The Science Olympiad Manuals have arrived and it’s time to prepare for the 2013-14 tournament season.  Training for Division B and C Coaches as well as orientation training for Event Supervisors will occur Saturday, September 28th in Howell Hall (the science building) on the campus of the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond.  We will begin in The Howell Hall Atrium at 9 AM and will end at Noon with lunch.

Member teams of the Oklahoma Science Olympiad should have a Coach present at this training.  Not yet a member?  Come find out about the Science Olympiad and learn what you can do to start a team and get it ready for this year’s tournament season.

This training will include an orientation training for experienced and new Event Supervisors. This is the best time to learn the responsibilities of Event Supervisors and meet with Coaches and trainers.

Agenda

9 am- 10 am- Orientation to Science Olympiad

10 am-12 pm 2013-14 Division B and Division C event review

There is no cost to attend this training.  Registration is accomplished by sending an email to OK Science OLympiad Director Bob Melton.  Registration Deadline is September 26th.

For the past 30 years, SCIENCE OLYMPIAD has led a revolution in science education. What began as a grassroots assembly of science teachers is now one of the premiere science competitions in the nation, providing rigorous, standards-based challenges to nearly 7,000 teams in 50 states.

Science Olympiad is Awesome:
Science Olympiad’s ever-changing line-up of events in all STEM disciplines exposes students to practicing scientists and career choices, and energizes classroom teachers with a dynamic content experience.

Science Olympiad competitions are like academic track meets, consisting of a series of 23 team events in each division (Division B is middle school; Division C is high school). Each year, a portion of the events are rotated to reflect the ever-changing nature of genetics, earth science, chemistry, anatomy, physics, geology, mechanical engineering and technology. By combining events from all disciplines, Science Olympiad encourages a wide cross-section of students to get involved.  Emphasis is placed on active, hands-on group participation. See a list of this year’s events here. Through Science Olympiad, students, teachers, parents, principals and business leaders bond together and work toward a shared goal.

Teamwork is a required skill in most scientific careers today, and Science Olympiad encourages group learning by designing events that forge alliances. In Elevated Bridge, an engineering whiz and a kid from wood shop can become gold medalists. Similarly, a talented builder and a student with a good science vocabulary can excel in Write It Do It, one of Science Olympiad’s most popular events.

See the Weather Channel report of the 2013 National Science Olympiad Tournament:

NOW is the time to join the 2014 Oklahoma Science Olympiad

Since 1985, Science Olympiad has required that all teams (up to 15 members) competing in any Science Olympiad tournament (Invitational, Regional, State or National) must be a member of Science Olympiad and pay the national fee (currently $60).

An additional fee of $40 is charged for membership in the Oklahoma Science Olympiad ($100 total).  The fee is paid annually to the Oklahoma Science Olympiad, c/o Putnam City Schools Science Activity Fund, 5401 NW 40th Street, Oklahoma City, OK 73122.

Questions?  Need more details? Contact Bob Melton bmelton@putnamcityschools.org and go the Oklahoma Science Olympiad Website https://www.oksciolympiad.org. and the National Science Olympiad website http://www.soinc.org

Science Olympiad is proud to announce that winners from the 2012 National Tournament will be honored at the Third Annual White House Science Fair in Washington, DC, today, April 22, at a ceremony beginning at 2:25pm EST. At approximately 11:30am, live streaming video of exhibits will begin at the site below (Science Olympiad does not have an exhibit). Solon High School and Solon Middle School are represented by Coaches Donna Ross and Drew Kirian, along with students Stephanie Zhu and Achuth Nair. Watch for them in the crowd wearing their Science Olympiad medals with the red, white and blue ribbons!

Find out more here, where we’ll be adding photos and video throughout the day.

http://www.soinc.org/gov_news_2013

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/04/20/watch-live-2013-white-house-science-fair

NBC has a regular TODAY Show feature called Class of 2020 where they are following a class of students in a particular classroom through their 13 years of schooling.  Now 5th graders, the class recently participated in their school district’s Division A Science Olympiad. (See the previous posting giving details about the Division A Tournament recently held in Putnam City that hosted over 270 participants from 15 teams)

TODAY Show cameras were there as students prepared for the Egg Drop and GUNK competitions in advance of the tournament which they also covered in the story.  They picked up the story 2 weeks out from the Tournament that the students began preparing for two months in advance.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The report also gave a shout out to the Division B and C Science Olympiad.

Feel free to share this story with administrators and teachers (friends, family, school board members, students…).  It gives a very quick look at the excitement for learning generated by a tournament as well as the student engagement in the practices of science that make Science Olympiad such a valuable part of any STEM Education program.

http://www.today.com/id/26184891/vp/51133246#51133246

What has 270 pairs of legs, can protect a raw egg from a 30 foot drop, builds wind-powered magnetic-levitated cars that travel 5 feet in less than a second, knows the accomplishments of over 50 famous scientists, and can spell words using a set of compass bearings?  The Putnam City Elementary Division A Science Olympiad Tournament!

Students from Putnam City elementary schools met Saturday, February 23^rd at Putnam City High School to compete in 20 events, including Mag-Lev Cars, Orienteering, Famous Scientists, Bridge Testing, Tower Building, Wildlife Safari, and Water Rocket launching.

PC High Olympiad Coach Benton Shriver releases an egg container in the Egg Drop event

The events are all a part of the Elementary Science Olympiad competitive program of the National Science Olympiad, one of the nation’s largest STEM education programs.  Mentored by district PEAK teachers, students entered the competition representing their individual schools and competing in up to 4 individual events.  For most events, students work in collaboration with a partner from their school in events that require a variety of skills including research and study, lab work and experimentation, and design and construction of devices.

Some of the members of the Division C Science Olympiad teams from Putnam City and Putnam City West High Schools that served as event Supervisor/ Judges for the 20 events that made up the Division A Tournament.

Science Olympians compete for individual recognition through medals awarded to 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place finishers.  Individual results are tallied for each event and school teams with the best overall finishes for the tournament are awarded 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place trophies.

Trophy table before the awards ceremony.

But the real winners in the tournament are the Olympians as a whole, who have the opportunity to make in-depth, authentic study of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and develop the skills of persistence, dedication, and teamwork so important for future success.

Middle schools and high schools in Putnam City are also active in Science Olympiad with four middle schools fielding Division B teams and all three high schools with active Division C teams.  After an extensive Olympiad season, these schools will be competing in the Oklahoma Science Olympiad State Finals Tournament, hosted by the science department of the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond on March 2^nd.  The division winners will earn the right to represent Oklahoma in the National Science Olympiad Tournament May 17-18 at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.

More information about the Oklahoma Science Olympiad and the National Science Olympiad program can be found at https://www.oksciolympiad.org.

Inspiring the next generation of scientists

By Dr. Gerard J. Putz and Jenny Kopach (from American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Today) 

http://www.asbmb.org/asbmbtoday/asbmbtoday_article.aspx?id=32460

 

If you’re visiting a college campus on a Saturday in March, you might be surprised to find it crawling with packs of 12- to 18-year-olds in goggles and lab coats, hurrying from one building to the next. These industrious kids aren’t early college students: They’re team members from Science Olympiad, one of the largest, oldest and most prestigious science, technology, engineering and math after-school programs in the country.

Just like a football team, these Science Olympians practice weekly (if not daily), hone their skills and prepare to demonstrate their aptitude against equally matched peers. And to the victors go the spoils — medals, trophies, scholarships and rewards for achievement that in many cases carry scientific interest from classroom to career.

SCIENCE OLYMPIAD IN BRIEF

Science Olympiad is a national nonprofit organization founded in 1984 and dedicated to improving the quality of K – 12 science, technology, engineering and math education, increasing interest in science among all students, creating a technologically literate workforce and providing recognition for outstanding achievement by both students and teachers.Modeling athletic teams, the Science Olympiad teams prepare throughout the year for tournaments. There are three divisions of competition:

Division A: grades K – 6
Division B: grades 6 – 9
Division C: grades 9 – 12

Science Olympiad tournaments (350 annually) consist of 23 team events and are 100 percent aligned to the National Science Education Standards. Each of the 6,400 U.S. teams (roughly 200,000 students) participates in events that require a variety of skills including research and study, lab work and experimentation, and design and construction of devices.

A tall but doable order
The educational landscape is well-populated with single-discipline K – 12 STEM competitions, but Science Olympiad is unique in that it combines all the major science specialties, including life sciences, chemistry, physics, engineering, Earth and space science, and inquiry.

In the fall 2012 issue of the Enzymatic newsletter, American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Undergraduate Affiliate Network Chairwoman Marilee Benore underscored a common problem facing K – 12 education: Students often pursue science with little knowledge of the options open to those with scientific knowledge and training.

The solution? Have students interact with working professionals in Science Olympiad settings. Inspiring students to follow college and career paths into biochemistry and molecular biology is a tall order, but once they see how their event preparation connects with your real-world experience, they will begin to see themselves following the same path (see chart).

By collaborating with Science Olympiad students, you can educate students and teachers about common BMB topics found in Science Olympiad events, illustrate BMB concepts that may seem complex to middle- and high-school students, and advocate for college majors and careers in BMB.

A step beyond show and tell
Many students are aware of current events with links to the biochemistry and molecular biology world — the chemistry of the teenage brain, cancer research that affects their families, the story of Henrietta Lacks’ HeLa cells (required reading in some high schools now), food safety in school lunches and the political stem-cell debate.

Science Olympiad events are exemplary models of real-world applications of science and the STEM careers offered on each path. For instance, Science Olympiad has worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since 1999 on the Disease Detectives event. Within the CDC, scientists were charged with creating K – 12 workforce-development outreach programs that would add to the pool of eligible STEM professionals. Covering topics like pandemics, disease outbreaks, food-borne illness and resulting effects on population, the CDC found that the Science Olympiad Disease Detectives event is an effective way to motivate students to investigate careers in epidemiology.

Similarly, the Milwaukee School of Engineering’s Center for BioMolecular Modeling worked with Science Olympiad to develop the cutting-edge Protein Modeling event for high-school participants. In this event, students use computer visualization and online resources to guide them in constructing physical models of proteins and learn about how protein structure affects its function. This event is linked to current and relevant topics for student engagement, and national winners receive generous scholarships to the engineering school.

The ASBMB member perspective
ASBMB member Shannon Colton, a program director at the Center for BioMolecular Modeling, says Science Olympiad events have helped the engineering school engage more than 9,000 high-school students.

“The students are excited to be on the cutting edge of science, and educators appreciate a new topic to connect the real world of science with what the students are learning,” Colton says. “Team coaches welcome assistance from experts, and we encourage ASBMB members to reach out and make connections. We have found that working with high-school students reignites our passion for this work and reminds us why we chose this route initially.”

Many students are motivated to follow a direct career path once they’ve been successful in Science Olympiad events.

Case in point: Emily Briskin, a sophomore at Yale University. Briskin participated in the Disease Detectives and Microbe Mission events, was a gold medalist on her Centerville High School Science Olympiad team and attended President Obama’s White House Science Fair in October 2010. Today she’s studying molecular, cellular and developmental biology, along with French. “I am interested in global health and microbial disease, and I hope to eventually get my master’s in public health and perhaps work at the CDC. I am involved in Community Health Educators, a group that goes into middle-school classrooms to discuss important public health topics.”

Get involved
Science Olympiad provides an organized and meaningful volunteer activity for scientists in every U.S. state. Simply align your talents with the appropriate grade level and degree of involvement, reach out to the school coach or Science Olympiad state or tournament director, and you’ll be making a difference before you know it. You can tailor your volunteerism and outreach to your region, your position and your schedule:

• • UAN members on college campuses can volunteer at Science Olympiad tournaments or with teams.
• • More experienced ASBMB members can serve as Science Olympiad team mentors in their communities or at Science Olympiad tournaments and can contribute content.

Another plus: As Science Olympiad is an after-school program, it does not compete with teachers’ limited daily instructional time or with district curriculum requirements.

For more information about public outreach opportunities, contact Geoff Hunt at ghunt@asbmb.org.

Gerard J. Putz (gjputz@soinc.org) is the president and co-founder of Science Olympiad. Jenny Kopach (jrkopach@soinc.org) is the vice-president of marketing communication and a national executive board member of Science Olympiad.