Hey everyone!
As a reminder, Science Olympiad tryouts are August 30th. Please make sure you are in or at Room 101 by 11:30 at the LATEST!! Here is the mandatory permission slip and tryout form.
We have a lot to get through and very little time to do it, so if you do show up later than 11:30, it will be a VERY big hassle to get you settled in and organized. If you are late, we may not let you try out if you have already missed a significant portion of tryouts. So PLEASE be on time! If you have any schedule conflicts or need to arrive a few minutes later due to reasons, please email the officers listed at the end of this email and we can see what we can do for you!
That being said: tryouts are pretty hectic and take up almost all of the lunch period, so we won’t have time to answer any of your burning questions. So here’s a short list of FAQs we noticed from your tryout forms!
FAQs
WHAT IS SCIENCE OLYMPIAD? WHAT KNOWLEDGE DO I NEED FOR SCIENCE OLYMPIAD?
Science Olympiad is a pretty all-encompassing competition where participants compete in all types of sciences (biology, chemistry, engineering, physics, astronomy, mathematics, etc.)! Science Olympiad is composed of “events” based on each of these different subjects. For example, the event named “Flight” requires participants to learn aerodynamics and build a plane that they will fly at competition. 2-3 students usually do an event together, so for every event you will prepare for, you will most likely have a partner.
Events (while covering different subjects) often can be sorted into three categories: study, build, and lab. Study events are where students will be handed a test on competition day and answer as many questions about the subject as correctly as they can. Build events require students to build a contraption that will be used on competition day. Lab events require students to work hands-on, conduct an experiment, or demonstrate their knowledge in some physical fashion on competition day. Usually, you don’t know what a lab event will specifically ask you to do until the day of. There are also hybrid events which are a combination of any of the three in one event.
We do not expect ANYONE to have any prior knowledge on any of these events! The competition isn’t until February at a college outside of Santa Clarita (most likely Antelope Valley College as it’s been there for the past couple of years), so you have plenty of time to study and learn everything you need to know!
If you are curious about what events will be offered this year, here is a page that gives a short description of all the events our team can participate in: https://www.soinc.org/learn/c-event-short-descriptions
More in-depth information on events, types of events, and competition day will be provided to team members once team members are decided.
WHEN ARE SCIENCE OLYMPIAD MEETINGS? HOW MUCH OF A COMMITMENT IS SCIENCE OLYMPIAD?
We are currently planning on hosting official Science Olympiad meetings twice a month during Friday lunches. In January and February, meetings will be every Friday until competition day. A more specific list on which Fridays of every month will be a mandatory meeting will be decided once team members are decided.
We expect all Science Olympiad team members to commit time to studying, building, and preparing for competition day even if Friday lunch meetings are twice a month. We expect that you will maintain consistent and regular communication with your event partners and work on your events regularly. Since the only mandatory meetings will be twice a month during lunch and a bit more frequently second semester, we expect members to use their own time to study and build. We may host optional meetings where all team members are welcome to work on events for hours on end (like a chill/dying team hangout), but a lot of the work and scheduling how much you should prepare for an event is up to you and your event partners.
DO I NEED TO JOIN IMAGINING THE FUTURE TO BE A PART OF SCIENCE OLYMPIAD?
If you are selected to be on the team, an attendance to 2 Imagining the Future meetings may be mandatory, but details regarding that have not been finalized yet. So for now, the answer is no, you do not need to join Imagining the Future to be a part of Science Olympiad. If you don’t know what Imagining the Future is, it is AOC’s own science club and the Imagining the Future Club Officers (president, vice president, etc.) also run Science Olympiad. It is GREATLY appreciated if you do join Imagining the Future for fun, cool experiments and science discussion.
CAN I TRYOUT AGAIN IF I DO NOT MAKE THE TEAM THIS YEAR?
We host tryouts for the team every year, so yes absolutely! And we never barr anyone from trying out unless they broke the rules we have in place for the members of our SciOly team.
ARE THOSE WITH PREVIOUS SCIOLY EXPERIENCE OR THOSE WHO WERE ON THE AOC TEAM PREVIOUS YEARS MORE LIKELY TO BE SELECTED?
Although it is really great and important that you have had that previous experience, no, you are not more likely to be selected. We try to select those who we truly think would be a great addition to the team, rather than someone who just has a lot of experience. We don’t want to give anyone an unfair advantage as not everyone had SciOly at their middle school or was able to do it.
WHAT WILL TRYOUTS BE LIKE? WHAT ARE YOU TESTING ON?
We want to see how you guys work without knowing what to expect, just like how Science Olympiad is like on competition day. So, we can’t tell you what tryouts will be like or what criteria we will be looking for. You just need to bring yourself to tryouts and that’s all you need to be prepared!
If you have any more questions in this next week, please email us.
Jasmina Makhmudova (SciOly Upperclassmen Captain)
Shishira Kunchakurthi (SciOly Underclassmen Captain)
Srinidhi Srinivasasubbu (ItF President)
Saanvi Vaitla (ItF Vice President)
Rukiya Kabir (ItF Secretary)
Thank you so much to those who signed up and we can’t wait to see you tryout day on August 30th in Room 101 at Lunch! Good luck >:) See the board or Mr. Koegle if you have any questions. mkoegle@hartdistrict.org
~Your Science Olympiad Leadership
