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Volunteer in Education

Members can volunteer for education in several ways as judges, screeners, mentors, and outreach speakers. Some chapter members are recruited by local colleges and universities to participate in committees to evaluate writing programs and coursework, to give classroom presentations on techical communication, and encourage their students to contact the chapter for informational mentoring.  Revised

For information about volunteer programs the chapter may be involved with for the year, contact the chapter president at chapter president

If you are interested in serving the chapter as a volunteer, please fill in the Chapter Volunteer Signup Form. Specify which areas of educational volunteering you are interested.

Chapter Memorial Awards

The Washington, DC – Baltimore (WDCB) Chapter is proud to offer awards to future and professional technical communicators. See the Education Information page for information about the awards. The awards are intended to honor individuals who make contributions to the technical communication profession in Maryland, DC, or Virginia.

Volunteers are needed to staff the education committee and process applications for our memorial awards.

• Austin T. Brown Technical Communication Award for high school students. We hope a new volunteer who is interested in managing a student competition will continue our long-standing student paper competition.
• Shirley G. Carter Memorial Award for college students. We hope a new volunteer will be interested in continuing the work of Della Whitaker, who managed the review of college-level papers.

Volunteers are needed to help judge student papers in science fairs. If you are interested in volunteering, please complete the High School / Science Fair Abstract Judging Application form.

If you are a full-time student in high school or an accredited college or university, we encourage you to submit your best work to the STC Alliance Competition. In the competition, the student who submits the best student entry will receive a Best Student Entry award.

For your student entry fee, you will receive

• Expert written feedback on your work by professional judges
• Opportunity to earn Merit, Excellence, Distinguished, and Best Student Entry awards from
  the STC WDCB Chapter

Enter today for your chance to win! https://competition.stcwdc.org/

* Note: All student entries must adhere to the STC competition rules given at competition entry rules.  Updated

Winners and their teachers will be notified by mail, listed on the website, and announced in our Events & News site, Twitter account, Facebook, and our LinkedIn group. Awards will be presented at an Awards Celebration on (date to be announced) 2023.

Science Fair Abstracts

"Science Fair Abstract Screeners are drawn from the ranks of science teachers, engineers, and scientists of multiple disciplines. There are subject matter experts (SMEs) from many fields who can accurately evaluate projects at both the Junior and Senior divisions. Technical communicators can act as SMEs for presentation of projects."

Chapter members can volunteer to act as presentation SMEs by filling out the High School / Science Fair Abstract Judging Application form.

There are two main criteria used in the screening process:

Scientific Method

In evaluating the student's use of the Scientific Method, the screener will review the project to determine if the student has, for example, formulated a testable hypothesis, used an adequate sample size, conducted enough trials for good statistical analysis, used a control (if appropriate), and other criteria specific to the student's project. The screener will use similar criteria for engineering, mathematical, or computer science projects.

Presentation

In evaluating the project for Presentation, the screener will review the student's Science Fair Notebook and Display Board to determine if the student has included those items that will communicate to the reader the student's understanding of the project, the process of how the student performed the experiment, and the analysis of the results obtained from the experiment. Typical areas screened will be the abstract, background research, bibliography, charts and data, graphics, grammar, and spelling.

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