Science Olympiad is nationwide competition where students compete in topics including earth science, biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering. Science Olympiad is designed to increase a student’s interest in STEM fields and provide recognition for outstanding achievement in team events. We're excited to host the Bay Area Elementary Regional Science Olympiad Tournament for 2026. Below is the information for this current academic year's competition.

The 2026 Bay Area Elementary Tournament will be held on Saturday May 9, 2026

For Head Coaches, rules are available from the Head Coach Dashboard / Documents.

Need a Rule Clarification? Head Coaches can submit questions using this form.

List of Events:

Anatomy Academy: Participants will demonstrate their understanding of human anatomy and physiology by identifying organs and tissues and explaining their functions. The competition will utilize a variety of models, slides, or pictures drawn from three human body systems: Nervous, Sensory Organs, and Endocrine.
Are You Sirius!?: Participants will demonstrate their knowledge of celestial bodies by identifying constellations, stars, planets, and answering conceptual astronomy questions. This event emphasizes both visual identification and written explanations of astronomical phenomena.
Carbon Crunchers: Teams will complete tasks related to environmental problems and solutions related to water, including identification, analysis, and laboratory investigations pertinent to the environment.
DaVinci Decoder: Teams will decode, cryptanalyze, and solve encrypted messages using a variety of classic and modern cryptanalysis techniques, demonstrating skill with ciphers by decrypting messages in a competitive, exam-based format.
Mystery Architecture: Teams will be given a bag of materials and instructions for designing and building a Structure that can be tested.
Sherlock Foams: Each team will test mystery powders, match fingerprints, and use chromatography to identify items found at a crime scene and solve the crime.
The Penne Express: Before the tournament, teams design, build, and test a vehicle constructed primarily from pasta, intended to traverse a ramp and lane in a specified amount of time and distance. The device is tested for both structural integrity and distance traveled.
Watt’s Up: Participants will complete tasks and answer questions related to simple direct-current (DC) electric circuits, including identification, construction, and understanding of open, closed, series, and parallel circuits.
Team Work: Physical skills are interspersed with science questions in a relay-style race

Communique 3 - 2/5/26

We have a couple of updates:

First, we have confirmed the tournament to be on Sat, May 9 at Canyon Middle School. Please note that different from the original date posted.

Second, there are now more than 60 teams signed up for the tournament. We will be taking the first 60 teams on a first come first serve based on registration completion (signed up online and registration dues received).

Communique 2 - 1/13/26

Thank you so much to all those who have signed up already! In less than 36 hours, we've had 30 teams sign up already! To ensure more schools can participate, we will limit it to 7 teams per school for the time being, until we're closer to the tournament. We've expanded the number of students per team from last year to allow for more students to participate in the program, and we will continue the practice from last year that the team's spot in the tournament isn't guaranteed until payment has been received. I'll keep everyone updated as the spots continue to fill up. Thank you!

Communique 1 - 1/11/26

The 2026 Bay Area Elementary Science Olympiad Tournament will take place (tentatively) on Saturday, April 25th, 2026. Registration is now openby going here and clicking on "Register your school" button. New this year, each team can have up to 8 students, and each school can continue to bring multiple teams. Registration will be $190 per team and can be paid via credit card or via checks. The list of events can be found above. The rules will be available to the coaches after registration.

Interested Parents and Teachers are encouraged to begin forming teams now. Guidelines for forming teams are as follows:

Teams should be made up of up to 8 students from the same school.
Events are aimed at the 4th- and 5th- grade levels, but for elementary schools with 6th graders, up to two 6th graders on a team are allowed. Students may compete as part of a Division A (elementary school) or a Division B (middle school) team, but not both in the same school year.
Homeschool students can participate in one of two methods:
Participation through a Local Public School: homeschooled students may choose to participate as a member of the Elementary Science Olympiad team at the local public school they would attend were they not homeschooled.
Participation through a Homeschool Team: a Homeschool Team may be created, consisting of homeschooled students who live within the boundaries of two contiguous, side-by-side, geographic counties in a single state.
There is no lower age limit for participants, but coaches should recognize that younger participants may be at a competitive disadvantage due to their age.