Will you be joining us in 2026 on March 6th?

The 2026 Contra Costa County Science & Engineering Fair is preparing for a great in-person experience for middle and high school students on Friday, March 6 at Los Medanos College in Pittsburg. Thank you for considering becoming a volunteer judge for the fair. (Note: we do not accept current high school students as judges.)
Judging is set for Friday, March 6, 2026 from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. You MUST be able to give 8 hours to this effort--judging poster boards in the morning, and interviewing students in the afternoon. No partial day judge volunteers are an option.

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* 1. Please complete all of the information below.

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* 2. The Science Fair uses laptops for electronic project and student interview scoring. We have a number of Chrome Books available to our judges, however, if you have a laptop available for your use that day, please let us know here:

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* 3. To ensure impartiality, judges may not judge a student's entry if they know the student. Please indicate if there is a possibility that you may be acquainted with an entrant. If so, please indicate the name of the student. You will be contacted independently to discuss this possible conflict.

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* 4. Students may choose between six categories to submit projects for judging. Please indicate your top three preferences for categories you would like to judge ranked 1 to 3 (1 indicating "first preference," 2 indicating "second preference," and 3 indicating "third preference.")

  Preferences Division: Junior (Grades 7-8) or Senior (Grades 9-12)
Behavioral/Social
Biological Sciences
Engineering
Environmental
Math/Computer
Physical Sciences

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* 5. Please indicate how many years you have previously participated as a Contra Costa County Science & Engineering Fair judge?

  Times Participated
Number of Judging Experiences

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* 6. To effectively manage 130+ judges and evaluate the quality of more than 200 expected science projects, the Science Fair has established a structure which includes Team Leaders (up to 20 needed) and Chief Judges (up to 8 are needed).

Team Leader: A Team Leader agrees to stay beyond 4 p.m. to work with Chief Judges to resolve any judging disparities. This may take up to an hour. A Team Leader serves as a facilitator of one team (usually about 5 judges) throughout the judging day. Team Leaders confirm as correct the team's final scoring of individual student projects; identify judging anomalies, and work with Chief Judges to resolve these with their team of judges.

Would you like to serve as a Team Leader?

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* 7. Each of the six project categories requires a Chief Judge. A chief judge works closely with the Team Leaders within a specific category throughout the day to determine the top student contenders for awards. Chief Judges stay beyond the regular judging day to collaboratively evaluate all of the category winning projects to select the Grand Sweepstakes Award winners. This may take several hours and includes dinner.

Please indicate your interest to be a Chief Judge.

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* 8. Judging project boards and conducting student interviews will involve the use of Google Sheets to submit scores. Are you able to establish a free gmail account if you do not already have one? Please provide below an assessment of your comfort level with Google sheets. Please note: A training video will be posted on the Judges Resources webpage accessible to you one week prior to the event. A short training will also be provided from 7:00-8:00 a.m. on the day of the event. (Breakfast will be provided.)

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