8.0 Oral Defense (Seniors Only) 

8.1 Study Guide

8.2 Judge's Scorecard

8.3 Event Description

Objectives

Each contestant will demonstrate their understanding of wildlife management individually by responding to questions about the team’s written wildlife management plan.

Overview

In this event, each contestant appears before a judge or judges and answers questions about the team’s wildlife management plan.  To be successful and score well in the Oral Defense of Written Plan, it is important that each and every team member actively participates in developing the wildlife management plan.  Each team member is expected to demonstrate his or her understanding of the plan. Typically, the 4-Her is asked about three questions and the interview lasts about five minutes. Practice for this event by using the judge's score sheet and judge yourself and your teammates. Be kind and offer one or two areas of improvement to each person.  

Contest Rules

1. Contestants are to prepare for the oral defense interview during time allotted for writing the wildlife management plan. 
2. Team members are called individually to converse with judges and answer questions about the plan at a location where they cannot be overheard.
3. Contestants are not to discuss the interview with anyone including teammates, other contestants, or coaches until after the contest.
4. Questions about the plan can include the wildlife habitat needs of the selected species, ecological concepts such as predator/prey and food chain, selection and implementation of management practices, and plan evaluation. 

Scoring

Refer to the Judges Scorecard for this event. Notice the majority of points on the scorecard are awarded for knowledge of the subject matter. The remaining points focus on presentation style. 

The top three scores will be added together to contribute to your team’s score. If four persons are on a team, the lowest score will be dropped. If only three persons are on a team, all three scores will be added together for the team score.  Note that scores for Oral Defense of Written Plan are not included in determining high individual scores.