Useful Judge Information
The 2025 Vancouver Island Regional Science Fair will be in-person in the Elliott Lecture Wing, University of Victoria. A map is available here. [1]
Judging Categories
There are 2 categories of judging:
- General or Divisional – This is the science fair main event, with judging and selection of winners at each age level, including the selection of representatives to represent Vancouver Island at the Canada Wide Science Fair.
If you are interested in divisional judging please register here [2] beginning February 23.
- Specialty – selection of winners for specific awards [3] generously donated by our sponsors. More information on specialty judging is given below.
If you are a member of a sponsor organization and have volunteered to judge for their award, please contact lggree@shaw.ca [4] and chiefjudge.virsf@gmail.com [5] for more information.
Divisional Judging
In Divisional Judging, there are four Age Categories in which students compete for prizes:
- Elementary – Grades 4-5
- Intermediate – Grades 6-7
- Junior – Grades 8-9
- Senior – Grades 10-12
In each age category, there are six Subject Areas in which students may submit projects. Projects are initially judged against others in the same Age Category and Subject Area. In the final rounds of judging, projects from different Subject Areas are compared in order arrive at Age Category winners.
The six subject areas are:
- Engineering and Computer Sciences – The design and fabrication of useful devices or the investigation of properties of materials. Software or hardware development and application.
- Life Sciences – Aspects of life or lifestyle of non-human organisms including biology, zoology and botany.
- Health Sciences – Biomedical and/or clinical aspect of human life or lifestyle and its translation into improved health for humans, or more effective health services/products. Related to human aging, genetics, cancer research, psychology, etc. Projects involving animal research that have a direct application to humans are included in this division.
- Biotechnology – the application of knowledge of biological systems to solve a problem, create a product or provide a service in one of three subject fields: crop development (agriculture, horticulture, silviculture- forestry), animal science (animals involved as pets, in agriculture, aquaculture, genetics), genomics and microbials.
- Earth & Environmental Science – Planetary processes, relationships between organisms or between an organism and its environment. Topics including ecology, geology, mineralogy, oceanography, limnology, climatology, geography, pollution, resource management.
- Physical and Mathematical Sciences – Physics, chemistry, or mathematics. May also include astronomy.
In addition, three Project Types are recognized. Marking criteria are slightly different for the three types:
- Experiment – An investigation undertaken to test a specific hypothesis using experiments. Experimental variables, if identified, are controlled to some extent.
- Innovation – Involving the development and evaluation of innovative devices, models or techniques or approaches in fields such as technology, engineering, or computers (both hardware and software).
- Study – A collection and analysis of data to reveal evidence of a fact, situation or pattern of scientific interest. It could include a study of cause and effect relationships or theoretical investigations of scientific data. Variables, if identified, are by their nature not feasible to control, but an effort to make meaningful correlation is encouraged.
More detail on Judging Philosophy, Procedures, and Criteria may be found on our Judging Guidelines [6] page.
Divisional Judging Schedule
Divisional judges work in teams who are collectively asked to assess and rank all projects in a given subject area and age category. This starts with 1-on-1 student interviews, followed by team discussions (Round 1), and should be completed by 1pm. Those judges who opt to stay for Round 2 compare the top projects from the different disciplines, as determined from Round 1, to arrive at a ranking of the top projects in each age group. In Round 3, the top projects from Round 2 Junior and Senior categories are compared to arrive at overall winners and candidates for the Canada-Wide Science Fair. When you register, you will be given the option to sign up for either Round 1 only or for the full day.
| February 23 | Judge registration opens |
| March 26, 5:00 pm | Judge registration closes |
| Week of March 31 – April 4 | Round 1 project assignments are distributed by email. Student reports will be available for preview |
| Saturday, April 6 | Judging at the University of Victoria in the Elliott lecture wing |
| 8:30 – 9:30 am | Judge orientation in Engineering & Computer Science building room 123 |
| 9:30 – 11:30 am | Round 1 judging – may extend to 12:00 as needed |
| 11:30 – 1:00 pm | Team meetings to determine Round 1 rankings |
| 12:00 – 1:00 pm | Light lunch provided for judges |
| 1:00 – 4:00 | Round 2 & 3 judging (overall winners) / Specialty judging |
| Monday, April 7 | Winners are announced (attendance is optional) |
Specialty Judging Schedule
Specialty judges evaluate all projects in the fair according to the criteria specific to their prize. As a specialty judge you are encouraged to preview project titles in the week prior the fair. These lists will be available online (see below). Before fair day, create short lists of those projects that you feel may be eligible for your prize(s) based on their subject area and/or grade level.
On fair day, you will be given the opportunity to interview students between 1:00 and 4:00pm. Please note that, as divisional judging Rounds 2 & 3 will also be occurring at that time, we ask you to allow these judges to do their task even if it interrupts your interview.
Marking forms are available here [6] if you wish to consider criteria used in divisional judging when evaluating your projects. Results from Round 1 (morning) divisional judging will also be made available to assist your decision making, if desired.
Saturday, April 6: Judging at the University of Victoria in the Elliott Lecture Wing
| 12:00 – 1:00 pm | Registration: Pick up name tags, get Project Lists and Marking Forms |
| 1:00 – 4:00 | Specialty judging (concurrent with Divisional Judging Rounds 2 and 3) |
| 4:00 | Be sure to inform organizers about your Prize Winners |