Person) – Wednesday, March 15 (7:30AM – 1:00PM)
*View the finalists’ projects in your assigned category
*Work jointly with other judges on your team
*Projects are scored numerically; judging criteria will be provided
*Students are present to describe their work to the judges during a 15-minute virtual interview

Special Awards Judging – March 7, 8 (Virtual) and 15 (In-Person).
In past years, Special Awards projects were viewed with or without students present to decide on award recipients during one or two judging days. The 2023 extended Judging Schedule for middle school and high school preliminary and finalist student interviews provides the option to participate in the student presentations on one or more days if desired to complete your Judging Assignments.

  • Review student abstracts and posters in advance of  preliminary interviews on March 7 & 8 to apply award criteria and identify award candidates.
  • Participate in student presentations during preliminary or finalist interview slots as desired.
  • Finalize award recipients and submit results using Special Awards Judging Results web form as completed but by no later than Wednesday, March 15.

To Register

To register as a Connecticut Science & Engineering Fair Judge, please fill out a judges registration form. Once approved, you will receive a login password for the Judges Page where you will be able to view the judging documentation.

For judging-related questions, please contact  Dr. Susan DeCorte McMillin, Chief of Judging.
[toggle title_open=”Contact Award/Category Chairs” title_closed=”Contact Award/Category Chairs” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default”]You may have been contacted by a special categories chair. If not, and you wish to judge one of these categories, please fill out the registration form first.

[/toggle] [box type=”info” style=”rounded” border=”full”]For judging related questions, please contact Dr. Susan DeCorte McMillin, Chief of Judging[/box]