Science Olympiad
Science Olympiad is an American team competition in which students compete in 23 events pertaining to various scientific disciplines, including earth science, biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering. Over 7,800 middle school and high school teams from 50 U.S. states compete each year. U.S. territories do not compete; however, since 2012 high school teams from Japan have competed at the national tournament as unranked guests.
There are multiple levels of competition: invitational, regional, state, and national. Invitational tournaments, run by high schools and universities, are unofficial tournaments and serve as practice for regional and state competitions. Teams that excel at regional competitions advance to the state level; the top one or two teams from each state then advance the national level. Winners later receive several kinds of awards, including medals, trophies and plaques, as well as scholarships. The program for elementary-age students is less common and consistent. Schools have flexibility to implement the program to meet their needs. Some communities host competitive elementary tournaments.
Science Olympiad is not associated with the International Science Olympiads, which is a group of science competitions with their own rules and objectives.
History
The first recorded Science Olympiad was held on Saturday, November 23, 1974 at St. Andrews Presbyterian College in Laurinburg, North Carolina. Dr. Barnes and Dr. David Wetmore were the originators of this event. Fifteen schools from North and South Carolina participated in this event. It was a day-long affair, with competitions and demonstrations for high school students in the areas of biology, chemistry, and physics. There were four event periods during this day and each event period had one fun event, one demonstration, and one serious event. An article by David Wetmore was published in the Journal of Chemical Education in January 1978 documenting the success of recruiting students through Science Olympiad. St. Andrews Presbyterian College continues to host a Science Olympiad tournament to this day. Mr. John C. "Jack" Cairns was a teacher at Dover High School in Delaware when he learned about the Science Olympiad tournament in North Carolina. He shared this information with Dr. Douglas R. Macbeth, the Delaware State Science Supervisor. Mr. Cairns was appointed to a steering committee to organize the first Science Olympiad in Delaware which took place at Delaware State University in the Spring of 1977. A write-up in The Science Teacher of December 1977 caught the attention of Gerard Putz, who proposed that the program be expanded throughout the United States. After competition tests in Michigan at the Lawrence Institute of Technology and Oakland University in 1983 and 1984, Putz and Delaware director John Cairns took their plan for a national competition to the National Science Teachers Conference in Boston. The first National Tournament was attended by representatives of 17 states, held at Michigan State University in 1985. Since then, the program has expanded greatly, with 60 teams present in each division at the National Tournament. In 2012, a Global Ambassador Team from Japan was invited to attend the national tournament at the University of Central Florida. Japan continues to send a team, as of the 2017 National Tournament.Divisions
There are three divisions in the hierarchy of Science Olympiad:- Division A for elementary school
- Division B for middle school
- Division C for high school
Events and event history
In Divisions B and C, teams may compete in up to twenty-three main events, which usually occur over a single day ; done by a team of no more than 15 members. Events fall into five main categories: Life, Personal, and Social Science, Earth & Space Science, Physical Science & Chemistry, Technology & Engineering, Inquiry & Nature of Science. They are either knowledge-based, hands-on, or engineering-based.Knowledge-based events generally have two participants taking a test and/or mathematically analyzing data. Examples of such events are Anatomy and Physiology, Meteorology, and Remote Sensing.
Hands-on events generally consist of two participants performing experiments or interacting with physical objects to achieve a certain goal. Some examples are Forensics, Experimental Design, and Hovercraft.
Engineering-based events have a team of two to three participants. They are to construct a device following a specific event's parameters and test the device against others. Examples include Battery Buggy, Towers, and Mission Possible.
The majority of events allow two team members, though a few allow more. If one member is unable to attend an event, the other is able to continue, depending on the event, with the competition, though at an obvious disadvantage. If the team has one available, a backup team member may be placed with the member as opposed to their former partner.
The list and rules for events change and are updated every year to input dynamism and to limit the advantages of more experienced teams.
States have substantial leeway in how they run their organization; several states, notably North Carolina and Texas, run altered slates of events; in the case of Texas, teams can choose to replace National events with state-exclusive events.
Events for the 2018-2019 school year
Includes the Division B and Division C events designated by the national committee.| Event Name | Description |
| Anatomy and Physiology | Teams will answer questions about the anatomy and physiology of the cardiovascular, lymphatic and excretory systems. Topics may include diseases in those systems as well as the general anatomy and function of each system. The event may be run in stations, as a PowerPoint exam, or administered as a test packet. Teams are allowed to bring writing utensils, two non-programmable non-graphing calculators, and one double-sided page of notes containing information in any form from any source. |
| Astronomy | Teams will answer questions on stellar evolution in normal and starburst galaxies. Specifically, questions involve in math and physics relating to the year's topic mentioned in the 2019 rule book. Teams may use either laptops or binders to reference during the test. |
| Battery Buggy | "Battery Buggy is a Division B vehicle event for the 2018 season. It requires participants to design and build a moving, battery-powered vehicle capable of traveling a certain distance and stopping as close to the ending dot at that distance, on the other side of the bucket, as possible. The device must meet several parameters regarding size, total power used, types of power used, and safety restrictions." |
| Boomilever | Teams will construct a boomilever that supports the most weight in sand as well as meet certain criteria. |
| Chemistry Lab | "Chemistry Lab is an event where participants must learn the respective year's selected aspects of chemistry and perform a lab or a set of labs regarding those topics." |
| Circuit Lab | Participants must complete tasks and answer questions about electricity and magnetism |
| Crime Busters | "In Crime Busters, students will identify perpetrators of a certain crime by identifying unknown powders, mixtures of powders, liquids, and metals, and analyzing hairs, fibers, plastics, fingerprints, DNA evidence, shoeprints, tire treads, soil, and splatters. Students will also analyze evidence from paper chromatography. Students should be able to use this data to answer some questions about who committed the crime and how the evidence supports their argument." |
| Code Busters | Teams will cryptanalyze encrypted messages using cryptanalysis techniques and show skill with advanced ciphers by encrypting or decrypting a message. |
| Density Lab | Participants compete in activities and answer questions about mass, density, number density, area density, concentration, pressure and buoyancy. |
| Disease Detectives | Disease Detectives is generally a written exam, testing knowledge of Epidemiology and immunity. Each year the subjects rotate around different fields of the study, ensuring no student will have the same field twice while participating in any one division. |
| Dynamic Planet | Students will use process skills to complete tasks related to glaciers, glaciation and long-term climate change. |
| Elastic Launch Gliders | Prior to the tournament teams design, construct, and test elastic launched gliders to achieve the maximum time aloft. |
| Experimental Design | Teams will design an experiment using a selected assortment of equipment and objects during the 50-minute session, and are scored on the thoroughness and quality of their lab report. |
| Fermi Questions | A Fermi Question is a science related question that seeks a fast, rough estimate of a quantity which is difficult or impossible to measure directly. Teams will take a test consisting of Fermi questions. Answers will be estimated within an order of magnitude recorded in powers of 10. |
| Forensics | "Forensics... involves identification of powders, polymers, fibers, and hair samples, blood serum and fingerprint analysis, and interpretation of chromatography. Given a scenario and some possible suspects, students will perform a series of tests. These tests, along with other evidence or test results, will be used to solve a crime." |
| Fossils | Teams demonstrate their knowledge of ancient life by completing selected tasks at a series of stations including but not limited to fossil identification, answering questions about classification, habitat, ecologic relationships, behaviors, environmental adaptations and the use of fossils to date and correlate rock units. |
| Game On | Teams will create a computer game on a designated topic using the programming language Scratch. |
| Geologic Mapping | Teams will demonstrate understanding in the construction and use of topographic maps, geologic maps, and cross sections, and their use in forming interpretations regarding subsurface structures and geohazard risks. |
| Heredity | Participants will solve problems and analyze data or diagrams using their knowledge of the basic principles of genetics. |
| Herpetology | Teams will deal with the identification and life science of different specimens of amphibians and reptiles. |
| Meteorology | Climate |
| Mission Possible | Teams will design and test a Rube Goldberg machine that will include a start and end action, as well as any number of minor actions in between. |
| Mousetrap Vehicle | Teams will design, build and test a vehicle using one mousetrap as the sole means of propulsion to reach a target as quickly, accurately and in as little time as possible. |
| Mystery Architecture | Teams will be given materials with which they will build a structure. Competitors may be asked to build towers, bridges, and cantilevers. Common materials include drinking straws, bamboo skewers, index cards, string, tape, rubber bands, and craft sticks. |
| Potions and Poisons | Teams will demonstrate their knowledge on specified substances' chemical properties and effects with a focus on common toxins and poisons. |
| Protein Modeling | Students will use computer visualization and online resources to construct physical models of the CRISPR Cas9 protein that is being engineered to edit plant and animal cell genomes, and answer a series of questions about the chemistry of protein folding and the interaction of structure and function for model proteins. |
| Road Scholar | Teams will demonstrate their knowledge of the use of maps and satellite images. |
| Roller Coaster | Prior to the competition, teams design, build, and test a roller coaster track to guide a ball or sphere that uses gravitational potential energy as its sole means of propulsion to travel as close as possible to a target time. |
| Solar System | Teams will demonstrate their understanding of terrestrial bodies. |
| Sounds of Music | Teams must construct and tune one device prior to the tournament based on a 12-tone equal tempered scale and complete a written test on the physics of sound. |
| Thermodynamics | Teams must construct an insulated device prior to the tournament that is designed to retain heat. Teams must also complete a written test on thermodynamic concepts. |
| Water Quality | Participants will be assessed on their understanding and evaluation of aquatic environments. |
| Wright Stuff | Teams will build, test, and fly a monoplane. |
| Write It Do It | One team member will attempt to build a device using only the instructions written by their teammate, who tries to describe a pre-built device. The team with the device closest to the original will win. |
| Picture This | Trial event |
Trial/Pilot Events
Trial/Pilot events are, at Regional and State tournaments, events that are specific to that state that are being considered as events for the next year. At Regionals and States, these events may count towards the team's score. At Nationals, however, there is a completely different set of Trial/Pilot events, sometimes known as "alternate events" because the people entering them do not have to be on the official team. These do not count towards the team's score, but ribbons and medals are usually awarded.Distinction Between Trial and Pilot Events
The terms "trial event" and "pilot event" are sometimes interchangeable, both pertaining to an event that is not an official, national event for the year. However, at the National Tournament, there are often two differences. First, in 2010, it was announced that medals would only be awarded to the top 3 in the Trial events, but not at all in the Pilot events. Also, the Trial event are often much closer to becoming official events for following years than pilot events. Almost all of the Trial events from recent National tournaments have become official events within a few years of the tournament, while the same is not true for almost any of the pilot events.Team Structure
Teams are hosted by the school from which the participants attend. Science Olympiad is most often run as an after-school extracurricular activity, but some schools offer Science Olympiad classes that allow students to receive academic credit for participation. A teacher, parent, or student coordinates the team in practice and preparation for the competition. Often there are others who coach individual events as well. A team can consist of up to 15 students and any number of alternates; some states allow more students per team. At the middle school level at nationals, only five ninth graders are allowed to compete on one team; at the high school level, only seven twelfth graders are allowed per team. However, state organizations occasionally amend these rules. Homeschool groups may also form as many teams as they need to compete, provided each team consists only of students residing in, at most, two contiguous counties.Although teams may have an unlimited number of alternates, it is implicitly stated within the rules that competitors present at the event must have completed all of the work on their event. This is specifically aimed at building events. It is illegal for teams to have their alternates as "builders" and their formal team members as "thinkers". Judges at the event are allowed to ask any question of the machine or contraption in an effort to keep the scenario above from occurring. Nonetheless, competitors, coaches, and entire teams are expected to have integrity and to abide by this rule.
A great deal of strategy usually goes into forming a team. Since events go on at the same time as other events during a competition and conflicts may occur, the coach or coordinator must make decisions based on the competitor's specialty and ability in order to correctly place him/her. Sometimes, usually during the reformation of competitors when a team advances a level, a competitor who wasn't originally planned to compete in a certain event may have to compete in it to fill the certain event slot.
Scoring
The of the competition is determined by each team's overall score. Each school is ranked in every event based on that event's rules. For each type of event, the ranking differs. Knowledge events are scored by the correct number of answers; the team with the highest score will receive 1st place, the second highest will receive 2nd place, and so on. If two teams are tied, there are usually tiebreaker questions that apply only to those teams that are tied. The non-testing events are scored based off the individual requirements listed in the Science Olympiad rule book, released each year to reflect new events, requirements, and clarifications. Some events, such as the knowledge/testing-based will rank teams by using the highest scores. However others may use the lowest score. The team's overall score is then calculated by adding together the rank of the school in all events. The team with the lowest overall score is declared the winner. However, some state competitions choose to score the competition by awarding more points per place and having the team with the most points being declared the winner.There are several ways to break a tie :
- One method for tie-breaking is based on medals where the team with more first place medals wins. If both teams have the same amount of first places, it moves to second place medals and so on. This is the method that the National Tournament uses.
- Before a competition, the event organizer decides on several events to be used as tie-breakers. If two teams get the same score overall, the team that rates highest in that one event will take the lead.
- A third way of tie-breaking is to use a team's score in trial/pilot events. The team with the best combined score in trial events would win the competition when this method is used.
- In some competitions, there also may questions added into event, labeled as tie-breakers. If needed, these questions can be used as tie breakers, although this type of tie-breaker is generally for only the event and not the overall rank.
Competition Levels
Many states also hold invitational tournaments. These competitions serve as "practice rounds" for qualifying tournaments, and are hosted by individual middle schools, high schools and/or colleges. Invitationals occur most commonly in January or February, although there have been some as early as October or as late as April. Teams can participate in invitationals from multiple states depending on availability. At some invitationals, only a few events are held. However, many invitational tournaments mimic regional and state competitions in their competitive intensity. For example, MIT hosts an invitational tournament each year with around 70 teams from over a dozen states, including 20 or more past national qualifiers. Other tournaments, especially in the midwest, are well known for their quality and competitiveness. In this way, teams can gain extra practice before competing in regional, state, or national tournaments. In 2014, Yale University became one of the first institutions of higher education to host a tournament run by Science Olympiad alumni, with several more following over the next few years.
National Tournament
The National Science Olympiad competition is held in late May at a different university every year. Teams compete at the state competition with the top two schools in Division B and Division C each earning a spot at the national competition. Some states are given a second slot, based on the membership within the division. The total number of invited teams in each division is equal to 60 and the national tournament hosts 120 teams. In 2012, at the University of Central Florida, a team from Japan was invited as a Global Ambassador Team. Although they competed in several events, their scores were not tallied against the state teams.The competition officially begins with opening ceremonies on Friday night that usually include a notable speaker, such as a Nobel Laureate. A traditional Swap Meet follows the opening ceremonies which is an opportunity for teams to meet and greet. They bring state memorabilia to trade with other teams. The most popular items include hats, license plates, T-shirts, and key chains.
Saturday includes several time blocks. Each block includes a 60-minute section for each study event, plus a 15-minute break time for competitors to get from one event to another.
That night, a formal Awards Ceremony is held. It opens with a short speech followed by awarding medals for the top six teams in each event. Points for all the events are added together to determine an overall national team winner. The trial events are not included in this tally. The top ten teams in each division are recognized with trophies and plaques.
In some national tournaments, scholarships are awarded to the top teams in each event. For the 2005 and 2010 competitions, held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, first-place event winners received full four-year tuition waivers to the university. At the 2006 National Tournament, host Indiana University awarded $7,000 annual scholarships to those who finished first place in Division C and who attend the university in their freshman year. The George Washington University offered Division C gold medalists at its 2008 National Tournament a $20,000 stipend for those who were accepted and attended GWU. In 2012, the University of Central Florida offered $30,000 scholarships to the university for first place medalists in Division C. Additional awards may also provided by sponsors and industry leaders for specific events. For example, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention provided first place medalists in Disease Detectives with a trip for the two competitors and their coach to tour the CDC facility in Atlanta, Georgia.
National Locations and Champions
This is a list of past national champions and locations.List of National Championships by School
Division B
| Rank | School | No. of Championships | Years |
| 1 | J.C. Booth M.S. | 8 | 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2006 |
| 1 | Solon M.S. | 8 | 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2018 |
| 3 | Irmo M.S. | 3 | 1988, 1989, 1990 |
| 4 | Slauson I.S. | 2 | 1985, 1986 |
| 4 | Thomas Jefferson M.S. | 2 | 1993, 1996 |
| 4 | State College J.H.S. | 2 | 1994, 1995 |
| 4 | Community M.S. | 2 | 2005, 2007 |
| 4 | Daniel Wright J.H.S. | 2 | 2016, 2017 |
| 9 | Gompers S.S. | 1 | 1987 |
| 9 | Grandville J.H.S. | 1 | 1991 |
| 9 | Jenison J.H.S. | 1 | 1992 |
| 9 | Rising Starr M.S. | 1 | 2002 |
| 9 | Beckendorff J.H.S. | 1 | 2014 |
| 9 | Kennedy M.S. | 1 | 2019 |
Division C
| Rank | School | No. of Championships | Years |
| 1 | Troy H.S. | 13 | 1996, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019 |
| 2 | Solon H.S. | 4 | 1998, 2011, 2012, 2013 |
| 3 | Grand Haven H.S. | 3 | 1993, 1994, 1997 |
| 3 | Harriton H.S. | 3 | 1995, 2001, 2005 |
| 3 | Irmo H.S. | 3 | 1987, 1989, 1990 |
| 6 | Seaholm H.S. | 2 | 1985, 1986 |
| 6 | La Jolla H.S. | 2 | 1991, 1992 |
| 6 | Centerville H.S. | 2 | 2009, 2010 |
| 9 | Haverford H.S. | 1 | 1988 |
| 9 | Fayetteville-Manilus H.S. | 1 | 2004 |
| 9 | Mira Loma H.S. | 1 | 2016 |
List of States by Number of National Tournaments Hosted
| Rank | State | No. of Tournaments Hosted |
| 1 | 4 | |
| 1 | 4 | |
| 2 | 3 | |
| 2 | 3 | |
| 5 | 2 | |
| 5 | 2 | |
| 5 | 2 | |
| 5 | 2 | |
| 5 | 2 | |
| 5 | 2 | |
| 11 | 1 | |
| 11 | 1 | |
| 11 | 1 | |
| 11 | 1 | |
| 11 | 1 | |
| 11 | 1 | |
| 11 | 1 | |
| 11 | 1 |
Six universities have hosted the National Tournament twice: Michigan State University, Ohio State University, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, Indiana University-Bloomington, University of Central Florida, and Wright State University.