Science Olympiad

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 continue the SoCal Elementary Science Olympiad Tournament for the 2021-2022 academic year. This will replace this year's elementary tournaments traditionally hosted by each regional.  The list of events is posted here. The rules are found in the 2016 Competitive Tournament Rules which can be purchased from the National Science Olympiad store. Note that this manual includes 100 different events and the same manual is used from year to year. Event modifications are posted here.




SoCal Elementary Tournament

SoCal Elementary Awards Ceremony Starting at 5:30 PM PT.
Preliminary Scoreboard is now posted

3/2/22 Update

Materials:
By now, the box of materials for your team should have arrived. If your team is competing at school this weekend, you can provide the material to the students on Saturday. If your team is competing at their home, you will want to provide them with their materials prior to Saturday.

Study Guides:
The Sierra Vista Team has put together some study guides to help your team do some last minute preparation. The study guide has information of resources allowed on Saturday.

Build events/Hands on Events:
For Mission Possible, students will submit a recording of the run of their device through a google form available on tournament day on the Event Modification document.
Aerodynamic, Barge Building, Bottle Music, Chopper Challenge, Pasta Bridge, and Rubber Band Catapult will be conducted through a live Zoom call on tournament day. The zoom link will also be posted on the Event Modification document on tournament day.

Self-Scheduled Sign Up:
Coaches should sign up for a time block for the events above by going to Head Coach Dashboard -> Self-scheduled Event Signup. Sign up is now open and will remain open until tournament day. Students can show up any time during the time they signed up for and for most events, it will not take the full hour. This is just to help us spread out the teams across the day. If the timing doesn’t work out, you can still show up at another time.

Event Updates:
Experimental Design:
- Students will be using a simulation from this site https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/filter?type=html. The specific experiment will be given on tournament day. Please make sure students can access this link and run simulations that are listed as HTML5 prior to the tournament.
- Students will also be expected to include “qualitative observation,” “quantitative observations,” and a “conclusion” as part of the checklist
Barge Building:
- Students should have a piece of paper to draw their idea of their barge and show it to the Event Supervisor during the Zoom call
Pasta Bridge:
- Glue of any type can be used to join pasta pieces together.
Aerodynamics:
- Each participant is limited to the 2 pieces of paper given to them to build 2 planes. Each of the 4 planes (from both partners) will be flown and the average of the two distances closest to the target will be used for scoring.
Chopper Challenge:
- Each team is limited to a maximum of 2 choppers. Each chopper can be dropped once and the better of the two flight times will be used as the score.
Biomass:
- There will be a short written test during the time period
- The report and a picture of the plant on a scale will be submitted on tournament day using a link on the event modification doc.

2/25/22 Update

Team Numbers:
All teams should have assigned a team number. You can see your team number by going to Head Coach Dashbaord -> Register/Update Teams

Schedule:
As a reminder, you can find the tournament schedule at https://scilympiad.com/socal-elementary/Docs/UsefulDocs

Adding students to your team:
In order for your team members to compete, the students must be added to the roster on Scilympiad. This is done by going to the Head Coach dashboard and clicking on “Student/Team/Event Assignment.” Type in the names and grades of your students. The login ID will be automatically generated for each student and they will be able to log in using the login ID. Please provide your student with their login ID, first name, and last name that you entered so they can log in. The login ID, first name, and last name you submit must match what they submit.

Assigning Students to Events:
From the Student/Team/Event Assignment page, click on “Students to Teams” to assign your students to the corresponding team. This step is still needed even if your school only has one team. Once that has been completed, you can click on “Students to Events” to assign events to the students. This step must be done in order for the students to compete on tournament day.

Student Log In:
Prior to the tournament, students should access their account on this web page by clicking on the “Student Login” tab, then click “Take online tests using Login ID.” If this is their first time, they will need to enter the Login ID, their first name and last name to create the account, then enter their password. After that, they can login using simply their Login ID and password.

Principal Verifications Signed by Principal and Certified Coach:
From the Student/Team/Event Assignment page, click on “Principal Certification.” Please print this and have it signed by the coach and the principal. If your Principal Verifications form is blank, make sure you’ve added students to team. Please upload a scanned copy of this and upload it by going to the Head Coach Dashboard and clicking on “Upload Documents” and choosing the Document Type as “Team Roster”.

Parent/Guardian Permission Form Signed Digitally by Parent/Guardian
Coaches log in and click on “Release Forms” then copy the red link above the green button (NOT the browser URL) and share that link with the parents/guardians of each participant along with the Parent Instructions below:
Parent Instructions: Click on the link provided by the coach. Check the upper right of the web page to see if it says your child’s name. If it says your child’s name, click on their name and click log out. Once logged out, click on the link provided by the coach again. Follow the prompt on the web page to either log in if you have an account already or register as a new member with the role of “Other”. If you need to register as a new member follow the instructions on the website page.

Final Verification (Must Be Completed)
Once all of the Parent/Guardians Permission Form and the Principal Verifications form are completed, the Head coach must go to Head Coach Dashboard -> Verification / Checklist -> Head Coach Verification, check off the boxes, and sign the form.

1/28/22 Update

The event modification has been posted for the upcoming SoCal Elementary Tournament on Sat March 5, 2022. 

11/06/21 Update

Welcome to the 2021-2022 Science Olympiad season. As with last year, the Southern California Science Olympiad will be hosting a virtual joint elementary tournament again. This year the tournament will be on Sat, March 5, 2022. As with last year, all materials provided by Science Olympiad will be mailed to the coach prior to the tournament so that they can distribute them to the participants for their use on tournament day at their homes. New this year, Sierra Vista Middle School will be hosting their first-ever elementary invitational tournament in Southern California on Sat, Feb 5, 2022. This practice tournament will be in-person on the campus of Northwood High School in Irvine, CA as long as current protocols remain as they are. This invitational tournament is a great way to give your students an additional chance to compete and will help prepare your team for the upcoming joint state tournament.

SoCal Elementary Tournament:
Registration is now open at (register on this page by clicking on Coaches -> School/Team Registration) and the cost per team will remain at $100/team. The schedule and list of events can be found by clicking on Resources -> Tournament Documents. The rules are found in the 2016 Competitive Tournament Rules which can be purchased from the National Science Olympiad store. Note that this manual includes 100 different events and the same manual is used from year to year. Event modifications needed to successfully run this event virtually will be posted soon.

As with last year, all teams will be rated gold, silver, and bronze in each event. The team will receive a gold, silver, or bronze rating by adding the point values for each event. Each team will receive 15 medals of either gold, silver, or bronze based on their overall team rating.

Sierra Vista Elementary Invitational Tournament:
Registration is now open at https://scilympiad.com/ca-svso and the cost per team is $125/team when you use the discount code socalelem. This tournament will run in tandem with the Division B Invitational Tournament and follow the Southern California Division A state tournament schedule linked above.


9/9/21 Update

For the 2021-2022 academic year, we will be hosting a SoCal Elementary Science Olympiad Tournament again. The schedule and event can be found here. The tournament date and event modifications will be coming soon!


Upcoming Dates


Tournament Day: TBD

Announcements


Students can now take tests online.


Take Test using Login ID

Sponsors