Information for Judges
The Technovation Challenge inspires and enables girls around the world to dream up, design, code, and pitch mobile phone apps or AI projects that address community problems. Working with professional mentors, all-girl teams develop a real-world combination of technical and entrepreneurial skills.
This year, Technovation[MN] is hosting Appapalooza as a LIVE Virtual judging and IN-PERSON Code Savvy Celebration. The winners at Appapalooza will not automatically advance, though we do want to gather, with friends and families, to celebrate the outstanding work of the girls in Minnesota. Plus we will be presenting fabulous awards to our local winners. We are excited that you are joining us as a judge for Appapalooza 2023.
If you have additional questions, please email girlscode@technovationmn.org and we will answer the questions within 24 hours.
How do I start scoring my first submission?
The pitch or demo video is not working
How to give constructive feedback
Complete the short Technovation[MN] Judging Application
Technovation[MN] is an educational program that exists to inspire girls. Our highest priority is to develop girls to be comfortable with technology and become leaders in the Minnesota community. We want our judges to give fair and constructive feedback that continues to spark interest and enhance the learning experience.
As a judge, you will help select finalist teams using a custom rubric to score competition submissions. This is a simplified version of the Technovation Girls global judging rubric. We have two rounds of judging. The first is with your individual pre-work that will occur between April 27 and May 15, and the second will be at the live virtual pitch event, Appapalooza 2023, on May 20 between 9am and 12 pm, where hearing the live pitches may alter your original ratings.
Eligibility
Judging/Submission
All judging will begin April 27. At that time, all onboarded judges will receive the teams they are assigned to judge and the submitted materials. Each judge will be able to start scoring submissions via the judge rubric. You must completely judge all of your assigned teams by noon CT on May 15, 2023.
For this role, you will use the demo and pitch video to assess the technical aspects of the application. You will not be able to run emulators or run the applications live from your mobile device. This will keep the judging simple, yet allow a means to provide valuable feedback on the technology.
You must judge every submission assigned to you. We ask that you score the teams based on your understanding of the materials they have submitted. Contact girlscode@technovationmn.org immediately if there is any reason you're unable to judge a particular team's submission.
If the pitch or demo video is not working, email girlscode@technovationmn.org with your first name, last name, and email. Please also include the submission name, team name, and video link.
The team will be given 24 hours from the time we receive your email to fix the issue. Please revisit and judge the submission after 24 hours. If the video still doesn’t work, please score the submission based on your understanding of the other materials.
Your scores and comments are shared directly with young girls to inspire them to keep learning and developing their ideas. All scores and feedback you give should be framed to help girls continue learning. Some participants may not know anything about coding prior to this program - it's okay that they are not experts and that their ideas are not ready to go to market. Strive to provide them with individualized feedback that helps them continue their learning journey. Treat all young people as individuals, equally and with respect, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender identity, age, religion, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic background. The best constructive criticism for kids is uplifting, kind, and informative.
Ask yourself, do your comments help a young girl feel proud while giving constructive feedback for future development? Do your comments help a team who has spent 40+ hours building their idea feel excited to keep learning?
Remember girls come from different cultures and have different speaking styles and norms. Sometimes English is not their first language. Access to materials vary - your feedback should focus on the effort a team has to put into a submission, submissions should not be penalized for their level of technology resource access.
Looking for an easy way to ensure your constructive feedback is well received? Try adding “have you or your team considered…” to the beginning of any of the sentence starters.
Your scores and feedback are a launch point for continued learning and inspiration. We could not do this without your support.
The Appapalooza Judging Rubics are based on division and are a simplified version of the Gloal rubrics. There will be Google Forms for each division’s rubric. You will be assigned to only one of these divisions. If you selected a preferred division, we will do out best to comply with that request. These links will provide you with a preview of the actual Google Form Rubrics you will use to complete year scores: