Science Olympiad Information Night JML October 9, 2014

What is Science Olympiad ?  Science Olympiad Is Awesome! Science Olympiad Is Awesome!  Who? - Nonprofit organization that holds tournaments to promote science education and recognition of students’ achievement in science  What? - Tournament topics are balanced between the various science disciplines of biology, earth science, chemistry, physics and technology  Why? - Students can learn science concepts, process skills and science applications  Nearly 7,000 teams in 50 states  Teams compete in three levels of competition: Regional, State, and National.

JML Science Olympiad Club Mission: To nurture students’ interests in science outside of their academic curriculum and to provide an inspirational and challenging exposure to STEM disciplines.

JML SO Club - How does it work?  National Science Olympiad offers 23 topics/events every academic year, and encourages students to participate in events of their interest  We will be participating in Division B, which is for grades 6-8  This year will be JML’s second year participating in Science Olympiad and hence we are allowed to field two teams of 15 students for regional, and one team of 15 students for state and national tournaments.  Two students compete as a team in an event. Every student is paired with another student that is assigned the same topic/event of interest

 The events are broadly classified as Knowledge-based/learning events, Knowledge-based events with lab, Building events and Hands-On events JML SO Club - How does it work?  Once the events are assigned, the students are then requested to explore, research and study in depth, on their topics, with the assistance of parent mentors and/or event leaders.  Every student, aspiring to be part of the school team, is encouraged to participate in at least 3 events.  Club plans to meet biweekly on Thursdays after school. Students’ progress will be monitored and sources for various information and guidance will be provided during the club meetings. Regular attendance is required.

2015 Division B EVENTS FOR SCIENCE OLYMPIAD Knowledge-based/Learning Events: 1.Anatomy & Physiology 2.Disease Detectives 3.Dynamic Planet 4.Green Generation 5.Meteorology 6.Road Scholar (Map based) 7.Solar System

Knowledge-based and Lab/Station events 1.Bio-Process Lab 2.Can't Judge a Powder 3.Crave the Wave 4.Crime Busters (States Only) 5.Entomology

Building Events 1.Air Trajectory 2.Bottle Rocket (seeking permission ) 3.Bridge Building 4.Elastic Launched Glider 5.Simple Machines 6.Wheeled Vehicle 7.Robo-Cross (Not for Regional, States Only)

Hands-On Events 1.Picture This 2.Fossils 3.Write it, Do it 4.Experimental Design

2015 Timelines Regionals VASO is still negotiating regional times and locations State April 11 – Lake Braddock SS (Burke) … if we qualify Nationals May – University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska … if we qualify

Things you’d want to know…  We need parent volunteers to work with students as mentors/event leaders. The student pairs will need to meet once/twice a week for a minimum of one hour/event.  We will be participating in building events this year, only if parents of interested students are willing to be their kids’ mentor and financially support their project and provide guidance/supervision of building events preparation outside of school.  First Club meeting will be on Thursday, October 9 th, then every other Thursday  Students’ applications and online interest forms will be due by October 23  If there are more than 30 students signing up for learning events, a test will be administered on Nov 6 th, on 3 topics from this year’s events, to select potential team competitors for these events.  For building events, students will be selected by end of Dec/Jan. Students will be required to display their work and answer questions on their device in a school- wide building events competition.

 We currently have 9 active members already on one of our school teams.  SO Club will consist of approximately 45 students starting Jan  Out of the 45 students in the club, 6 students will be selected to join team 1 and 15 students will be selected for team 2, based on competition(s), number of hours logged in for learning/working on their event and regular attendance to club meetings.  These two teams of 15 students will represent JML at the regional tournaments The team requires a good mix of students to cover the wide range of topics (all 23 events). So, students who are interested in more than one event, and perform well in more than one event, will have a better chance to be part of the school teams.  If we qualify for states, we can only send one team of 15 students, which will be comprised of the top scoring students from the Regional competition. Things you’d want to know…

Coordinator & Head Coach: Rajani Venkatesh – School Liaison and Assistant Coach: Dara Renaghan – Assistant Coach: Jenny Nichols – Assistant Coach: Kursten Szabos – Contacts for JML Science Olympiad:

Science Olympiad Links: JML Science Olympiad Page: Virginia Science Olympiad Homepage: Event Descriptions/Resources: *click on the tabs to the right of the screen Interest Survey for New Members: Qwqjy9rNk4-k0ro3_YkFDOMcmb8/viewform *Complete survey AFTER you have reviewed the different events