Information for Coaches

Check List

  • Complete the SCHOOL REGISTRATION FORM

  • Registration Fee per school is  $50, Due Dec 1. 

  • Between Dec 1 - Jan 31, Registration Fee per school is $75. 

  • Send the registration form and school fee to the address below.

  • Help your students choose their events using the STUDENT REGISTRATION EXCEL SPREADSHEET

  • Your students may use the Student Registration Form to choose their partners and events, and return this form to the coach along with the student payment of $10.student_registration_form_2024.pdf

  • E-mail the completed Student Registration Excel Worksheet to [email protected]

  • Mail the payment of $10 per student to the address below, one check per school, by January 31.

Rosemary Nemeth
JCU Science Olympiad
2515 Richmond Road
Beachwood, OH 44122


Forming a Team

ARE YOU FORMING A SCIENCE OLYMPIAD TEAM FOR THE FIRST TIME??  Here are some tips to help you get started…

1.  Welcome to the wonderful world of Science Olympiad!!  You and your students will have a great experience.

2.  How the competition works:

  • Register your school; send in the school registration fee of $35.   This tells us how many schools will be attending.  The sooner the better to avoid a late fee.
  • Meet with your students (more on forming a team below) and have them choose up to three events, and a partner for each event (they can have a different partner for each event).
  • A list of events and the rules can be found on the main page of the JCU SO web page.
  • Some limits:  You can have up to 50 students from your school, and you can have up to 3 teams of two students per event.
  • For example:   For Egg Drop, you can have a 2-person team in the 9 o’clock time slot, a second 2-person team in the 10 o’clock time slot, and a third 2-person team in the 11 o’clock time slot.  This applies to each event.
  • When you have all the students assigned to their three events, fill out the student registration excel spreadsheet, e-mail it to Lucy, and mail in the $7 per student payment by the January deadline.
  • Each school also chooses an event to run – this means you get parents or teachers to gather all the materials, decide on the parameters or test for the event, run the event on the day of the competition, judge the event and turn in the final score sheet.
  • There are extra fun activities during the day that students may attend when they are finished with their events.
  • There will be a concession stand with pizza, snacks, and beverages at a reasonable cost.  Coaches and event organizers will get a free lunch.
  • The top three teams for each event will earn an award. 

3.  Forming a New Team:

  • Decide when you are available to meet with your students.  You will probably also want to get help from other teachers or parents.
  • Some practice examples:
  •     Meet weekly before/after school for an hour or so.  All students work on the same event. 
  •     Meet weekly, but separate the kids into different events, but you will probably need more adult help for this.
  •     Meet with the students during the school day, form teams for each event, they work on it at home with their partner and a parent supervises/teaches them
  •     Have students choose and prepare on their own for a few events and hold your own mini competition at your school, and the best teams go on to the JCU     competition.

Tips from other coaches:

·         We found that if students have different partners for each event, practice schedules conflict and even on the day of the Olympiad, students can have conflicts.

·         We also have drafted a couple of parents and  another teacher to take charge of teaching and practicing a particular event for the duration of the preparation.

·         We have three-ring binders that we put together over the last couple of years. They hold the rules for the event and any material we’ve gathered. This is especially helpful for data in Pentathlon, Starry Night, Rock Hound, What Went By?, and Circuit Wizardry. Students can take the binder and work independently. It is also a big help to the teacher/parent working with that group.

Links

www.soinc.org - National Science Olympiad

Write It Do It
http://www.scioly.org/wiki/Write_It_Do_It

Aerodynamics
http://www.10paperairplanes.com/
The World Record Paper Airplane Book, by Ken Blackburn

Egg Drop
http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/sci/eggdrop.html

Circuit Wizardry
http://www.learningcircuits.co.uk/

Rubber Band Catapult
http://www.smithlifescience.com/ssmiddleagescatapultexp.htm

http://kidscraftzone.com/post/Kids-Catapult.aspx

What Went By
http://42explore.com/animaltracks.htm

What Went By Book:  Tracking and the Art of Seeing, by Paul Rezendes

Cleveland Metroparks offers classes and handouts

CSI JCU practice test 
Forensic Investigations - Mark Twain Publications
One Hour Mysteries @ Prufrock Press, 800-998-2208

Deep Blue Sea Practice Packet

ImageID Sample Stations doc and ppt