Hello STEM Enthusiasts:
I am a judging specialist at the Society for Science and we are recruiting STEM professionals to serve as evaluators for one of our STEM competitions. Please see information below and email me directly if you are interested at the address below.
Society for Science is recruiting STEM professionals to serve as evaluators for Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge 2025.
Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge is a national STEM research competition for middle school students. Each spring, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students compete at a local Society for Science affiliated science fair. The affiliated fair nominates the top 10 % of students to complete an application to enter Thermo Fisher JIC. You can learn more about the competition by viewing our 2024 highlights video. All applications are then read and scored by a team of ~125 evaluators to select the Top 300 Innovators, who each receive $125. Our expert judging panel then selects the top 30 finalists. These finalists are invited to the Finals Week of the competition in Washington, DC, where they present their research and participate in a series of hands-on STEM challenges to ultimately compete for over $100,000 in awards.
Evaluators must have a minimum of a Master's degree or a Bachelor's degree plus 5 years related research experience. Middle school teachers and Society affiliated fair directors are not eligible to serve. Evaluators must not work directly with Thermo Fisher JIC nominees as a research project mentor. We are recruiting evaluators in 15 life and physical science categories including animal science, behavioral science, biochemistry, chemistry, computer science, energy & sustainability, engineering (electrical, environmental, mechanical, bio), earth & environmental science, mathematics, physics, materials science, microbiology, medicine & health, plant science and robotics.
Evaluation is scheduled to take place this year between June 13th and July 2nd and is completely virtual. Prior to the start of evaluation, we will send you materials to guide your evaluation process including a rubric and sample papers to help calibrate your scoring. The number of applications each evaluator reads will depend on the final number of applications we receive. This is typically ~65 applications per evaluator. On average evaluators reported a 15-20 hour time commitment to review this number of applications.
Please email Lori Dixon ldixon@societyforscience.org if you are interested in participating or have any questions. Please also indicate your area of expertise. Evaluators are chosen based on the number of applucations received and area of expertise needed.
Thanks,
Lori
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Lori Dixon
Society for Science
Springdale MD
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