1. Florida Science Olympiad Southeast Regional at FAU
Mike McKee Ingrid Johanson
State Director Regional Director

2. INTRODUCTION TO SCIENCE OLYMPIAD 2018

3. Philosophy of Science Olympiad
Improve quality of science education.
Create a passion for science learning.
Provide recognition for achievement.
Started in 1983
Currently, there are nearly 7,800 secondary schools from 50 states participating, with an additional 10,000 or more elementary schools
FAU started with 3 teams in 2008 and now we have over 60 teams competing each year

4. Where to look for information?
National site:
State site:
Regional site: |

5. Competitions and Training
Southeast Regional Tournament: Feb 17, 2018
Florida Atlantic University
State Tournament:  March 24, 2018
University of Central Florida
National Tournament (B & C): May 18-19, 2018
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado
Elementary Science Olympiad: May 5, 2018

6. Regionals
Teams compete in one of 8 regionals
42 teams per division at State competition
2 teams to Nationals
Open regional policy: new regional at University of Miami
ESO tournaments are stand alone

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THE NITTY GRITTY
GETTING GOING |

8. Structure of Science Olympiad
A team consists of 15 students, one coach.
Division B = middle school
Division C = high school
All students must be from their home school.
Can have as many separate teams as you want – but must have separate registration for each and a coach for each

9. 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.

10. Organizing a team
Students don’t have to remain connected to each other throughout the day.
Review the rules carefully.
Binders are allowed for some events
Check the scoring carefully, so you understand what is weighted most heavily.

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EVENTS |

12. Types of Events
Lab based
Research based events
Prebuilt events

13. The Events: Division B B - Anatomy & Physiology B - Microbe Mission
B - Battery Buggy
B - Crime Busters
B - Disease Detectives
B - Dynamic Planet
B- Ecology
B - Experimental Design
B - Fast Facts
B - Herpetology
B - Hovercraft
B - Math Challenge
B - Meteorology
B - Microbe Mission
B - Mystery Architecture
B - Optics
B - Potions and Poisons
B - Road Scholar
B - Rocks and Minerals
B - Roller Coaster
B - Solar System
B - Thermodynamics
B - Towers
B - Wright Stuff
B - Write It Do It
Click on hovercraft to show info available on national web site

14. The Events: Division C C - Anatomy & Physiology C - Hovercraft
C - Astronomy
C - Chemistry Lab
C - Disease Detectives
C - Dynamic Planet
C - Ecology
C - Experimental Design
C - Fermi Questions
C - Forensics
C - Game on
C - Helicopters
C - Herpetology
C - Hovercraft
C - Material Science
C - Math Challenge
C - Microbe Mission
C - Mission Possible
C - Mousetrap Vehicle
C - Optics
C - Remote Sensing
C - Rocks and Minerals
C- Thermodynamics
C - Towers
C - Write It Do It

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2018 EVENTS
Anatomy & Physiology B, C: respiratory, digestive and immune systems
Battery Buggy B: between 9-12 m distance, announced after impound
Disease Detectives B,C: focus on food-borne illness
Dynamic Planet B, C: focus on large scale processes affecting the earth’s crust
Herpetology B,C: this year
Hovercraft B, C: back this year! |

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2018 EVENTS B and C events
Mystery Architecture: at the beginning of the event, teams will be given a bag of building materials and instructions for designing and building a tower or bridge that can be tested.
All teams will build from 8:00 – 8:50. The device will then be tested based on the self-scheduled time.
Potions and Poisons: about chemical properties and effects of specified toxic and therapeutic chemical substances, with a focus on household and environmental toxins or poisons.
Roller Coaster: teams design, build, and test a Roller Coaster track to guide a vehicle that uses gravitational potential energy as its sole means of propulsion to travel as close as possible to a target time. |

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2018 EVENTS B and C events
Fermi Questions C: science related questions that seek fast, rough estimates of a quantity, which is either difficult or impossible to measure directly
E.g., “How many drops of water are there in Lake Erie?”
Estimate volume of 1 drop of water
Estimate volume of Lake Erie from its dimensions
Fast Facts: let’s try this one! |

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Events and Scoring
For each event, competitors will receive a medal for finishing in 1st- 6th place
Teams are scored for how they performed in all events – low (rank) score wins
Top 3 teams receive a trophy and each member of the team will receive a medal |

19. Events and Scoring Try to compete in every event.
All teams are scored & this will be available to you
Only the top 50% are scored and ranked with ties broken [rationale]
So if there are 26 teams, we will score everyone, but tie-break and assign ranks up to 13.
1st place gets 1 pt
2nd place gets 2 pts
12th place gets 12 points
th place gets 13 points
A “Do not show” gets 14 pts (last place + 1)

20. Events and Scoring

21. Events and Scoring

22. Events and Scoring

23. How to Read the Schedule
YES
Location?
Impound?
Open to public?
Self-schedule? |

24. How to Read the Schedule

25. Parents
Observe – yes – open events
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

26. 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.

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COACH’S TIPS |

28. Get into groups of 3-4 & brainstorm:
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

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THE RULES RULE |

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

31. Deconstructing the Rules
Build events: (see worksheet and rules for TOWERS)
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?

32. Deconstructing the Rules
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?

33. Deconstructing the Rules
Lab and Research Based Events
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? [goggles? Lab coat?]
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?

34. 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?

35. 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.

36. 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.

37. Competition Day Information
Arrive early! Registration will start at 6:45 am (div C). Bring required forms: ON WEBSITE
final registration form
code of conduct
emergency contact form
media release form
Bring repair kit, extra parts, extra googles, etc.
Before you leave Registration, COUNT your wristbands. You should have 15 marked with your team number. You will receive a different color band to mark you as the COACH. |

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COMPETITION DAY
You will be assigned a “homeroom” – make sure an adult remains with your belongings.
Know who is taking devices to IMPOUND. The impound occurs in the same room as the competition.
Distribute the wrist bands and make sure they are snug and won’t come off.
Be sure you know who needs to be where prior to the start of each hour.
Events marked “OPEN” can be viewed. Otherwise, just competitors and event personnel are permitted in the room. |

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COMPETITION DAY
Coaches receive light breakfast and lunch
The kids/parents should bring a lunch or the parents can “cater”. Venues open on Saturday:
Chick-fil-A (off the Breezeway; opens at 6:30 am)
Dunkin Donuts (in library)
Subways (in the stadium; opens at 10 am)
Starbucks (in breezeway; opens at 8:30 am)
Marketplace dining hall |

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COMPETITION DAY
Awards Ceremony starts as soon as we have about 50% of scoring done – 4:00 or so. If your team is not staying for the awards ceremony, please fill out a mailing label and I will mail your medals to your school. Give the label to the HELP desk.
Expect to be finished at about 6:00 pm.
We are requesting two volunteers from each team to help with events and to help with breakdown at the end of the day. |

41. mike@floridascienceolympiad.org | www.floridascienceolympiad.org
Wrap up
New coaches: have we covered your most pressing concerns??
Experienced coaches: what have we left out? |

42. For more information… Ingrid Johanson johanson@fau.edu Mike McKee
eso.floridascienceolympiad.org