Michigan Science Olympiad-MSO Web Training for New Team Coaches
Getting Started and Team Registration– The basics of starting a new Science Olympiad team
Science Olympiad Rule Manual: For the first time, rule manuals will be available online to anyone, registered or not registered teams, coaches, parents, students. This is invaluable, all 23 individual event rules. The National Science Olympiad Website will have the manual available around Sept 1, 2017, and it will be downloadable in pdf format. You must have an email address to register for the download.
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National Science Olympiad
Michigan Science Olympiad Division C (High School)Tentative Schedule
Michigan Science Olympiad Division B (Middle School/Jr High) Tentative Schedule
Michigan Science Olympiad-MSO Web Training for New Team Coaches
2017-2018 Event Overview Div B- List of Events and Descriptions
ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY
Understand the anatomy of the human body systems: respiratory, digestive and immune.
BATTERY BUGGY
Teams will construct a vehicle that uses electrical energy as its sole means of propulsion, quickly travels a specified distance, and stops as close as possible to the Finish Point.
CRIME BUSTERS
Given a scenario, a collection of evidence, and possible suspects, students will perform a series of tests that along with other evidence will be used to solve a crime.
DISEASE DETECTIVES
Participants will use investigative skills in the scientific study of disease, injury, health and disability in populations or groups of people with a focus on Food Borne Illness.
DYNAMIC PLANET
Participants will demonstrate an understanding of the large-scale processes affecting the structure of Earth's crust (Tectonics).
ECOLOGY
Participants will answer questions involving content knowledge and process skills in the area of ecology and adaptations in featured North American biomes.
EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
This event will determine a participant's ability to design, conduct and report the findings of an experiment conducted on site.
FAST FACTS
Teams will provide terms that begin with a given letter and match given science categories to fill in a grid.
HERPETOLOGY
This event will test knowledge of amphibians and reptiles.
HOVERCRAFT
Participants will be tested on their knowledge of classic mechanics and related topics as well as their ability to construct a self-propelled air-levitated vehicle that moves down a track.
METEOROLOGY
Participants will use scientific process skills to demonstrate an understanding of factors that influence world climate and use of models to understand/estimate impacts of different changes.
MICROBE MISSION
Teams will answer questions, solve problems and analyze data pertaining to microbes.
MYSTERY ARCHITECTURE
At the beginning of the event, teams will be given a bag of building materials and instructions for designing and building a device that can be tested.
OPTICS
Teams must participate in an activity involving positioning mirrors to direct a laser beam towards a target and are tested on their knowledge of geometric and physical optics.
POTIONS AND POISONS
This event is about chemical properties and effects of specified toxic and therapeutic chemical substances, with a focus on household and environmental toxins or poisons.
ROAD SCHOLAR
Participants will answer interpretive questions that may use one or more state highway maps, USGS topographic maps, Internet-generated maps, a road atlas or satellite/aerial images.
ROCKS AND MINERALS
Teams will demonstrate their knowledge of rocks and minerals.
ROLLER COASTER
Prior to the competition, teams design, build, and test a roller coaster track to guide a vehicle that uses gravitational potential energy as its sole means of propulsion to travel as close as possible to a target time.
SOLAR SYSTEM
Students will demonstrate an understanding and knowledge of the geologic characteristics and evolution of the Earth's moon and other rocky bodies of the solar system.
THERMODYNAMICS
Teams must construct an insulated device prior to the tournament that is designed to retain heat and complete a written test on thermodynamic concepts.
TOWERS
Prior to the competition, teams will design and build a Tower meeting requirements specified in the rules to achieve the highest structural efficiency.
WRIGHT STUFF
Prior to the competition teams design, construct and test free flight rubber-powered monoplanes to achieve maximum time aloft.
WRITE IT DO IT
One student will write a description of an object and how to build it, and then the other student will attempt to construct the object from this description.
Michigan Science Olympiad MSO Web Training for New Team Coaches
2017-2018 Event Overview Div C – List of Events and Descriptions
ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY
Understand the anatomy and physiology of the human body systems: respiratory, digestive and immune.
ASTRONOMY
Teams will demonstrate an understanding of stellar evolution and Type II Supernova Events.
CHEMISTRY LAB
Teams will complete one or more tasks and answer a series of questions involving the science processes of chemistry focused in the ares of Physical Properties and thermodynamics.
DISEASE DETECTIVES
Students will use investigative skills in the scientific study of disease, injury, health and disability in populations or groups of people with a focus on Food Borne Illness.
DYNAMIC PLANET
Students will demonstrate an understanding of the large-scale processes affecting the structure of Earth's crust (Tectonics).
ECOLOGY
Students will answer questions involving content knowledge and process skills in the area of ecology and adaptations in featured North American biomes.
EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
This event will determine a participant's ability to design, conduct and report the findings of an experiment conducted on site.
FERMI QUESTIONS
Teams provide answers (within an order of magnitude recorded in powers of ten) to a series of Fermi Questions, which are science-related questions that seek fast, rough estimates of a quantity which is either difficult or impossible to measure directly.
FORENSICS
Given a scenario and some possible suspects, participants will perform a series of tests which along with other evidence or test results will be used to solve a crime.
GAME ON
This event will determine a team's ability to design and build an original computer game incorporating the theme and Game type provided to them by the supervisor using the program Scratch.
HELICOPTERS
Prior to the tournament teams design, construct and test free flight rubber-powered helicopters to achieve maximum time aloft.
HERPETOLOGY
This event will test knowledge of amphibians and reptiles.
HOVERCRAFT
Participants will be tested on their knowledge of classic mechanics and related topics as well as their ability to construct a self-propelled air-levitated vehicle that moves down a track.
MATERIALS SCIENCE
Participants will complete lab activities and answer a series of questions related to the materials science of polymers and plastics with an emphasis on chemical structure, reactivity and behavior.
MICROBE MISSION
Teams will answer questions, solve problems and analyze data pertaining to microbes.
MISSION POSSIBLE
Prior to the competition, participants will design, build, test and document a Rube Goldberg-like device that completes a required Final Task through an optional series of simple machines.
MOUSETRAP VEHICLE
Teams design, build and test a vehicle using one, or two, snap mousetraps as its sole means of propulsion that can push a plastic cup forward, reverse direction, and come to a stop behind the start point.
OPTICS
Teams must participate in an activity involving positioning mirrors to direct a laser beam towards a target and are tested on their knowledge of geometric and physical optics.
REMOTE SENSING
Participants will use remote sensing imagery, data and computational process skills to complete tasks related to climate change processes in the Earth system.
ROCKS AND MINERALS
Teams will demonstrate their knowledge of rocks and minerals.
THERMODYNAMICS
Teams must construct an insulated device prior to the tournament that is designed to retain heat and complete a written test on thermodynamic concepts.
TOWERS
Prior to the competition, teams will design and build a Tower meeting requirements specified in the rules to achieve the highest structural efficiency.
WRITE IT DO IT
One student will write a description of an object and how to build it, and then the other student will attempt to construct the object from the description.
Michigan Science Olympiad-MSO Web Training for New Team Coaches
Team formation and Size
Who can participate?
For a school team, students must be enrolled in the school to be on the school Science Olympiad team. A half day magnet program does not qualify as a school.
How many students per team?
Division B Middle School/Jr Highteam can consist of 6-9 grade students
Division B team is defined by a maximum of (15)6-9th grade students, there can be up to five 9th graders who competed on the team the previous year, or attend the junior high school in 9th grade.
Division C High School 9-12 graders
Division C team is defined by a maximum of (15) 9-12th grade students, there can be up to seven 12th graders on the team roster.
Registration Regular and Alternate/Cost to start a team: All Science Olympiad teams must register at the state level and the regional level to be able to compete at an invitational, regional, or state tournament.
Michigan Science Olympiad Registration cost is $230 for main teams and $75 for alternate teams
Regional Tournaments (Regions 1 through 15) see (Registration cost varies see website for your region)
Michigan Science Olympiad-MSO Web Training for New Team Coaches
Tournament Schedule and Team Schedule There is a tentative schedule for the state tournament posted on the website. Events will have the same conflicts as the national schedule (this is included in the Rules Manual). For your region, go to appropriate website for regional tournament schedules. It is recommended to place students into events that do not compete at the same time, however, your regional schedule will dictate event conflicts if different from the state/national schedule.
Take special consideration of your regional schedule, hopefully the event conflicts will be the same as the state schedule (for teams who may be invited to the state tournament). Students should be practicing events that do not run at the same time (for testing events with an hour time block). Self-scheduled events like Towers and Battery Buggy can be scheduled over a period of time blocks, choose a time that works best for the 2 students in the event. This scheduled time is usually only part of the hour (10 to 20 min).
Michigan Science Olympiad-MSO Web Training for New Team Coaches
Coaching Responsibilities and Tips
How do I Recruit Event Coaches?: Parents can coach an event or 2 (their own student and other students on the team), Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents, Teachers at the school, and parents can gather resources for the students in an event they have some expertise in, but it is not necessary to have expertise. Typically, coaches learn right along with the students and guide them based on the rules topics and rubrics. Students on the High School team can be great coaches for middle school. They are always looking for community service hours to fulfill. High School students on a team are capable of self coaching, but may need guidance/resources.
How do I Recruit students?Students can be recruited within the school through daily announcements, support from the teachers to announce in classroom. Pick a few days to set up a table in the school during lunch period, with information about science Olympiad, participation forms, etc.
How do I place students into events, and how many per student?There should be 2 to 4 students practicing for each event. This way, the best students will be revealed through practices, practice tests, participation, etc. This may not be feasible if there are only 15 students (or less).
Describe “Tryouts” and timing:Tryouts may be necessary when there are more than 15 studentsinterested in participating. Place students in events they are most interested in and evaluate students through a specified period of time (4 to 8 weeks is a good evaluation). If there is a coach assigned to an event, ask them to rank the students based on testing, attendance and participation. When you have enough students to have an alternate team, the evaluation can continue though invitationals. As a head coach you can use this information and knowledge of the tournament schedules to determine the top 15 students for regionals and states.
Coaching Tips for Success: What should a new coach be sure to do? Collected from veteran coaches
Consider parental commitment/availability when choosing team of 15
Meet the kids for breakfast on tournament day, provide food
Make detailed schedules for each kid and parent with map on back. Include items they need to bring
Meet with team and at least one parent one evening the week before tournament to set expectations.
Start build events early
Have parent coaches at first meeting and make sure they fully understand everything that’s expected of them as coaches.
Read rules multiple times and check state and national SO websites for rule clarifications and FAQ’s.
Coaching Tips for Success: What should a new coach be sure to do? Collected from veteran coaches (continued)
Make sure your team arrives early to competitions to get wristbands and items to impound. If there’s a problem with an item at impound, they may be able to fix it before the end of impound.
Make sure your team has the proper safety clothing and eyewear. No short lab coats or aprons; must have indirect vents on goggles.
Involve parents from the beginning and make sure they know expectations
Check schedule when it’s released and make sure don’t assign a student to prepare for events that will be at the same time.
Participating in an invitational helps get your team going earlier.
Put rules questions in team tryout test, or in event practice tests
Plan ahead for how many 9th graders are allowed on B team, or 12th graders on C team
Have students turn cell phones off and give to parents on tournament day.
Food at practice sessions is a plus for students.
Michigan Science Olympiad-MSO Web Training for New Team Coaches
Fundraising Opportunities
-Bottle and Can Drive
-Yankee Candle Sales
-Meijer
-Pay to Participate,
-Donations from businesses, or parent’s employers
Michigan Science Olympiad-MSO Web Training for New Team Coaches
Cost and Benefits of participating in an Invitational Tournament:
$75 per team, can take 2 or 3 teams and all students can compete. Prepares the team earlier for competition and helps determine top performers when more than 2 students are preparing/practicing for an event. Gives the team a leg up as compared to other teams who do not participate in invitationals. Students can earn medals for individual events, this reinforces reward for time/work preparation. For building events parameters, and other event parameters, mistakes, misinterpretations can be determined early on, like incorrect dimensions of a device, misreading of rules regarding binders, cheat sheets and other requirements for the events. Creates excitement and team building early in the season as well as competition within the team, to help determine top 15 students.
Michigan Science Olympiad-MSO Web Training for New Team Coaches
Q & A How can I get more information for the new events?
- Division B
- Battery Buggy
- Herpetology
- Mystery Architecture
- Potions and Poisons
- Roller Coaster
- Solar System
- Thermodynamics
- Division C
- Fermi Questions
- Herpetology
- Mission Possible
- Mousetrap Vehicle
- Thermodynamics
Michigan Science Olympiad is having a Coaches Workshop on Saturday Dec 2, 2017 at MSU in the BPS Bldg. Go to the MSO website to register for this workshop.
Q & AHow do I get help when I have questions and need answers?
Contact Julie Hein or Diane Xu
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