Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Uncle Science Olympiad Needs You

Posted by timothy on from the uncle-with-the-chem-lab dept.

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
Regional and state olympiads take place around the country. They always need volunteers to judge and help out. Check out the national Olympiad site and see what you can do to help. Their 20th anniversary national event is this May about 90 miles west of Harrisburg, PA."

17 of 41 comments (clear)

  1. An Alternative by DynaSoar · · Score: 3, Informative

    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
  2. ah, olympics by glassesmonkey · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Remember when you were a kid and there was stuff named [something] Olympics (no not Special Olympics)
    Then they came and sued everyone to make them rename their organizations...
    Ah, simpler times, back when I used to watch WWF.

  3. Re:Question... by Gestahl · · Score: 4, Informative

    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 ;-).

  4. An Innocent Question by GuyMannDude · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I know this will be interpreted as a troll but I'm really interested in the answer. Is any attempt made at determining whether these kids get help from their parents? Is it done by the honor system? I would think that meddling from over-excited parents would be a significant factor in these science olympiads (kinda of the equivalent of steroids in the real olympics).

    I remember back when I was in 5th grade the class had to build 'solar cookers' that we could use to cook our lunch for that day. Mine was passable but not great. Scott L., had a solar cooker you wouldn't believe. I was struggling to get enough heat in there to cook weenies and he was heating frozen pizzas, I kid you not. Not too surprisingly Scott's father was a high-school science teacher. Now it is theoretically possible that Scott was simply a smarter kid than I was (although it's worth noting that years later I would go on to get a Ph. D. in a scientific field from one of the most prestidous science institutes in the world and Scott did not) but I think we can pretty much agree that it's more likely the reason for Scott's superior performance was because he had considerable help from parents whereas I built my thing with my own two (small) hands.

    That was over two decades ago. In that time parents, if anything, have gotten even more insistent that their kids perform better than their peers. Parents so often push their kids to excel just so they can brag about them at work or at the local garden club meeting or whatnot. So I ask you, how much of a problem is parental-assistance in these science olympiads in this day and age and how do you deal with it?

    GMD

    --
    watch this
    1. Re:An Innocent Question by sljgh · · Score: 4, Informative

      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.

    2. Re:An Innocent Question by Gestahl · · Score: 2, Interesting

      This is a very fair point, and I have been both a judge and a participant, and parental help was a big part of it, and brought a lot of families together (especially with me and my dad, who don't relate very well outside of building and planning things).

      I think you are also not taking into account that most of the events are information recall, and problem solving on paper: not just engineering events like the balsa tower and egg drop. Parents can do very little to help there, except help their kids learn. Few kids should need help with reading information.

      The thing that really is bad, however, is when the *teachers* interfere too much in the competition. As unfair as it is for parents to give too much help, it is even more unfair with the teachers, since my school had several PhD's teaching, as opposed to the public school system.

      The real answer is that if the kid really wanted to, he could seek help from others if his parents/schoolteachers were not satisfactory.

    3. Re:An Innocent Question by Overdrive_SS · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I participated in Physics Olympiad in 8th grade(which would be about 10 years ago now). You obviously knew all of the events ahead of time, but as the above poster said, most were done at the meet I suppose you could call it. And each team member knew which event he/she would be participating in.

      There was a paper airplane toss, you had to build it at the meet, but you could spend as much time before hand coming up with what you thought was the perfect plane. The winner was the plane that flew the farthest. I think you only got one try at it too.

      There was a contest to build a bridge with a specified number of popsicle sticks that had to meet certain height and width criteria and the winner was the bridge that held the most weight.

      I do remember there being one event where you made an insulator. It had to be a specific size and had to hold a beaker of a specific size, otherwise it was up to you what to do with it. The winner was the one that lost the least heat in an hour or two. That one was built at home, since it would be hard to construct it so quickly.

      Then there was a test and also a jeopardy game. The categories and suggested reading were given ahead of time, but not specific answers.

      Anyways, these things are a lot of fun. I remember a catapult toss as one of the events and an egg drop. Those were both made beforehand as well. I think the teacher was responsible for insuring that the students actually did the work and not anyone else.

      Oh, and in case anyone cares, my team brought home the gold here in NW Florida. Still have my little ribbon somewhere. Physics rules!

    4. Re:An Innocent Question by SuperBanana · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Is any attempt made at determining whether these kids get help from their parents? Is it done by the honor system?

      Many of the events require on-the-spot stuff. Those that don't, yes, its possible. Years ago I built a egg launcher with a few friends for a Sci Olympiad competition, and my father came up with the idea of a composite-core catapult arm(aluminum shower curtain rod, which is what we had been using, only with a wood core glued in. Tt worked, we stopped bending the arm...and yes, we were using that much force- we could launch an egg clear across a football field with no problem. We set up next to some folks with a rubber band and a teaspoon...they were slightly disappointed). Still, we did 95% of the construction and design entirely on our own as a team, and fully 50% of the equation was catching it(we luckily had a lacrosse player on our team!) Not to mention, we learned something about composite materials.

      Furthermore, it's a team effort- most of the people I knew on the team would have been rather put off if someone's parents contributed too much, probably to the point of mentioning it to the advisor.

      Oh, the other project I was involved in was a rube goldberg machine. I was told, by my two other teammates, that my one part of the machine was virtually the only thing that worked, and it worked VERY well. It was a wad of steel wool hooked up to a switch and battery, to ignite or cut something. The fire apparently spread a tad(numerous components involved wood, plastic, paper, etc).

      --
      Please help metamoderate.
  5. Re:A word from the Florida olympiad committee by sljgh · · Score: 2, Interesting

    My college co-sponsors these events in Kansas City each year, and I can say they are a blast. Last year I ran the bottle rocket program, which uses air pressure to shoot soda bottle rockets into the air. It was so cold that rockets were freezing to the launcher. We had to pry them off, blasting ourselves with water and making us that much colder. Some rockets were very impressive, getting hangtimes of 15-17 seconds with only 60-70psi in them.

  6. Mission Possible by jon787 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I loved that event, we had a butane torch in ours on year and debated the judge on what an "uncontrolled" flame was.

    --
    X(7): A program for managing terminal windows. See also screen(1).
  7. Science Olympiad rocks! by Gestahl · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Just wanted to throw my $0.02 on NSO organization. I think that with the school system the way it is, and the serious problems we seem to be having teaching basic science to people, this is one of the most worthy causes you can easily contribute to if you care about sciences and education. Plus, its *fun* as a judge to see what people come up with.

    For me personally, it was something that a geek could excel in and interactively work with others and enjoy versus just sitting with the book. Plus, I love tinkering and doing practical engineering (one event I loved was called "Mystery Build" where you had a box full of random string, wood, paper, etc. and they had you build a cantilever or something when you got there).

    35 medals over 4 years, 3 of them at the National Level (you *have* to see the Rube Goldberg devices they have up there). Some of the best fun I ever had with school (plus, you got to go on cool trips to Chicago and DC).

  8. I competed in that during high school.. by pacsman · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It was alot of fun. I remember my school went to the national competition in Indiana the first time we competed. It was a bit like a condensed fun-science course. I worked on the build-a-tower-as-light-as-possible part of it. The first time around we used dowel rods. You could stand on the thing, but it weighed so much we never stood a chance. Our second iteration of balsa wood kept falling apart because we waited until the last minute and the cyano-acrilate hadn't set yet. That was a really fun competition, although the robotics were more fun. JETS was good too. MA(theta) was never my thing.. damn, there were alot of those if your school was into it.

  9. Science Olympiad is a blast to judge too! by jkinney3 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I have had the pleasure of judging different Science Olympiad events for a number of years now. I started with "Metric Mastery" for the middle school crowd. It involves some pretty difficult estimation skills.
    After I got my own college physics lab to run, I ran the entire physics lab portion of the Science Olympiad for 3 years. I got to do both the regional and the state competitions. I was enthusiastic about the future after seeing what these kids could do!
    I'm now at my third school and Science Olympiad is comming up. It's a great event to be involved with!

  10. Organizing a team by Aerion · · Score: 2, Informative

    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).

  11. You know you're getting old when by rk · · Score: 2, Funny

    You see an event like this and wonder "why didn't my high school do this when I was there?" only to realize that the event didn't exist yet when you were in high school.

  12. Science Olympiads is over-rated by Mr.+Piddle · · Score: 2, Insightful


    I decided that I didn't like SO after watching big high schools stomp little high schools into dust. This is a time when people's egos are very fragile, and there is simply too much importance put on those "bronze", "silver", and "gold" medals. With smaller schools, kids would have to take on multiple events to qualify, which is a real burden. Also, schools with helpful parents fare much better, especially for the construction events. Building a rube-goldberg machine is a bit easier if someone's dad has a garage full of junk or works for a surplus store.

    The nationals were very sensationalistic, too. Not to mention far away, meaning many people were disappointed when their stuff got there broken.

    --
    Vote in November. You won't regret it.
  13. Unsportsmanlike Conduct by fdamstra · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I actually got disqualified from a Science Olympiad event when I was in eighth grade, and I'm still bitter.

    The contest? Hot house. The goal, using the lightest mass fully enclosed "house" possible, try and insulate 100mL beaker of 100 water. Basically, the judges would fill a beaker for you, you'd place it in your device, and they'd take the temperature after 30 minutes.

    The scoring was something like: deltaT*mass, and lowest score wins. deltaT measured in degrees Celsius and mass in grams. It didn't take me long to realize that the scoring wasn't geared toward the best insulator, but actually toward the lightest material.

    So building a small rectangular house out of paper led to a design with a high loss of temperature, but a really low score. I thought it was brilliant. The judges thought it was cheating.

    I still don't think I should have been disqualified. I got my first place my other event, but strangely, I don't remember what that was.