Missouri Science Olympiad - Coaches Toolkit

Missouri Science Olympiad

Starting a Science Olympiad Team

Science Olympiad teams are assigned to a division based upon the grade level of the students:

Division A: (Grades K-6). Missouri does not sponsor a Division A regional or state tournament
Division B: (Grades 6-9)
Division C: (Grades 9-12)

Team Composition:

Division B: Open to students in grades 6-9. Of the 15 total students on a division B team, only 5 may be ninth graders. Division B schools are allowed to invite back up to five ninth graders if they have moved on to high school. If a division B team does invite their ninth graders back, these students are not allowed to participate on a division C team.
Division C: Open to students in grades 9-12. Of the 15 total students on a division C team, only 7 may be twelfth graders.

Detailed information regarding team composition can be found in the 2021-2022 Coaches Manual.

Registering Your Science Olympiad Team

Registration is REQUIRED to participate in ANY Science Olympiad tournaments or competitions!

Schools that did not sponsor a team for the 2020-2021 season may register a team using the new school discount. The regular price to register a team is $150.00. New teams may register and receive a 33% discount, reducing the registration fees to $100.00 per team.

Be sure to check with your regional tournament director as some regionals will allow schools to register more than one team. It is important to note that regardless of the number of teams that a school register, only one team per school is eligible for advancement to the state tournament.

Regional Tournaments

The first competition that all Science Olympiad teams in Missouri must participate in is the regional tournament. Missouri is divided into eight regions and teams are assigned to a regional tournament based upon their location. Missouri does not allow schools to change regions due to competitive reasons.

Each regional tournament will invite a minimum of their top four teams to participate in the state tournament. Some regionals allow more than one team per school to register, however only one team per school may qualify to participate in the state tournament.

If a regional does not have four registered teams by the December cutoff date, the unused spots are assigned to the regionals with the highest numbers of registered teams.

Once a school pays their registration fee they are automatically registered for the appropriate regional tournament. Teams can expect to be contacted by the regional tournament director usually about a month before the competition with important tournament information.

A complete list of the regional competitions in Missouri along with links to each region's website can be found here.

Science Olympiad Event Topics

Science Olympiad features 23 different events that cover a wide variety of topics. Each year many of the events rotate out with new events taking their place. Events in Science Olympiad are aligned with the following five major categories:

Grades 6-9

Life, Personal, and Social Science

Anatomy and Physiology: Students learn about the respiratory, digestive, and immune systems
Bio Process Lab: Students answer questions dealing with biology
Disease Detectives: Students use investigative skills to scientifically study diseases, injuries, and health in populations or groups of people
Forestry: Students are assessed on their knowledge of trees found in the United States
Green Generation: Participants solve problems and analyze data over the environment and solutions to reversing trends and sustainability concepts

Earth and Space Science

Dynamic Planet: Teams compete in tasks related to Earth's fresh waters
Meteorology: Teams display their understanding of meteorological principles dealing with everyday weather
Road Scholar: Participants answer interpretive questions using state highway maps, topographic maps, and other types of images
Rocks and Minerals: Students answer questions regarding rocks and minerals
Solar System: Participants answer questions over habitability within and beyond the solar system

Physical Science and Chemistry

Can't Judge a Powder: Students will conduct tests on, and then characterize, an unknown pure substance and then use their observations to answer a series of questions
Crave the Wave: Stjdents will answer questions regarding waves and wave motion
Crime Busters: Teams collect evidence and run a series of test to solve a crime
Sounds of Music: Students design and play a musical instrument
Storm the Castle: Students design, construct and test a device capable of launching projectiles onto a target

Technology and Engineering

Bridges: Teams design and construct a balsa bridge meeting specified requirements to achieve the highest structural efficiency
Flight: Teams construct rubber powered aircraft to achieve a maximum time aloft
Roller Coaster: Prior to the competition teams design, construct and test a device that uses potential energy to guide a ball to a target in a designated time
Wheeled Vehicle: Teams design and construct a vehicle powered by an elastic material that travels a distance in the shortest time possible

Inquiry and Nature of Science

Codebusters: Teams cryptanalyze and decode encrypted messages using cryptanalysis techniques for various ciphers
Experimental Design: Tests the participant's ability to design, conduct, and report the findings of an experiment conducted on site
Fast Facts: Teams complete a grid of terms that begins with a designated letter in order to match science categories
Write It, Do It: One participant describes and object, the other participant attempts to build the object using the written description

Grades 9-12

Life, Personal, and Social Science

Anatomy and Physiology: Students learn about the human respiratory, digestive, and immune systems
Cell Biology: Participants answer questions over cell structure and cellular biochemistry
Disease Detectives: Students use investigative skills to scientifically study diseases, injuries, and health in populations or groups of people
Forestry: Students are assessed on their knowledge of trees found in the United States
Green Generation: Participants solve problems and analyze data over the environment and solutions to reversing trends and sustainability concepts

Earth and Space Science

Astronomy: Teams demonstrate an understanding of stellar evolution and variability
Dynamic Planet: Teams compete in tasks related to Earth's fresh waters
Remote Sensing: Teams display their understanding of data sets obtained by remote sensing platforms
Rocks and Minerals: Teams identify and classify rocks and minerals

Physical Science and Chemistry

Chem Lab: Teams answer questions involving periodicity and redox reactions
Environmental Chemistry: Participants complete tasks and answer questions regarding fresh water
Forensics: Teams collect evidence and run a series of test to solve a crime
It's About Time: Teams construct a device to accurately measure specified time intervals
Trajectory: Teams construct and test a catapult device
WIFI Lab: Teams construct an antenna to transmit WIFI signals and answer questions over electromagnetic waves

Technology and Engineering

Bridge: Teams design and construct a balsa bridge meeting specified requirements to achieve the highest structural efficiency
Detector Building: Teams build a temperature sensing device to accurately measure and display the masses of different solid samples
Flight: Teams construct rubber powered aircraft to achieve a maximum time aloft
Scrambler: Teams design and construct a deviceusing gravitational potential energy that safely transports an egg as close a possible to a barrier without breaking the egg

Inquiry and Nature of Science

Codebusters: Teams cryptanalyze and decode encrypted messages using cryptanalysis techniques for various ciphers
Experimental Design: Tests the participant's ability to design, conduct, and report the findings of an experiment conducted on site
Fermi Questions: Teams answer a variety of science related "Fermi" questions
Write It, Do It: One participant describes and object, the other participant attempts to build the object using the written description

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