National JSHS - Program fact sheet and guidelines for students

(Click here to download complete pdf file.)

National JSHS - The judging process

At National, student research presentations will be organized in concurrent sessions by discipline. Military-sponsored scholarships and other awards will be made to 1st place finalists and runner-up finalists from each of six (6) final sessions. Each of the 1st place finalists will be invited to participate in the London International Youth Science Forum.

• The Categorization Process. The organization of the final six (6) sessions at the National JSHS is based upon a review of all abstracts and the area of research suggested by the student. Student presenters must state on the abstract the major discipline and the sub-discipline of their research.

  The six (6) major disciplines in which military-sponsored scholarship awards will be made are:

Environmental science; Earth and Space Science
Engineering
Physical Sciences
Life sciences
Medicine and Health; Behavioral and Social Sciences
Mathematics and Computer Science

• The National JSHS Judging Team and Process.

  The National JSHS Judging Team includes individuals 1) who hold either a Ph.D. or equivalent experience, or 2) who are actively engaged in research. Judges will have general experience in the fields of research that are represented by the National student presenters. Specialized experience in each field presented at the National JSHS is not possible; therefore, student presenters are reminded of their responsibility to communicate their results so that they may be understood by both the non-specialized audience and by the judges. Judges are selected also for their interest in encouraging the students' interests and future development in the sciences, engineering, or mathematics.

The judges review the National student presentations as follows...

• All of the written reports (e.g. abstract and paper) are read. The paper is used as supporting documentation during the judging process.The oral presentations are evaluated by each member of the assigned session judging team. The questioning period which follows the oral presentations aids judges in clarifying the student's depth of understanding, the amount of work and level of effort, and the individual contributions to the research problem.Following the sessions, the individual session judging teams meet and deliberate to select finalists from each session.

• Judges utilize the "National JSHS Judges Score Sheet" as a tool and consider the weight of each factor during their deliberations.

The National JSHS Office, Academy of Applied Science; and the National JSHS Judging Panel recognize the enormous effort that students undertake in conducting their research. Therefore, our objective is to ensure an equitable competition by selecting qualified judges and by communicating the rules of competition to both students and judges. We realize that in any competition of this nature differences of opinion about the judges interpretations may occur.

It is the policy of the sponsors of the JSHS Program (e.g. the Army, Navy, and Air Force) to support the interpretations and final decisions of the judges panel. Recommendations regarding the future conduct of the National JSHS judging process, or requests to clarify the rules of competition can be directed to the attention of the Director, National JSHS Program, Academy of Applied Science, 24 Warren St., Concord, NH 03301.

Return to top