What belongs on a route sheet
- The judge's name and the fair line, such as the fair name and date.
- Each project's code and title, its table or board number and its room.
- The time of each visit, when the fair uses slots.
- The round, when there is more than one.
- A tick box, so the desk can see at a glance who has finished.
Leave student names off. The table number finds the project, and the sheet is often left on a clipboard in a public hall.
Walking order without slots
Without slots, the assigner prints each judge's projects in walking order: room by room, row by row, table by table. It also tries, while it assigns, to give each judge projects close together, counting a room change as 4 steps, a row change as 2 and each table between as 0.1, up to 2 along one row, so a judge in the gym is not sent to the library and back.
Schedules with time slots
With slots, each visit gets a time. A judge is in one place at a time, is only given slots inside the hours they said they are there, and a project hosts at most as many judges at once as you allow: one for the classic walk round, the whole panel when judges interview together. One regional judging guide listed below plans about eight to ten minutes per project, which is a sensible slot with a short walk.
Worked example: twelve ten minute slots
The sample fair in the judge assigner was given 12 slots of 10 minutes from 09:00 to 11:00, one judge at a table at a time. The assigner filled 108 of 108 seats with 0 broken rules. This is Marcus Bell's route sheet as it prints:
| Time | Table | Room | Project |
|---|---|---|---|
| 09:00 to 09:10 | B11 | Library | P123 Robot arm from syringes |
| 09:10 to 09:20 | B7 | Library | P119 Bridge truss strength |
| 09:20 to 09:30 | B3 | Gym | P115 Insulation and ice melt |
| 09:40 to 09:50 | B2 | Gym | P114 Best angle for a paper airplane |
| 09:50 to 10:00 | B1 | Gym | P113 Pendulum length and period |
| 10:10 to 10:20 | B5 | Gym | P117 Sound through different solids |
| 10:20 to 10:30 | B6 | Gym | P118 Solar oven design |
| 10:40 to 10:50 | B4 | Gym | P116 Magnet strength and temperature |
| 10:50 to 11:00 | A4 | Gym | P104 Plant growth under LED light |
Gaps in the times are free slots: a judge with fewer projects than slots gets breaks, which is where late interviews and lunch go.
Common mistakes
- Printing route sheets from one spreadsheet and project lists from another, so they drift after a change.
- Slots with no time for walking between rooms.
- Scheduling a judge outside the hours they said they are there.
- Two judges at one table at the same time when interviews are meant to be one to one.
- Putting student names on a sheet left lying on a table.
For fairs that judge in rotations with short visits, see hackathon judging rotations.