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  • 1.  Call for Judges: AIAA NCS Virtual Science Fairs 2023

    Posted 09 Feb, 2023 16:37

    AIAA NCS:

    Each spring, volunteers from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics National Capital Section (AIAA NCS) judge aerospace-related projects at regional secondary school science fairs and award recognition and opportunities for winners. Over the past decade, NCS has expanded the number of science fairs to include the vast scope of the Section's geographic domain -from the shores of the Chesapeake Bay to the border of West Virginia - and has gained appreciation in each of these regions.

    In 2020, one fair was judged in person prior to everything shutting down, with other fairs judged virtually or via essay contests. In 2021, AIAA NCS virtually judged six fairs with teams of volunteers for each one. In 2022, we virtually judged six fairs and one in-person.

    For 2023, there are seven regional science fairs which have virtual previewing and then an in-person date for the deciding of awardees. We need teams of four or more for both virtual previewing (reviewing students' entries) including abstracts and videos, and for the final decision-making in-person. AIAA NCS will provide Google Drive spreadsheets for recording reviews as well as the Zoom platform for discussion before the in-person decision meeting. Virtual previewing judges do not need to be on the in-person judging team.

    AIAA-NCS is seeking your support for judging each of the following seven fairs:

    • Northern Virginia Regional Science and Engineering Fair (Falls Church, Arlington & Alexandria). Virtually February 27 - March 3, In-person March 4.
    • Charles County, MD "HITS Expo" (History, Industry, Technology, Science). Possible virtual access beforehand. In-person March 11 with student presentations 
    • Prince William-Manassas, VA- Regional Science & Engineering Fair. Virtually March 8-15, In-person March 18 for only 2 judges with only the top 6 projects in each category being presented as determined prior by the category judges.
    • Fairfax County, VA- Regional Science and Engineering Fair. Virtually March 10-17 to review and down-select, In-person March 18
    • Prince George's County, MD- Area Science Fair. Virtually March 13-17 to review and down-select, In-person March 18
    • Montgomery County, MD- MontSCI Fair. Virtually only March 19-24.
    • Loudoun County, VA- Regional Science and Engineering Fair. Virtually March 18-21, In-person March 22

    NOTE: The above calendar dates are subject to updates.


    Please consider spending a few hours of your time to help inspire the future generation of the nation's best and brightest scientists and engineers in STEM fields. And, of course, we welcome volunteers who can support more than one fair.

    Note: prior to signing up, please check the protocols of your company/organization to verify that you can access the Zoom and Google Drive platforms, as well as judging platforms including zfairs and rocketjudge. 

    If you have judged with us in the last 3 years, it is possible that the fairs have already reached out to you. Please do not sign up through the fair directly until we have coordinated the teams. We apologize for any inconvenience.

    Those interested or with questions should contact: Susan Bardenhagen, AIAA NCS K12 STEM Committee Chair: smb4steam@gmail.com. Please reply by February 17th.

    Note also that Science Fair award sponsorships (especially in-kind giveaways for our winners) are available. Please contact Susan if you are interested in supporting.



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    Michael Barton
    Space Systems Engineer
    a.i. solutions, Inc.
    Washington DC
    (901)485-1464
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  • 2.  RE: Call for Judges: AIAA NCS Virtual Science Fairs 2023

    Posted 10 Feb, 2023 09:41

    This is great, thanks for giving us some lead time. I will pass this around the Boeing Potomac region and see if we can scrape up some volunteers.



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    Christopher Gee
    Aurora Flight Sciences, A Boeing Company
    OAK HILL VA
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