Events
Students compete in twenty-three main events, which usually occur on a single day; done by a team of limited numbers. Events fall under three main categories: Science Concepts and Knowledge, Science Processes and Thinking Skills, and Science Application and Technology. They are either knowledge-based (for example, written tests on earth science, physics, astronomy, or biology), hands-on (for example, chemistry lab practicals), or engineering-based (participants construct a device to do specified tasks).
Knowledge-based events generally have two participants either taking a test or mathematically analyzing data. Examples of such events are Designer Genes, Forensics, and Chemistry Lab.
Hands-on events generally consist of two participants performing experiments or interacting with physical objects to achieve a certain goal. Some examples are Bio-Process lab, Forensics, or Science Crimebusters.
Engineering-based events have a team of two to three participants. They are to construct a device following a specific event's parameters and test the device against others. Examples include Robo-Cross, Bridge/Tower Building, and Storm The Castle.
The majority of events require two team members, though a few require more. If one member is unable to attend an event, the other is able to continue, depending on the event, with the competition, though at an obvious disadvantage. If the team has one available, a back-up team member may be placed with the member as opposed to their former partner.
The list and rules for events change and are updated every year to input dynamism and to limit the advantages of more experienced teams.
Read more about this topic: Science Olympiad
Famous quotes containing the word events:
“When the world was half a thousand years younger all events had much sharper outlines than now. The distance between sadness and joy, between good and bad fortune, seemed to be much greater than for us; every experience had that degree of directness and absoluteness which joy and sadness still have in the mind of a child”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)
“Man is a stream whose source is hidden. Our being is descending into us from we know not whence. The most exact calculator has no prescience that somewhat incalculable may not balk the very next moment. I am constrained every moment to acknowledge a higher origin for events than the will I call mine.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The return of the asymmetrical Saturday was one of those small events that were interior, local, almost civic and which, in tranquil lives and closed societies, create a sort of national bond and become the favorite theme of conversation, of jokes and of stories exaggerated with pleasure: it would have been a ready- made seed for a legendary cycle, had any of us leanings toward the epic.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)