2014 Science Olympiad Events

TEST EVENTS: Life, Personal, and Social Science

Anatomy and Physiology Anatomy and Physiology is an event which tests students' knowledge about the anatomy of a human body. Division C will test on three body systems: nervous (brain and sensory organs), integumentary (skin), and immune. Tests involve multiple choice questions, true/false, short answer, and identifying body parts.

Disease Detectives (Environmental Quality) Disease Detectives focuses on epidemiology, that is, the study of diseases and how they spread. The focus topic is environmental quality. Tests involve analyzing why and how specific diseases spread from various scenarios. It’s important to know multiple concepts of epidemiology along with applying those concepts to specific examples.

Entomology Entomology is an event in which competitors must be able to identify insects from 30 orders and 100 families (Division C only). You should have a good amount of knowledge on general insect information. On most tests, questions about behavior, structure, human impact, and any characteristics of certain insects may be asked. Similar to last year’s Forestry event

Designer Genes Designer Genes is based on genetics and molecular biology (introns/exons, mitosis/meiosis, leading/lagging strand, etc). Tests involve true/false, multiple choice, and some short answer. It’s important to not just know the information but also apply it to scenarios.

Water Quality Water Quality tests the ability to identify aquatic organisms and the understanding of the indicators of water quality. Topics that may be included are aquatic ecology, water cycle, nutrient cycling, waste water treatment, aquatic food chains and webs, community interactions, population dynamics, harmful species, etc. Along with the test, it is mandatory to make a hydrometer.

TEST EVENTS: Physical Science and Chemistry

Chemistry Lab Equilibrium & Chem Reactions/Stoichiometry This is a two-part event which tests students’ knowledge on topics such as stoichiometry, reaction types, oxidation and reduction, aqueous solutions, equilibrium, periodicity and basic thermodynamics. Tests involve multiple choice, true/false, short answer, and an experiment with follow up lab questions.

Forensics Chemistry event that 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.

Materials Science Materials Science tests knowledge of the properties and characteristics of metals, ceramics, polymers and composite materials, with a focus on material characterization techniques, intermolecular forces, and surface chemistry. Two part test containing multiple choice questions and short lab experiments

TEST EVENTS: Inquiry & Nature of Science

Experimental Design In experimental design, you will be given several materials and asked to perform an experiment on a certain science topic. You have to design an experiment and outline all parts of the scientific method in explicit detail. It's judged on how detailed you are and if your experiment is plausible.

Technical Problem Solving Students will apply scientific theories and principles related to the current topics in the solution of the problems. Students will be asked to collect data, make measurements, and determine specific values to solve a problem using probeware that has been provided, set up, and demonstrated by the supervisor. Experimental measurements and calculations may be required in written portion.

Write It Do It A student is shown an object built from, but not limited to, such items as science materials, inexpensive materials (e.g., straws, push pins, Styrofoam balls, paper cups Popsicle sticks, etc.) or commercial sets (e.g., Googoplex, K'nex, Tinker Toys, Lego, etc.) The student has 25 minutes to write a description of the object and how to build it. There will be no advantage to finishing early. Only numerals, words and single letters may be used.

BUILD EVENTS :

Boomilever This event asks you to build a device that holds 15kg of mass It must attach to a wall and must be loaded on the other side. ATTACH HERE Load here

Boomilever

Bungee Egg Drop New 2014 Event A device is pulled from a bungee cord with an egg in it. The goal is to stop the device as close to the ground as possible without breaking the egg. The team with the largest displacement wins

Bungee Egg Drop

Elastic Launched Glider Teams are to create an aircraft that launches using elastic and flies like a normal plane. The team with the longest airtime wins.

Mission Impossible This is a new event for Basically, it’s a Rube Goldberg machine that does a number of specified things (in the rule book) in the shortest amount of time.

Scrambler Teams are to build a car that stops before a wall placed at a certain distance. The device must also accommodate an egg and it must not break throughout the run. The team that gets the closest to the wall wins.

BUILD EVENTS: Engineering Knowledge Events These events have a building component and a test component.

Maglev Teams are to build a device that hovers over a track using magnets and is propelled by a single propeller. THIS EVENT ALSO HAS A TEST COMPONENT ABOUT MAGNETS.

Circuit Lab The first half of this event consists of an exam covering Physical Circuitry (the science part, no IC or Logic knowledge required). The second half is done on a prototyping board (PLD or Breadboard). You may need to know logic or the function of IC chips for this section.

Circuit Lab

Compound Machines This is a new event for this year. The first half consists of an exam about compound machines and will ask you to calculate forces on the objects in the machines (Think physics). The second half will be a lab investigation using compound machines (think physics lab exams).

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