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Contact Information: South Dakota Science Olympiad 414 E. Clark St. Dakota Hall, Room 314 Vermillion, SD 57069 phone: 605-677-5248 fax: 605-677-5263 Clark.Bennett@usd.edu Last Modified: 08/22/08 |
The 2009 South Dakota Science Olympiad State Tournament will be held on Saturday, March 28, 2009 at The University of South Dakota in Vermillion. South Dakota Science Olympiad is a program devoted to improving the quality of science education, increasing student interest in science, and providing recognition for outstanding achievement. Science Olympiad as the name implies is the Olympics for science based events. Team competition is patterned after track tournaments with challenging and motivational events ranging from earth science through physics. Events range from hands-on labs to student built machines, from outdoor events to paper and pencil tests. There is also a balance between events requiring scientific knowledge and understanding, and others requiring process and application skills. Although some events require an individual from one team to compete against other individuals from other schools, most events require teamwork, group planning, and cooperation. The emphasis is on learning, participation, interaction, having fun and team spirit. Schools participating in Science Olympiad will compete with a team of up to 15 students and up to two alternates. There is one major tournament in the state: The South Dakota Science Olympiad State Tournament which is held at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion. Currently, there are four national Science Olympiad divisions: Division A1 (grades K-3); Division A2 (grades 3-6); Division B (grades 6-9); and Division C (grades 9-12). However, there are only two divisions in the state of South Dakota, a Junior High/Middle School (Division B) and a High School (Division C). For Division B, up to five (5) ninth graders are allowed to participate in the state tournament. For Division C, up to seven (7) twelfth graders are allowed to participate in the state tournament. Students must be from the membership school. Recruiting from neighboring schools, districts, counties or states is not permitted. A school is considered to be a separate school if it has a separate administrator. Because middle schools that do not have grades 8 or 9 are at a slight disadvantage, they may invite back any combination of up to five of their last year's seventh or eighth grade students to be part of the team (e.g., a school with grades X-9 can have only 5 students from grade 9; a school with grades X-8 can invite only 5 students back from grade 9 (their last year's 8th grade students); a school with grades X-7 can invite only 5 students back from grade 8 or 9 (their last year's 7th or 8th grade students). However, any given eighth or ninth grade student can compete at only one division level. There is no national tournament for elementary schools, so they may wish to initiate local, school district or regional competitions. In previous years, over 14,000 elementary and secondary school teams from the United States and Canada competed in the Science Olympiad program. A membership fee of $90.00 per team must accompany the completed registration form. The membership fee registers your team with the National Science Olympiad allowing you to advance to nationals, covers the cost of awards, rule books, and helps cover administrative costs for Science Olympiad. First, second, and third place medals (gold, silver, and bronze) will be given for each event at the South Dakota Science Olympiad State Tournament. In addition, championship trophies will be awarded to the teams compiling the most total points during the state competition. The winning team (or top two teams if enough teams register) from each division at the State competition will be invited to the National Science Olympiad Tournament. The sites for the upcoming National Science Olympiad Tournaments are: Augusta State University, Augusta, GA, on May 15-16, 2009; The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, on May 21-22, 2010; The University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, on May 20-21, 2011; The University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, on May 18-19, 2012. Division B schools scheduled to compete at the 2009 South Dakota Science Olympiad State Tournament. Division C schools scheduled to compete at the 2009 South Dakota Science Olympiad State Tournament. South Dakota Science Olympiad Policy on Small School Teams. South Dakota Science Olympiad Policy on Home School Teams. Starting with the 2006/2007 school year, South Dakota Science Olympiad began extending an invitation to the home school community. While this is somewhat new to South Dakota, several states already have such a program and their home school teams have been state champions and competed at the national tournament. Science Olympiad is a team activity, not an individual one, so a child must be a member of a team. A team consists of up to 15 children with up to two alternates. At this time, such participation is only extended for Division B (grades 6-9) and Division C (grades 9-12). Since there is no official method to determine what grade a home school child is in, we have established that a child's equivalent grade will be determined by their birth date. Thus, a child who will be eleven years old on September 1 will be considered to be a sixth grader and so forth and so on. This calendar age will be used to determine eligibility for Division B or Division C. A child may compete with a higher division team than their age indicates but not a lower one. For example, a tenth grader can only compete in Division C, while a fifth grader could compete in Division B (or even C). Public school students may participate in Science Olympiad only as members of a team that is formed in the local public school that they attend. In the case of 9th graders, public school students may compete on the team from the middle school that they most recently attended. Public school students may not opt to participate on another school’s team. Private schools, “governor” schools and charter schools may create Science Olympiad teams from any student in their student body, regardless of where their homes of origin are located. They may not solicit or enlist either public school or home-schooled students on their teams. It is assumed that a home school team will be composed of children who have a pre-existing relationship of working together on a regular basis. South Dakota Science Olympiad will require a statement from the coach as to the nature of that relationship. Home-schooled students will have two options for participating in South Dakota Science Olympiad. Option 1 - Participation through a Local Public School: If the state in which a home schooled student resides allows home schools students to participate in public school activities, home schooled students may either (1) choose to participate as a member of the Science Olympiad team at the local public school they would attend were they not home schooled, or (2) form a home school team as set forth in Option #2. Option 2 - Participation through a Home School Team: South Dakota Science Olympiad will recognize Home School Teams consisting only of students who live within the boundaries of two contiguous (side-by-side) geographic counties in a single state. South Dakota Science Olympiad is responsible for registering and qualifying all Science Olympiad teams. In the case of a public school Science Olympiad team, a roster signed by the principal of the school is considered proper validation. In the case of a Home School Team, a roster signed by the President of the home school association or the head of the independent home school is considered proper validation. If South Dakota Science Olympiad suspects that a team is comprised of students who are not members of that school’s student body or that the Home School Team is not legitimate, the South Dakota Science Olympiad State Director may ask the coach to provide verification of that team’s qualifications as follows: A public, private or charter school student’s qualification may be verified by some form of school identification, school roster, recent report card, evidence of residence in the school district or other similar documents appropriate to the situation. Meanwhile, a home-schooled student’s qualification may be verified by the student’s annual notice of intent to home school and some proof of residency within two contiguous designated counties. State Directors or officials may NOT contact individual home-schooled students to determine Home School Team validity. All inquires must go through the registered Home School Team coach, President of the association or the head of the independent home school. If, after investigation, the South Dakota Science Olympiad State Director determines that a team or its members are not qualified, it may impose a sanction that may include disqualification of a student team member, disqualification of a team coach, or a team’s disqualification from a tournament. In the event of multiple cases of disqualification, a coach or team may be barred from future competition. Since this is a new aspect of South Dakota Science Olympiad, we may establish additional criteria as the home school activity materializes and unforeseen problems become known. Our desire is to provide this opportunity to as many children as possible while, at the same time, keeping a level playing field. South Dakota Science Olympiad Policy on All-Star Teams. Currently each Science Olympiad member school can enter up to 15 students as a team at each tournament. The school teams with the highest overall scores advance to the next level. There has been some interest from the inception of the Science Olympiad about the possibility of an "All-Star" team whereby the gold medal winners from one level advance to the next level. After much discussion and debate at a meeting with the National Executive Board, national captains and coaches it was unanimously voted to support the existing school team approach in favor of an All-Star team for the following reasons:
This would not only present nightmares for tournament organizers but also for local school supporters attempting to make plans for all these students not to mention the increased cost of medals, material, and travel expense. South Dakota Science Olympiad Policy on Constructed Devices. This policy applies to events that require a device to be constructed and brought to the South Dakota Science Olympiad State Tournament. The student who is primarily responsible for the design and construction of the device must be present in order to operate the device when it is used for scoring. The event supervisor or supervisors may extensively question the lead student as to the design and construction of the device. The questioning may include: the overall design and construction, the component parts, how those parts operate, and their function in the device. Other students on the team may also be questioned. If the students are unable to answer the questions correctly, then the event supervisor or supervisors will have grounds to believe that the students did not design and/or construct the device. The team will be disqualified from the event and scored accordingly. For more information, please contact:
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