A parent can help a student a lot in the competition.  There are a number of projects that are of nearly equal quality from a research point of view.  They discovered something in the process, took measurements to obtain data, or acquired existing data, analyzed, graphed, and drew a conclusion, what more is there?

Important Facts and Frequently Asked Questions:

• It is the science, math and technology behind the project that moves it to the top, but, there are several who make it to the top. 
  
  
• How do the judges decide on “the best”?   That is a tough question, but fairly easy to answer.  More than one judge reviews every project, and this team of judges work together after each has independently judged those assigned  They then caucus and review/discuss, until the entire team is satisfied this one is the best. 
  
  
• What influences a judge to pick one out of several that are all excellent science or engineering projects?  The ability to clearly communicate.  For High School students this includes the personal interview where the judge can truly assess how much the student really knows about his/her project.  For the K-8 students, the only thing for the judges to evaluate is the project communication; the board, abstract, and the notebook/journal. 

So, as a parent you have the opportunity to review the project communications before it is subjected to the scrutiny of the judges.  You do not have to know or understand the complexity of the project to ask questions about it (a good project can be explained to anyone):   ask your student questions.