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 is DONE!
Hope you had fun!
Results are available at this LINK
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 6 - 5/9/26
Thank you so much for your support for this year's Bay Area Regional Elementary Science Olympiad! The preliminary scoreboard can be found here!
Please let us know if by 11:00pm tonight, Sat, May 9, if there are any tabulation errors on the scoreboard (e.g. team competed but received a no-show score).
Communique 5 - 5/5/26
BARESO is this SATURDAY – we hope you’re as excited as we are! This is (hopefully) our last communique before competition!
IMPORTANT! Rosters and Forms. On the morning of the tournament, one coach from each team should check in at Room H-1 with 1 release form for each participant and 1 copy of the roster (both available at this link).
Gates open at 7:30 Please do NOT plan on arriving prior to 7:30.
Team names. As mentioned before, team numbers have been assigned at this LINK, please make sure each student knows their team number, to avoid errors in results.
Penne Express Impound A reminder for all students participating in Penne Express: at least one student from each team must impound your device in the gym between 7:45-8:00 am. Students, not parents, should do the impound. This is a simple drop-off of your vehicle, to ensure fairness in competition so that adjustments cannot be made to the vehicles while others are competing. Any device not impounded before competition begins will be penalized.
Special Prizes. We will be giving out special awards for students who best demonstrate the spirit of Science Olympiad: enthusiasm, curiosity, and sportsmanship. Remind your students to be at their best!
What to Bring to a Test Please tell your students that for study and lab events (everything except Penne Express and Teamwork), students should read the rules and bring only what is listed in the rules, which typically includes writing utensils, note sheets, and calculators. No other items should be brought into the rooms, including phones, backpacks, and water bottles. Any items brought that are not listed in the rules will be put in a designated common area.
Rules Clarifications. As we are now less than a week away from competition, the final Rules Clarifications are closed and answers have been posted HERE. No further clarifications will be provided.
Beard Papa's, a Castro Valley favorite, will be selling cream puffs in the Quad. Come and enjoy these tasty Japanese-style cream puffs during the tournament!Base Camps. Most teams will typically find a space on campus and set up in the area as their home base so that when students aren’t competing, they have an area to rest and relax. Teams may set up their “Base Camps” at either the “Quad” or the MPR. You may also bring your own tables and popup tents. Be mindful that there are 51 teams at this event, please take only one table per team.Need Help? On tournament day, for emergencies, please call 911. For any other questions or assistance needed during the day, please come to Headquarters (Room H-1).
Communique 4 - 4/28/26
Hope your preparations for BARESO are going well!
The Schedule has been finalized, and a typo has been corrected. It is available at this link. Note that times after block 4 have changed. Also note that the schedule for Teamwork has been added to the last tab of this document.
Team numbers are available at the same link as the schedule (next tab). Team numbers allow coaches to plan schedules for their students as well as schedule around Mystery Architecture, Penne Express and Sherlock Foams.
Team names. Current teams are listed as “Team 1”, etc. If you would like to specify a nongeneric team name, head coaches should email cvhsscioly@gmail.com with the team number and preferred name. Some examples from past years are “Atomics”, “Einsteins”, and “Sparks”. Be creative!
Rules clarifications. More rule clarifications are available at this link. The latest edits (4/27) are shown in green text. The deadline to submit further clarifications closes at midnight 5/1 and final clarifications will be posted by noon on 5/2.
ESUS is the Event Sign Up System used for Mystery Architecture, Sherlock Foams, and The Penne Express. There will be a number of slots in each timeblock for teams to participate in these events. The Head Coach of each team should register their teams so that their students in these events do not have a conflict with a different event. ESUS opens on Thurs, April 30 at 5 pm. The Head coach of each team should have received an email from esus@socalstatescioly.org within the past 5 min. If you didn’t receive it, please check your spam box and/or if another coach on your team might have been listed as head coach in our system.
Impound for Penne Express runs between 7:45 - 8 am. Students should drop off their vehicles in the Gym during this time. Tools or other equipment need not be impounded. Only students should impound, parents must not be in the impound area. If a team does not impound, they can still compete but will incur penalty points.
IMPORTANT: Forms Due at Check In. Each competing student must have a waiver form and each team must have a team roster. They are available at this link. Head coaches should bring all forms to Headquarters when they check in.
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.