Interviewing Exhibitors

The importance of this portion of the judge’s function cannot be over-emphasized. The interview is perhaps the most educational aspect of the science fair.

Purposes of the interview are:

• To stimulate the student’s thinking
• To suggest means of improving his/her work (and working habits)
• To point out mistakes
• To open up a feedback channel from the judges (who is most likely a specialist in a given field) to the advising teacher (and thus indirectly contribute to an improvement of science education).

Please be positive and gentle with suggestions of improvements. Try to give encouragement and constructive criticism for the work accomplished. Remember the age and delicate self-esteem of the students with whom you are working.

Feel free to ask the questions you feel are most appropriate. Keep questions open-ended as much as possible and try to stay away from simply asking questions that can be answered with a simple "yes" or "no".

Typical questions are:

• What are the basic principles behind the project?
• How well do you understand those basic principles?
• Where (or from whom) did you get the idea for your exhibit?
• What do you think is the significance of your exhibit?
• In undertaking this project, did you have a clear purpose in mind? If so, please explain in more detail.
• How much time did you spend on the project? When did you start?
• Do you understand how (or why) the apparatus works?
• How much help did you get in building it? (writing it?) (typing it?) (doing the experiment?)
• What was your source and cost of the parts?
• Did you collect and study supplementary references?