The Oklahoma Science Teaching Association(OSTA) will be hosting their annual state conference Friday-Saturday, June 9-10, 2023. This year the Friday night dinner, Celebration of Science Education, will be privately held at Science Museum Oklahoma. This night will be filled with fun science experiences, cocktails, and a beautifully catered dinner. OSTA will also be recognizing their State Science Teachers of the Year in Elementary, Middle, High School, and College/University; the New Horizons Teacher of the Year (early-career teachers); the Informal Science Educator award; and their highest honor, the Jack Renner Distinguished Service award. 

The conference, themed “Exploring New Frontiers”, will be Saturday, June 10, 2023, at the Betz STEM Research and Learning building on the University of Central Oklahoma’s campus. There will be 20+ sessions held throughout the day for various grade levels, including (but not limited to):

Elementary School Sessions: Mapping Mars; Science in Motion; STEM on a Shoestring

Middle School Sessions: Promoting Productive Discussions; Modeling Antibiotic Resistance; Solar Panels for Your House

High School Sessions:Looking for Patterns in Species Diversity; What’s the Mass of the Top Quark?; Up, Up, and Away!

OSDE Science Team Sessions: Town Hall; Science Storytelling: Writing in Science

O‍KSciOly will also be there!  Stop by our booth and bring your friends to our presentation at 2:10 in Room 120 of the Betz STEM Center.  The program entry says:

Science Olympiad, BE: Part of It

Location: STEM Room 120 

Targeted Areas: 6-12

Presenter(s): Bob Melton (University of Central Oklahoma)

Science Olympiad helps you to achieve your goals by enhancing STEM education programming and engaging students with hands-on experiences that prepare them for college and beyond. When you coach a Science Olympiad team, your love of learning and excitement for science gets reflected back every day, at every practice and every competition. Students specialize in subjects of their choice, from bio to chem to tech and engineering, while teachers get to work with kids who’ve raised their hand and said YES to science. Science Olympiad allows you to extend your school’s science curriculum with engaged learners in an after-school setting. 

The conference will also be hosting vendors eager to show off their newest resources and a keynote from Bill Moore, an Oklahoma author, including contributions to the “Oklahomans and Space” exhibit at the Oklahoma History Center. The day will conclude with a Q&A and door prizes!

Conference registration includes breakfast and lunch. Dinner tickets can be bought together or separate from the conference. For more information or to register for the event, visit OSTA’s Event webpage. 

This past weekend, we welcomed the top Science Olympiad teams from across the country to Wichita State University, where Kennedy Middle School from Cupertino, CA and Stevenson High School from Lincolnshire, IL were crowned champions of the 2023 Science Olympiad National Tournament. Congratulations to these teams and all the participants who made it to Nationals, including our own Casady Upper School in Division C and Oakdale Middle School in Division B! And thank you to all the volunteers and Kansas Science Olympiad for making this Tournament a success! 

Miss out on the opening ceremony? Be sure to catch the replay to Wizard IV’s inspiring message. Official Tournament Results and the recording of the Awards Ceremony can be found on the Science Olympiad website, as well as photos of the Division B & Division C medal winners and team awards photos. In addition to celebrating the success of all of our Science Olympiad teams at the National Tournament this past weekend, we also wanted to recognize the five seniors who each received a $10,000 Founders’ Scholarship. Read about these impressive students and their future plans! 

Best Wishes to Casady Upper School and Oakdale Middle School as they represent Oklahoma in the National Tournament at Wichita State University! There are 121 teams competing, including the non-competing guest team from Eiko Gakuen High School in Japan.

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N‍ext Year’s Schedule of events:

Enrollment for the 2024 season of the Oklahoma Science Olympiad will open in mid-August.  Checkhttps://www.oksciolympiad.org for details.  You will be able to enroll through https://scilympiad.com/ok once the website is reset in early August

S‍eptember 23, 2023 – OKSciOly Coaches/ Event SupervisorTraining Conference, UCO, Edmond

D‍ecember 2, 2023 – Jenks Invitational Tournament B/C, Jenks High School, Jenks

January 27, 2024 – University of Oklahoma College of Engineering Invitational Tournament B/C, OU, Norman

F‍ebruary 24, 2024 – Putnam City Regional Tournament, B/C. Putnam City High School, Warr Acres

A‍pril 6, 2024 – OKSciOly State Tournament, B/C, University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond

(‍Not currently on the schedule is a potential Build Event workshop in October or November.  Details are pending)

D‍on’t forget! You can to sign up for the National Science Olympiad summer workshops https://www.soinc.org/join/science-olympiad-summer-workshops  

This year, Science Olympiad will be offering two professional development opportunities for coaches to get a start on the 2024 season – the Virtual Event Bootcamp, held online from July 17-20, 2023 and the NEW Summer Build Clinic, held in-person in Naperville, Illinois from July 26-28, 2023. 

Many Science Olympiad coaches at state and national tournaments attribute their team’s success to concepts learned at the Science Olympiad Summer Workshops. Learn more about these workshop opportunities below!

Attendees will have early access to the 2024 Rules, as well as a library of pre-session videos outlining the 33 unique events for the 2024 season. In the live programming, participants have the ability to hear from and engage with Science Olympiad experts on the events! This mix of prerecord and live, concurrent breakout sessions is designed to allow you to target the events, topics, and experiences that are most important to you while giving you the flexibility to learn on your own schedule. In addition, each day of Live programming will offer time to network with and learn from the Event Supervisors as well as other attendees.

• Tentative Live Session Schedule for the Bootcamp

Your registration fee of $399 covers the workshop, all course materials, platform fees, and a Summer Institute Surprise Pack. Register for the Virtual Bootcamp today!

Plan now to join to us in-person at our NEW learning experience the Science Olympiad Summer Build Clinic. Held at the Northern Illinois Conference Center in Naperville, Illinois July 26-28, 2023 this 2 1/2 day workshop will allow you to learn from and build with expert Event Supervisors Brian Turnbull, David Lindley, Jeremy Gerber, Brian Hoffman, and CeAnn Chalker as well as Dan Nichols and John Loehr from the National Office.

The Summer Build Clinic is a hands-on, deep dive into continuing events Flight and Wheeled Vehicle along with Air Trajectory, Robot Tour, and Towers, which are new events for the 2024 season. In addition, there will be breakout sessions that tackle preparing your team, organizing practices, preparing for tournaments, coaching, and the future direction of Science Olympiad. This event is not for students.

Summer Build Clinic attendees will experience 2 1/2 days of sessions designed to improve any school’s Science Olympiad program and help meet state core curriculum science benchmarks and standards. Each evening there will also be optional networking opportunities. Registration includes course fee, building materials, access to all Virtual Bootcamp prerecorded and live sessions, daily beverage service, three breakfasts and two lunches, a welcome gift, and a preview copy of the Rules for Middle School (Division B) and High School (Division C) Events for the 2024 season.

You will want to register early as prior in-person Summer workshops have sold out!

• Online Build Clinic Registration Form
• Tentative Build Clinic Schedule

The headquarters hotel for this event will be the Embassy Suites hotel across the street from the Northern Illinois University Conference Center but attendees can choose from any of the hotels in Naperville to book their accommodations.

Educators are eligible to apply for Title 2 Teacher Quality program funds by contacting their school district science curriculum administrator.

The University of Central Oklahoma College of Mathematics and Science played host to the Oklahoma Science Olympiad State Tournament on April 1st.

The competition, which is comprise of 46 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) events, is part of the national Science Olympiad program, the premier team STEM competition in the nation, providing standards-based challenges to 6,000 teams at 425 tournaments in all 50 states.

“The College of Mathematics and Science is pleased to be the program sponsor of the Oklahoma Science Olympiad and the host of the State Tournament for the last 10 years.” said Bob Melton, State Director of the Oklahoma Science Olympiad.

“If a young person wants to be an engineer, a chemist, a biology teacher, an astronaut, an astrophysicist, a math professor, or all of the above, Science Olympiad lets them try it on for size. Science Olympiad events touch every letter in STEM so they can explore any pathway. Science Olympiad helps students find their what, how, and maybe most importantly, their why.”

Casady Upper School in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma placed first among high school teams at the tournament and Oakdale School in Edmond, Oklahoma placed first among Middle School teams. Both teams will now represent Oklahoma at the National Science Olympiad Tournament to be held May 19-20 at Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas.

The Science Olympiad National Tournament is the pinnacle of achievement for 120 of the country’s best Science Olympiad teams and the Science Olympiad Global Ambassador Team from Japan, representing more than 2,000 students.

Other teams in the State Tournament included Norman North High School, Norman, Oklahoma which placed second in the High School Division and Jenks High School, Jenks, Oklahoma which placed third. Casady Middle School, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, placed second in the Middle School division of the tournament with Taloga Middle/Elementary School, Taloga, Oklahoma, earning third place.

https://www.soinc.org/rules-2023

*COMING UP!* 9/14 – 2023 Season Kickoff Workshop Wednesday

Join us for the the first Workshop Wednesday of the 2023 Season on September 14th! In our Season Kickoff Workshop, you’ll hear about the new Events & resources for 2023, as well as a refresher on the Ways to Play. Register for this workshop today! 

Teacher Professional Development Opportunity Available

The NASA/IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program offers teachers interested in astronomy an opportunity to conduct published research, travel to conferences, and network with like-minded science teachers. The application closes Monday, September 12. More information here: https://nitarp.ipac.caltech.edu/

USDA Forest Service Partnership for Forestry

We are so excited to announce a new strategic partnership between Science Olympiad and the USDA Forest Service Conservation Education group! Look out for great new resources and supervisory assistance with the Forestry event – coming soon! 

NERD Academy Curriculum and Resources 

Get students ready for Disease Detectives with the NERD Academy curriculum from the CDC. Resources are free and ready to use in the classroom or during team practice! 

Science Olympiad Newsletters

Sign up now for any of the Science Olympiad newsletters, including our brand new Elementary Science Olympiad newsletter. We’ll share helpful tips, information, and announcements throughout the season. Sign up here. 

Welcome to the 2023 Season! 

The Science Olympiad National Office Team

The OKSciOly Coaches training will be held September 17th in Howell Hall on the campus of the University of Central Oklahoma. This training reviews all of the 46 events that will be contested in Division B and Division C during the 2023 Science Olympiad season. Pre-registration is required. The training is for Coaches and Event Supervisors only. Go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/OKSciOlyTraining23 to reserve your space. The training is FREE and refreshments and lunch are provided.

The season officially starts September 6th with the 9 AM CDT release of the FREE Rules manuals available for download at https://www.soinc.org/rules-2023.

Membership in OKSciOly will open on or about September 1st on Scilympiad.com, so get your students together and start organizing teams!

OKSciOly Event Schedule (so far…):

• September 17th, 2022 – Annual Coaches Training Conference
• December 3rd, 2022 – Jenks HS Invitational (on-site)
• January 21st, 2023 – Putnam City HS Invitational (on-site)
• April 1st, 2023 – OKSciOLy State Tournament, UCO (on-site)
• May 19-20, 2023 – Science Olympiad National Tournament, Wichita State University (on-site)

Time to get ready for the 2023 season of the Oklahoma Science Olympiad. The season officially starts September 6th with the 9 AM CDT release of the FREE Rules manuals available for download at https://www.soinc.org/rules-2023.

The OKSciOly Coaches conference is Saturday, September 17th at the University of Central Oklahoma. Registration for the conference will open soon and a link will be posted here and on OKSciOly Basecamp.

Membership in OKSciOly will open on or about September 1st on Scilympiad.com.

Two in-state Invitational tournaments are in the planning stages and details will be released as soon as dates and times are confirmed. Both will be in-person tournaments as will the State Tournament on April 1st.

This year the Science Olympiad National Tournament will be held at Wichita State University.