National Science Olympiad Tournament

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Competitive Events

• Official Rules Clarifications
• Official FAQs

• Division B Events
• Division C Events
• Trial / Demo Events

There are 23 events on the middle and high school schedule that were published in a rules manual for coaches and students. These are the events you see on the schedules posted on this website—except trial or demo events. The top-six team competitors in each of the 23 events will receive medals for those events. Team trophies are given based on the total points earned in these 23 events. Students competing in these events can find answers to common questions here .

Division B (Middle School) Events

Event	Description
Anatomy	Teams will be tested on their knowledge of anatomy and health concepts including respiratory and muscular systems.
Awesome Aquifer	Students will construct an aquifer and answer questions about groundwater concepts - includes a presentation.
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 center of the finish line.
Bottle Rocket	Prior to the tournament, teams construct up to 2 rockets designed to stay aloft for the greatest amount of time.
Can't Judge a Powder	Students will test and characterize one pure substance and then, based only on data they collect, answer a series of questions about that substance.
Compute This	Teams will be presented with a problem which requires quantitative data capture from the Internet and the presentation of data in a graphical format.
Crime Busters	Teams will identify the perpetrators of a crime or crimes by using paper chromatography and analysis of unknown solids, liquids, and plastics found at the scene of a crime.
Disease Detectives	This event requires students to apply principles of epidemiology to a published report of a real-life health situation or problem. (Food Borne Illness)
Dynamic Planet	Teams will work at stations that display a variety of earth science materials and related earth science questions. (Earth's Fresh Waters)
Ecology	Students will answer questions involving content knowledge and process skills in the area of ecology and adaptation by examining different ecosystems. (Tundra/Taiga)
Experimental Design	Given a set of unknown objects, teams will design, conduct, analyze and write-up an experiment.
Fossils	Students will identify, describe, and classify various specimens.
Junkyard Challenge	Students will partially pre-construct an device with final construction and adaptation onsite to complete a published challenge.
Meteorology	This event involves the use of process skills as applied to meteorology (Severe Storms).
Microbe Mission	Teams will answer questions, solve problems and analyze data pertaining to microbes.
Optics	Teams compete in activities and answer questions related to geometric and physical optics.
Ornithology	This event will test knowledge of North American birds on the official list.
Road Scholar	Requires the accurate interpretation and understanding of various map features using a variety of road and topographic maps.
Shock Value	Students will compete in activities involving basic understanding of electricity, magnetism and simple electrical devices.
Solar System	Teams will demonstrate knowledge of the Sun, planets and their satellites, dwarf planets, comets, asteroids, the asteroid belt, meteoroids, Oort Cloud and the Kuiper Belt.
Storm the Castle	Prior to the tournament, teams design, construct and calibrate a device that uses only the energy of a falling counterweight to launch a projectile as far and as accurately as possible.
Towers	Team members design and build the most efficient tower.
Write It, Do It	A technical writing exercise where students write a description of a contraption and other students will attempt to recreate it using only the written description.

Division C (High School) Events

Event	Description
Anatomy and Physiology	This event encompasses the anatomy and physiology of selected body systems, this year limited to respiratory, muscular and endocrine systems.
Astronomy	Teams will demonstrate an understanding of the basic concepts of math and physics relating to galaxies.
Chem Lab	Teams will demonstrate chemistry laboratory skills related to selected topics.
Disease Detectives	This event requires students to apply principles of epidemiology to a published report of a real-life health situation or problem. (Food Borne Illness)
Dynamic Planet	Teams will work at stations that display a variety of earth science materials and related earth science questions. (Earth's Fresh Waters)
Ecology	Teams will work at stations that display a variety of earth science materials and related earth science questions. (Earth's Fresh Waters)
Experimental Design	Given a set of unknown objects, teams will design, conduct, analyze and write-up an experiment.
Forensics	Students will identify polymers, solids, fibers, and other materials in a crime scenario.
Fossils	Students will identify, describe, and classify various specimens.
Helicopters	Students will construct and test free flight rubber-powered helicopters prior to the tournament to achieve maximum flight times.
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 using a sequence of consecutive tasks.
Mousetrap Vehicle	Teams will design, build, and test a vehicle that uses one or two snap mousetraps as the sole propulsion energy source to travel a distance and return to the starting line center as quickly as possible.
Optics	Teams compete in activities and answer questions related to geometric and physical optics.
Ornithology	This event will test knowledge of North American birds on the official list.
Protein Model	Students will use computer visualization and online resources to guide them in constructing physical models of proteins. For 2011, students will model proteins involved in reprogramming adult cells to become stem cells.
Remote Sensing	Teams use maps and remote sensing technology to explain human impact on the Earth.
Sounds of Music	Prior to the competition, students will build one wind instrument and one percussion instrument based on a 12 tone tempered scale, prepare to describe the principles behind their operation and be able to perform a major scale, a required melody and a chosen melody with each.
Sumo Bot	Teams will design and construct a robot (bot) that will attempt to move an opponent's robot from the ring.
Technical Problem Solving	Teams will gather and process data to solve problems.
Towers	Team members design and build the most efficient tower.
Wind Power	Teams will build a blade assembly that consists of any kind of propeller/pinwheel/rotor attached to a compact disc (CD) which will be used to capture wind power. Students will also be tested on their knowledge regarding alternative energy.
Write It, Do It	A technical writing exercise where students write a description of a contraption and other students will attempt to recreate it using only the written description.

Trial / Demo Events

Trial and demo events often are being considered for future tournaments. For this National Science Olympiad, the trial or demo Events do NOT count for team points and ANY team (regular or alternate member) can participate ONCE in each trial event. These events do not affect the team score but medals are awarded for top finishers as in the other 23 events. You can find rules for the trial events held at the 2011 NSO tournament by clicking on the event of interest below.

Division B (middle school) Trials: Wright Stuff Capacitor and MagLev

Division C (high school) Trials: Robot Arm and Materials Science

Demo events are just for fun; there are no individual medals awarded and no results are counted for team points. However, we will have a contest each hour as a challenge to the event supervisor. If you bring an ornithopter, or "flying bird," during one of the competition periods on our day's schedule, you can participate in a simultaneous release of all the ornithopters. If competitors' birds stay in the air longer than the "demo" bird, competitors will receive a tasty prize.

Division B/C Demo: Flying Bird

Event	Description
Flying Bird (B/C)	Prior to the tournament, participants will construct and test, to achieve maximum flight times, up to two rubber-powered mechanical flying birds, called ornithopters, which are propelled solely by flapping wings.
MagLev (B)	Contestants will construct up to two self-propelled "vehicles" powered by electrical energy supplied by batteries. The energy supplied by the batteries will be used to turn up to two propellers and move the vehicle down a magnetic track while pulling a maglev sled. Students will collect data and develop a graph showing the relationship between the mass being pulled and the time required to reach the finish line.
Materials Science (C)	Teams will answer a series of questions or complete a task involving the science processes of chemistry focused in the areas of Materials Science.
Robot Arm (C)	Participants will design, build and test a robotic arm similar to industrial robots prior to the competition. This arm will be capable of sorting objects.
Wright Stuff Capacitor (B)	Teams will construct and test up to two electric motor powered monoplanes with a single propeller assembly to achieve maximum flight times. Energy to the motor is provided by a capacitor.

• Tournament Details
  • Master Schedule
    • Wednesday 5/18
    • Thursday 5/19
    • Friday 5/20
    • Saturday 5/21
  • Competitive Events
  • Competition Schedule
    • Division B
    • Division C
    • Team Numbers
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