Elementary Science Olympiad at FAU Mike McKee Ingrid Johanson State Director Regional Director

INTRODUCTION TO SCIENCE OLYMPIAD

Philosophy of Science Olympiad Improve quality of science education. Create a passion for science learning. Provide recognition for achievement. Started in 1983 Now over 14,000 teams First FAU regional in 2008 had 3 teams 2016 regional 68 teams! 2015 record 25 ESO teams!

Structure of Science Olympiad Team consists of 12 students, one coach. Division A = elementary school (grades 3-5) –Division B = middle school regional –Division C = high school competition All students must be from their home school. Can have as many separate teams as you want – but must have separate registration for each.

Types of Events Research based events Prebuilt events Lab based

The Events: Division A A IS FOR ANATOMY BRIDGE BUILDING EGG DROP ENERGY LAB FOOD SCIENCE MYSTERY PACKAGING MYSTERY POWDERS PICTURE THIS – The Weather ROCK HOUND SOLID, LIQUID, OR GAS STARRY, STARRY NIGHT WATER ROCKETS WHO WANTS TO BE A BIOLOGIST?

Competitions and Training Regional Tournaments: Florida Atlantic University Feb 13, 2016 State Tournament: University of Central FloridaMarch 19, 2016 Elementary Science FAU: April 16, 2016 National Tournament (B&C only): University of Wisconsin, Stout - May 20-21, 2016, Menomonie, Wisconsin University of Wisconsin, Stout

Regionals Teams compete in one of 7 regionals 42 teams per division at State competition 2 teams to Nationals Open regional policy ESO tournaments are stand alone

COACH’S TIPS |

Tips on being a coach Get into groups of 3-4 & brainstorm: –New coaches: What major concerns/questions do you have as a first-time coach? –Experienced coaches: What are your best 2-3 tips for being a coach? Fundraising? Group structure – multiple teams? Selecting team members? Preparation for competition? –SHARE

Organizing a team – who competes in what event???? Each student will do 2-3 events Try to place student in as many of their favorite events as possible Check the schedule for conflicts A team can only compete one time in each event If you have multiple teams from your school, you can’t switch between the two on the day of the competition (WRIST BANDS) Alternates can’t pop on and off the team on day of competition.

Organizing a team Students don’t have to remain connected to each other throughout the day. (Suzie and Joe can do Anatomy and Suzie and Mary can do Food Science) Review the rules carefully. Binders are allowed for some events Check the scoring carefully

Events and Scoring

Try to compete in every event. The top half are scored with ties broken So if there are 20 teams, we will tie-break up to 10. –1 st place gets 1 pt –2 nd place gets 2 pts –10 th place gets 10 points –11-20 th place gets 11 points –A “Do not show” gets 12 pts (last place + 1)

How to Read the Schedule

Parents Observe – yes Cheer on – yes Do – no Help – no Walk into rooms – no Arbitrate – no Pretend they are doing the event in an effort to relive childhood – no

The Code of Conduct Student participants are expected to compete in tournament events with an honest effort to follow the rules and the spirit of that competition. The goal of competition is to give one’s best effort while displaying honest, integrity, and sportsmanship. Students, coaches, parents, and guests are expected to display courtesy and respect toward Olympiad officials, other teams, and guests of the Olympiad. Failure to show honesty and/or courtesy by a participant, coach or guest of the team may result in disqualification of the team from that event, the entire tournament or future tournaments.

THE RULES RULE |

KEEP IN MIND If there is a conflict with information in the rules, the official rules ALWAYS take precedent!

Deconstructing the Rules –Build events: (see worksheet and rules for EGG DROP) General –What is the goal of the event? –What items/criteria are scored? –What do the bolded words mean? Event Parameters –What safety equipment is needed? –What is provided by the event supervisor? –What must be brought to the tournament? –What should or may be brought to the tournament? –What is the difference?

Construction Parameters: –What are minimum design requirements –What is not allowed to be used? –What are the maximum design requirements Competition Parameters: –Describe the competition space –Is this an impounded event? –What will be evaluated if the event is impounded? –Other than the device, what else is evaluated by the event supervisors? –How many trials are permitted? –How much time is permitted? –What happens if I have an "oops" I didn't mean to do that? –Are practices runs permitted? Deconstructing the Rules

–Lab and Research Based Events (see worksheet and rules for Anatomy) General –What is the goal of the event? –What items/criteria are scored? –What do the bolded words mean? Event Parameters –What safety equipment is needed? –What is provided by the event supervisor? –What must be brought to the tournament? –What should or may be brought to the tournament? –What is the difference?

Deconstructing the Rules Competition Parameters: –Describe the setup of the labs. –Describe the content focus. –Is this an impounded event? –What will be evaluated if the event is impounded? –How much time is permitted? –What happens if I have an "oops" I didn't mean to do that?

General Rules Who is allowed to help students and in what capacity? What is allowed into any event? What is not allowed into any event? Ways that you can be "disqualified" and the impact on scores.

Student Preparation For research based events – have students organize their binders WELL. This should be done in advance. For lab based events – have students act as a teacher! For build events – build, test, break, redesign.

Engineering Design Challenge Vehicles

E NGINEERING D ESIGN PROCESS © Florida Science Olympiad, 2014

NOW LET’S TRY IT!

Bridge Building You will have 20 min to build a bridge that will span a 50 cm gap and support 100 grams. Each team will be given 50 straws, scissors, a metric ruler, and 40 cm of masking tape. Each team will present bridge/design Each team will test their bridge © Florida Science Olympiad, 2014

Wrap up New coaches: have we covered your most concerning issues? Experienced coaches: what have we left out? |

For more information… Ingrid Johanson Mike McKee eso.floridascienceolympiad.org