Question

explain how you make a judgment about whether a statement is a fact or an opinion

Answer 1

If it can be quantitatively proven, then it is a fact.
i.e. The statement "The moon is made of green cheese." It is not a true FACT , but can easily be disproved by testing the chemical composition of the moon.
However, the statement "Moon rocks taste like green cheese." is an opinion, because there is no way to prove that the moon taste like green cheese. There may be be people that disagree and there is no quantitative way to how this.