Illinois Science Olympiad - Illinois Science Olympiad

Elementary Participation

There is no national fee or registration for Elementary Science Olympiad – each school participating just needs to buy its own manuals and then, they are free to hold whatever type of event that fits - Fun Day, Fun Night or Competitive Tournament! You will find the ordering info here - please buy one book per school:

http://store.soinc.org/s-4-elementary.aspx

http://www.soinc.org/elementary

Starting a Team

Quick Guides from the National Science Olympiad Website:

• Start a Team
  • Divisions
  • Organizing a Team
  • Home Schools
  • Small Schools
  • All-Star Teams
  • Code of Ethics
  • Membership Benefit
• As Always, please check the National Science Olympiad (http://soinc.org/) website.  It is THE source for Science Olympiad Information.  It contains information about:
  • Elementary events
  • Workshops
  • The Science Olympiad Store
  • Event information
  • And things relevant to Coaches, Students, Parents, Directors, Alumni, Sponsors and Volunteers

 

Steps to Starting a Team in Illinois

• Register your Team online at the ISO website.  Cost varies from year to year, but usually is around $210 for a Varsity team, $165 for a JV team, and $9 each for additional rule manuals.  Costs include:
  
  • Team membership dues in National Science Olympiad
  • Team membership dues in Illinois Science Olympiad
  • Participation in 1 Regional Tournament with possibility to participate in the state tournament (additional fees apply)
  • 1 Rules Manual
• (OPTIONAL) Participate in the Great Lakes Coaches' Clinic.
  • This is a great way to improve your understanding of everything from running a team to the rules in each event.  It is highly recommended for new coaches AND returning coaches (since rules change from year to year). 
  • The clinic cost varies from year to year, but usually is around $40 for Friday, $80 for Saturday, and $110 for both days.  Costs include food, participation in event breakout sessions, handouts, access to special clinic downloads area on the ISO website, and giveaways.
  • ISO highly recommends sending 2 coaches to the Clinic on Fri evening/Saturday.  That is by far the best way to get started.  It will get you everything you need to get started.
• (OPTIONAL) Participate in Invitational Tournaments
  • There are several invitational tournaments in the Chicagoland area.  Each tournament has it's own fee.  Most participate in online registation through the ISO website.
• Practice, Practice, Practice!  Try to set up regular meeting times for students to practice.  Also, try to get a couple parents or teachers to help run the team and guide students as they learn about the various events they will participate in.  The number of events that a team does in their first year varies based on the experience, knowledge and number of the coaching staff.  If one person goes to the Coaches' Clinic you should be able to handle 10-12 events, if 2 coaches attend, then 15-18 is realistic.  If 3 or more coaches go to the clinic, then you could handle all 23 events.
• Self Schedule for Regional Tournament  (usually 2 weeks before the Regional Tournament)
  
  • Before your regional tournament, you will do Self Schedule.  This means that your tournament director will contact you when Self Schedule begins.  You will then go online to the ISO Self Schedule website and choose WHEN you want to participate in the self schedule events.  These events are the ones that require some sort of building/testing (i.e. bridges, robots, etc).  You will also schedule if you are participating in any available Trial Events at this time.
• Regional Tournament
• Self Schedule for State Tournament  (usually 2 weeks before the State Tournament)
• State Tournament
• National Tournament

 

What is Involved?

Starting and running a team is a big job, but also a very rewarding one.  But rest assured, you are not alone.  ISO directors and coaches are always willing to lend a hand to help you out.  So what can you expect as a coach?

• Regular practice sessions with the team (September - Regional/State/Nationals)
  
  • You can break the week up so you only have certain events each day or 1 day a week with the whole team together
• Events:  The number of events that a team does in their first year varies based on the experience, knowledge and number of the coaching staff.  If one person goes to the Coaches' Clinic you should be able to handle 10-12 events, if 2 coaches attend, then 15-18 is realistic.  If 3 or more coaches go to the clinic, then you could handle all 23 events.
• (OPTIONAL) Participate in an invitational tournament (December - February).  This is a great way to get extra practice before the big regional tournament.  It helps cut down on competition jitters at the regional, and also help you determine how the team is doing (or what areas to focus on before the regional tournament).
• Regional Tournament
  • Held on a Saturday in February, March, or April (you decided when you registered online what tournament you wanted to compete at)
  • Tournaments usually run from 7am - 4pm with the Awards ceremony sometime between 5pm-7pm (this includes check-in and impound in the AM, Awards ceremony in the PM)
• State Tournament
  • If your team does well enough at regionals, you are invited to participate in the State Tournament held at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.  This tournament usually has special events Friday afternoon/evening, with the actual competition on Saturday.
  • The state tournament is usually in Mid-Late April
• National Tournament
  • Usually the top 2 B and C division teams advance to Nationals.  The national tournament moves around the country to different colleges and universities

Costs of Starting a Team

• Roughly $500 for materials, team fees, etc  (ISO assumes you will make use of your school Science Department, lab equipment, and chemicals to defray some of the costs)
• $110 per person to attend the Coache's Clinic in October (highly recommended for new and returning coaches)
• Stipend for coaches/volunteers (this varies from school to school and can be included in the $500 above)
• Expenses for traveling to tournaments (whether by team bus or by parents)

Student Eligibility

• A predominately home schooled student, who is also enrolled in our High School or Middle School, desires to join our Science Olympiad team. Can he/she?. According to IHSA rules, if a student is enrolled in a minimum number of classes at their district school, they are elgible to participate in both the state and regional levels of Illinois Science Olympiad. (Most high schools allow extracurricular involvement with enrollment in just one class, with passing grades). If you qualify for Nationals, you would need to seek permission from Nationals. Both the principal and the coach sign the registration form to verify student enrollment and grade in school.
• Is there an academic eligiblity requirement for participation in Science Olympiad? As for academic elgibility, Illinois Science Olympiad does not have a specific grade point requirement or numbers of classes that the students must be passing in. We depend on both the coaches and the principal to determine if a student is eligible to compete.

The Competitions

Competitions are:

• ALWAYS on Saturdays
• Run ALL DAY from about 7 am - 6 pm
• Check-in and morning Impound is usually between 6:30 - 8 am
• Events usually start around 8 am and end around 4 pm
• Awards Ceremony starts sometime after 4pm (usually around 5pm) and lasts about 1-2 hours (depending on the number of teams at the tournament)
• Check with your tournament director if food/vending will be available
• Spectators are welcome to view the building/engineering events but NOT the classroom/lab events.  Most events that can be viewed are held in large spaces like the Gym or Outdoor playing fields (for rockets, etc)

Varsity and JV
At the regional level, Varsity competes against varsity teams and JV against JV teams.  Only Varsity teams can advance to the state tournament.  There are NO JV teams at State.

The Events
Each division (grades 6-9 are B division, 9-12 are C division) participate in 23 events.  These events range from physical sciences to engineering, and everything in between.  Since there are 23 events, in order to participate in all events, most students have to participate in more than 1 event.  The tournament schedules will be released in early November so that students can pick events that don't overlap with each other (ensuring that they will be able to participate in all of the events that they are working on).  The top teams in each regional are invited to the state tournament (which is an additional fee to participate).  All regional tournaments and the state tournament hand out medals for the top teams in each event and trophies/plaques for the overall tournament winners.

Home/Virtual Schools

Updated National home and virtual school policies were passed in August 2011. Click here to see the new policies.