Building Judging Skills in Afterschool Youth
Lauren L. Bressett
Extension Educator, 4-H Youth Development
Judging is an activity that requires a combination of life skills and knowledge. As you plan
judging experiences for youth, you should consider all the knowledge and skills that the activity
requires.
Skills
Knowledge
Making choices
Parts of project items
Analyzing differences
Desired characteristics
Putting differences in logical sequence
Proper form or structure
Thinking in the positive
Deviations from normal
Presenting one’s opinion
Desired characteristics
Speaking with confidence
Proper terminology
Acceptable variations
Consider what areas your group could use practice with. Here are some ideas.
Analyzing Differences
Give the youth two different items to study like a potholder and a hat. Have them list all the ways
they are alike and all the ways they are different. Once they become skilled at this, give them
more similar items such as a wood stir spoon and a teaspoon or a ball point refillable pen and a felt
tip pen.
Making Choices and Setting Criteria
Cup Judging
Set up 4 disposable cups of different types. Have members select what they consider the best.
Then give out different scenarios (serving coffee and hot chocolate, serving pudding parfait,
serving cold punch, want to be environmentally correct.) Ask if their choices have changed. This
points out that judging is a matter of opinion based upon assumptions that people have made. If
people have no criteria to judge, opinions can vary widely. The clearer the criteria are, the more
likely the agreement in results. What criteria would they suggest for each scenario?
Pencil Judging
Provide 4 different pencils (such as a new, unsharpened one, a short one, one without an eraser,
one used but in good shape). Have the youth make their selection. Ask who is right? Then give
out scenarios such as you are doing your math homework, you want a pencil for your new pencil
box, you need to fill out a contest entry, etc. Do choices change? What would some criteria be for
each scenario?
The University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension is an equal opportunity educator and employer.
The University of New Hampshire, US Department of Agriculture and NH counties cooperating.
Banana Judging
Use a large, small, green, and overripe banana. Have members judge. Which should be first?
Last? If you wanted to make banana bread, which would be better? If you were very hungry? If
you just wanted a small snack? If you wanted to set one aside for a snack two days from now?
Again, have members set criteria for each scenario and then rank the bananas.
Project Knowledge and Terminology
Have members match pictures to pictures, words to words and words to pictures. For example,
members can classify pictures of food into fruits and vegetables, by color, by flavor. They can
match the names to the pictures; they can match the names to the type of food, etc. Have members
build their word banks not just with titles for items, but also correct terms used to describe or
classify those items.
Using the Judging Sheet Template
Once youth are familiar with a topic area, and know how to set criteria and make choices, they can
used these skills in ranking items in the Microwave Magic activities. For each ranking activity,
have the youth determine what qualities are desirable in what is being evaluated. Some examples
are listed below but have the youth do the brainstorming, rather than giving them categories. Once
they have agreed on criteria, they should list the items being evaluated across the top. They then
rank the items for each quality. By looking at the total quality ranking, the youth can determine
which is the best of the class, the next best, etc.
Examples
Popcorn
Flavor
Crispness
Not greasy
Ranking
Sample 1
+
√
+
2
Sample 2
√
√
√
3
Sample 3
+
+
+
1
Sample 4
√
4
For younger youth, using a smiley, straight, or unhappy face might be more effective for rankings.
For older youth, as they become more skilled, they could assign a point value to each criteria,
allowing some criteria to carry more weight than others. When evaluating, the youth would
determine how many of each criteria’s points (for example 8 out of 10 for flavor) each item
earned.
Some criteria ideas:
Micro safe tools: ease of use, safe for microwaving, effectiveness of design, achieves results, size.
Packaged foods: nutrient value, price, taste, ease of preparation, cooking and cleanup time.
Microwaved foods: color, taste, texture, appearance, cooking time, cost, nutrient value.
LLB 1994, revised 2007