Judging

Qualifications to Serve as a Judge

Judges should have a strong background in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics) with a bachelor's degree or higher, or equivalent professional experience. We encourage graduate students, industry professionals, university faculty, and experienced high school STEM teachers to apply. Judges must be comfortable evaluating high school-level experimental research, providing written and verbal feedback, and agreeing to NJSRS's conflict-of-interest and ethics policies.

Judging Criteria

Evaluation is based on the quality of the research question, experimental design, data analysis, conclusions, and the student's understanding and communication. Separate rubrics are used for each track to clarify expectations.

View Oral Presentation Rubric for full scoring categories and point distributions.