It's not too late to get involved in thses great student science competitions.
What Does an Olympiad Team Do?
Participation is at two levels, Division B-Middle School (grades 6-9) and Division C-High School (grades 9-12). The teams from the two divisions do NOT compete against each other in the tournaments. Division A- Elementary (grades K-5) does exist but not for tournament competitions.
In North Carolina,
up to 18 students from a school competes in the different events. A
team is NOT REQUIRED to have 18 students, this is the maximum.
For a high school team, there is a limit fo 10 seniors on a team. For
a middle school team, there is a limit of 5 ninth graders on one team.
Technically ninth grade students can still compete on the team for the
middle school they attended after they have moved to their high school.
While this is allowed, the Regional Directors encourage ninth graders
to compete in the school they are attending.
This team prepares for the different events by deciding who on the team
will do which events. Usually a student should be involved in
no more than 3 events.
The team then attends a Regional Science Olympiad Tournament where they compete in their events in 4 different time periods. Each event is held in one certain time period. This means a student cannot plan to do more than one event during any one time period. To see a sample regional schedule, Middle School or High School. As soon as the coach receives the regional schedule, they can begin to decide who does which events. Regional Tournaments are always on Saturday!
At the regional
level, usually a team competes in about 20 different events in the 4
different time periods. This means the team of 15 covers about 5 events
per period. The typical event lasts about 50 minutes.
For each event, the team preselects up to 2 people for most events and
in some cases, 3 people, to complete the event together. This reduces
the stress on one person to try to handle one event alone. However,
it should be noted that a team is NOT REQUIRED to have the 2 or 3 students
that are allowed, but this does increase success in most cases.
More detailed information about each event will be discussed at the Coaches Clinics and in the rule book the coach receives when they apply for membership.
So in summary, the Science Olympiad is a team event where members of the team preselect events in which they wish to specialize. The first level of competition is the regional level. At this level, a school is allowed to bring 2 teams if they wish. At the state level, only one team per school is allowed. North Carolina is divided into regions for competition purposes. For the past several years, North Carolina has sent 2 middle school and 2 high school teams on to the National Tournament because of our large number of schools participating.
For details on regional competitions near you visit http://www.tx.ncsu.edu/science_olympiad/
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To promote and encourage the study of science and mathematics,
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To identify and encourage students with an interest and aptitude in science, technology, and mathematics,
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To assist in the development of students' scientific ability,
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To facilitate students use of theirs knowledge and abilities for the improvement of themselves, their schools, and their communities, and
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To encourage the adoption of ethical and humanitarian attitudes.
District Date Director(s) District 1 Next District competition will be in Spring of 2006 District 2 Saturday, April 16th, at West Iredell High School,Statesville Marilyn Pendley, West Iredell High School,
marilyngar@hotmail.com, (704) 873-2181District 3 Next District competition will be in Spring of 2006 Rob Halpern, Piney Grove Middle School,
shalpern@rjia.net, (336) 593-4003District 4 Saturday, April 16th, at NC Central University Ken Cutler, NC Central University,
CutlerEducator@aol.com, (919) 530-6172
Brian Wood, Enloe High School,
blwood@wcpss.net, (919) 856-7918District 5 Saturday, April 16th, at University of NC at Pembroke Jose D’Arruda, University of NC at Pembroke,
jose.darruda@uncp.edu, (910) 521-6423District 6 Saturday, April 16th, at East Carolina University Nancy Bray, Greenville
jandnbray@clis.com, (252) 931-0760
Heather Vance-Chalcraft, East CarolinaUniversity
vancechalcraft@mail.ecu.edu, (252) 328-0162State Competition Saturday, April 30th, at the NC School of Science and Mathematics Tom Clayton, NCSSM clayton@ncssm.edu
Steve Warshaw, NCSSM warshaw@ncssm.edu
To receive more information on joining the Student Academy, students and teachers can check out the website at www.ncsas.org or email warshaw@ncssm.edu
Junior Science and Humanities Symposium
The North Carolina Mathematics and Science Education Network (NC-MSEN) will host the 2005 NC Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS). The symposium is scheduled for March 13-14, 2005 at the Friday Center in Chapel Hill, NC.
The students who compete in the NC JSHS symposium will present original research and are eligible for valuable scholarship awards administered by the Academy of Applied Science. An expense-paid trip to the National JSHS is awarded to the five finalists at each regional symposium. A trip to the London International Youth Science Forum also will go to the first-place national finalist.
For more information vist the NCJSHS website http://www.ncjshs.org or Rita L. Fuller at (919)966-3202.
Current Issue | Archives | NCSTA
The Science
Reflector
Newsletter of the North Carolina Science Teachers Association
PO Box 1783, Salisbury, NC 28145
Elizabeth Snoke Harris, Editor