2024 Science Olympiad Registration (Updated 9/02/2023)

Division A (grades 4-5) Divisions B (grades 6-9), Division C (grades 9-12)

Dear Delaware Science Olympiad Friends,

I hope this new school year is less stressful than the past two have been and that conditions for learning are well in hand.  The National Rules for Div B & C have been published and the National Tournaments are being planned as in-person at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan on May 25, 2024.  Accordingly, we have arranged with Del State University to hold in-person tournaments on campus on March 2 and 16 for Div C and B respectively.   To pull-off these tournaments, we will need agreement on Covid protocols and other emergent risks by all the DSO stakeholders which include Del State management, the volunteers who run the tournaments, the school team coaches and the school team members & their parents.  I know we all look forward to the competitive atmosphere of being on a college campus with our friends & teammates and the excitement & anticipation of the Awards Ceremonies.  We all need to work at getting there safely.

To get started, team reservations for Div B & C are open on Scilympiad, similar to the past two years.  If you have not visited the National site to obtain the 2023 rules download, please do so at https://www.soinc.org/rules-2023.  On the second to last page of each Rules Booklet, you will find the National Tournament Schedule for your Division. The Delaware event schedules are posted for both B& C and use the same event rotations for our tournaments so you can assign your students accordingly.  We have selected two Delaware events for the B& C tournaments.  These are Ping Pong Parachute and Wonders of Electricity for both tournaments.  The rules for both events are posted.

All testing events will use paper tests and answer sheets.  Coaches will enter the names of the students on each team into Scilympiad and then assign those students to their specific events.  The student names and event assignments can be changed by the coaches up until the tournament starts.

Scilympiad will be the official list of students and event assignments. All building events will be scheduled by the coaches using the Scilympiad self scheduling process.

For new coaches and volunteers coming aboard, here are so helpful hints:

The first order of business is to get a login by clicking login at the top right of this page.

There are some good Utube videos to help get started at:    https://statescioly.org/de/Support/HcHowTo

Now for Coaches, you need to register your School [if not done previously] by clicking the green button above "Register your School"

A few pointers on school registration, 1) We have to assign team numbers after you register so if you have two teams, number them in the Short Name field (eg. DH1, DH2).  2) The Region field is no longer in use in Delaware  3) The "Club Advisor" is you, the Head Coach. 

 4)On the subject of payment, the software precludes giving out team numbers to unpaid teams so we have tricked it into showing that all teams have paid.  This does not mean that you get a free ride.  Our intent is to get everyone who wants to compete to sign up, form a team and get going on your normal preparations.  There is an Invoice form on our web site that you need to fill out and pass to your Business Office to cut a check to DSO.   As we get closer to tournament time, there will be more clarity as to how  we can safely run the tournaments.  I anticipate such clarity arriving in January at which time we will finalize the logistics of the tournaments..   The few B Div teams who were precluded from competing in 2020 and did not compete in 2021& 2022 will have their 2020 payment applied to 2023 (or later if they do not compete).

Tournament Staff and Event Supervisors - The software has permissives that require Director approvals for various functions so if you login and it will not accept you in whatever role you normally perform, let Kolby, David LaFazia or I know and we can fix it.  Same for your helpers.

Coaches Workshop -  I am trying to line-up Dover High for an in-person workshop on a Saturday in October.  Standby to see if it works.

Feel free to give us feedback.

Be sure to take a look at MY SO, a STEM-of-the-Month activity that is free to all students on or off Science Olympiad teams. 

Thanks for all you do to make STEM fun and exciting for Delaware students while keeping them and yourselves safe.