The FIRST Tech Challenge wants to transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology heroes #weneedmore. You will be a part of an amazing, inspiring experience where kids share ideas, solve problems on the fly, compete like crazy, and get pumped up over technology 

Are special skills needed?  No special skills are needed.  Our judge panels typically have a mixture of veterans and novice judges.  90% of what happens in judging is not dependent on any particular knowledge or personal skill of the judges

What? This is an all day Saturday volunteer opportunity. Judges are expected to do 1 to  2  hours of preparation-online. There is usually a short online conference call the week before the tournament.

What happens during the day?  Judges will meet with two or three other judges in the morning and then interview five or six teams using a rubric to assess the teams for seven different awards.  After the initial interviews, judges get together with the larger group and discuss their findings and how the teams rank in the seven different categories.  Judges are then reassigned to one of those categories, based on their personal skills,  and the top ranked teams are re-interviewed.

Comments from judges?   As a first-time judge, participant, and observer of a FIRST competition, I can attest, without hesitation, to having experienced each of the latter. You owe it to the young minds that depend upon you, in addition to yourself, to embrace this opportunity to make a difference and to play it forward - the progress of the World will not wait, nor should you.”

I was blown away by the motivation, effort and ingenuity that these kids demonstrated through their presentations, engineering notebooks and robots. It's a great opportunity to serve as a volunteer judge and encourage these kids in their pursuit of STEM related activities."