At my middle school, I participate in a competition called Science Olympiad. Science Olympiad is a science competition where groups compete in individual events covering a variety of branches in science. There are twenty-three events covering topics such as inquiry, engineering, chemistry, earth/space science, life science and social science. The overall rank for the competing school is the average of all of the team’s individual event scores. I compete in five events, Battery Buggy, Crime Busters, Rocks & Minerals, Towers and Potions & Poisons. My events cover chemistry, earth science, and engineering. There are two basic types of events: build events and study events. Build events are usually about engineering and physical science. Study events are all the other subjects and the test is an actual written test.
Battery Buggy and Towers are two build events where the competitors are tested on their engineering skills. For build events, we competitors build our projects before the competition and test it at the competition. Towers is a build event where we build an extremely lightweight tower out of wood and glue that should hold as much weight as possible. Some towers weigh only seven grams and can hold fifteen kilograms of weight. The difficult part of building a tower is that it can’t be tested beforehand and for each competition, a new tower must be constructed since the original would have broken during testing. Battery Buggy is an event where the team has to build a car that is battery powered and can travel as close to the specified distance as possible as fast as possible. A difficult part of the competition is preventing the car from drifting after the brake is applied. The actual testing is almost as difficult as construction because the competitors must complete two runs of the car within eight minutes. This includes setting up the car, adjusting the car and aligning the car.
Rocks & Minerals isn’t a build event, it’s a study event on the study of geology. The test consists of written questions and multiple choice on rock & mineral identification. They can also ask questions on information about specific rocks and minerals. One of the most important tools for this event is the binder of notes you are allowed to bring. It is very important to make an extensive binder and be familiar with it. Crime Busters is another study event but most of the test is based in a lab setting. This event is all about forensic science. This is an extensive event so, in order to win, both partners need to work the full time given to finish the event. The event can consist of identifying unknown powders, metals, liquids, fibers, hairs, plastics, inks through chromatography, fingerprints, DNA, shoe prints, tire treads, soil and spatters. In order to complete many of these objectives, the team must experiment with the chemicals and must be experienced in chemistry. At the end, the group has to write an analysis on who committed the crime and present the evidence to back it up. This is my third year doing this event and last year I got third place at a state competition. My final event is Potions & Poisons, which is split into two halves. one half is like crime busters while the other half is just a written test. Part of the event is a lab test where we might have to do any of the following, chromatography, mixtures of reagents, separation of a mixture, serial dilutions, determination of pH, conductivity testing or observation of changes in temperature, color, production of a gas or a precipitate after reagents have been mixed together. This is 40% of the points or the test. The other 60% of the test is the written portion where we must answer questions on chemistry and poisonous organisms. One question might be about the toxin that makes poison ivy cause rashes for humans. Overall, Potions and Poisons is mostly about chemistry.
The season consists of invitational competitions, regional competitions and, if your school qualifies, state competitions as well as national competitions. The invitational competitions are competitions hosted by schools that teams participate in by invite. These competitions don’t affect the rest of the season and are mainly practice for the regional competition. The regional competition is the competition that all the schools go to. This competition is important because it determines who goes to the state competition. The top four schools at regionals get to go to the state competition. Sadly, no one can ever advance in science Olympiad as an individual for one event, either their whole team goes or none of them go. This can be a problem if one event team is exceptional, but the rest of the team isn’t. The exceptional group can’t go to state. At state, only the varsity competes in the competition and the junior varsity’s, JV’s, season ends. There is one exception to this rule JV can participate in trial events, events which may be added in the next few seasons. Potions & Poisons was a trial event last year and this year was the first year it was an official event. In fact, during my first year of Science Olympiad, I was on JV and I participated in Potions & Poisons as a trial event. At the state competition, there are two divisions AA and A. Division AA is the lower division and they are ranked differently. Division A is the higher division and schools from this division are ranked against each other, usually, schools from this division go to nationals. To get to nationals, the school must rank in the top two schools out of the whole state. I have never been to Nationals, but the competition is extremely tough. Nationals conclude around Late May to early June and the Science Olympiad Season with it. Next year, the competitions repeat itself with a new team. The events I described are B events, middle school events. Science Olympiad has two official websites.