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Uncle Science Olympiad Needs You
Devlin-du-GEnie writes "I'll be judging an event for Florida's state Science Olympiad this coming weekend. It's kind of like a track meet of science and engineering. The participants are middle- and high-school students from all over Florida. (There are also two elementary school divisions.) I judged an event last year. It was incredibly rewarding to see kids fiercely competitive and engaged with problem solving. It's chock-full of geekly joy." Read on for some more details, including how you can get involved in the program.
The menu of events includes:
- Bottle Rocket
- Cell Biology
- Chemistry Lab
- Designer Genes
- Disease Detectives
- Dynamic Planet
- Experimental Design
- Robot Ramble
- Storm the Castle (catapaults!)
- Naked Egg Drop
The American Indians in Science and Engineering (http://aises.org/) have a similar event every year in Alburquerque. All ther regional winners attend. They're always glad to have volunteers for judging or other administrative help, and one need not be Indian to join.
For anyone considering helping out at any such event, don't forget an employer might be willing to pay your way in return for the good PR they'd get.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
The naked egg drop is a twist on the old "drop the egg from a window inside a padded thing and see if it lasts" schtik. In this, the thing you build sits on the floor, and you drop the egg "naked" and see how high you can drop it from and it still not crack when it lands in your device. Our team won several years ago simply using *extremely* fine sand in a box ;-).
A lot of the events are not done ahead of time. There are programming events, math events and biology events as well as some that require the constrction of contraptions (egg drop etc.) that are started and completed at the competition by the students. Parents and coaches can do as much as they can to prep the kids, but only the judges know the questions, problems, or what supplies are available ahead of time.
Keep in mind that if you do want to participate in Science Olympiad, you will need a team of about 15 students (and 2 alternates, if you'd like) who are dedicated to their tasks. You can't win Science Olympiad if you're lazy, even if you're talented. It takes a lot of time, and considering that most regional competitions will be taking place within the next several weeks, you may find that there is not enough time to organize a team and prepare your events. Many events don't require thorough preparation, but several of them do.
Check with your regional coordinator to see if you will be allowed to take a partial team (last year my school took a team of 7 students and participated in only 14 of 23 events). It could still be fun to show up and only participate in some events, even if you just want to see if you're interested in next year's competition.
Other science-related high school competitions include the JETS TEAMS Engineering Competition and the National Science Bowl, which is more of a trivia competition. Unfortunately, it is too late to register for or participate in either of these events this year (most Science Bowl regional events are in February, with the Nationals in early May).