Teams will fill in a grid of terms that begin with a given letter to match given science categories.
A TEAM OF UP TO: 2
APPROXIMATE TIME: 50 minutes
a. Participants must bring a writing utensil.
b. Teams are not allowed to bring any information resources or other material into the event.
c. The Event Supervisor will provide each team an answer/scoresheet.
a. Each competition W1ll consist of 3 rounds. Each round W1ll begin with the supervisor giving each team the same scoresheet that contains a grid which has 5 different science categories listed along the horizontal axis and 5 different letters listed along the vertical axis. The supervisor will determine the categories to be used in each round, ensuring that there is at least one valid answer for each category/letter combination. Categories must not be repeated within a grid or among the three grids used in competition. No letter can be repeated more than twice in the three grids.
b. Teams will have 6 minutes to complete each round. Teams will write a term, corresponding to the given category and beginning with the given letter, in each of the 25 boxes of the grid. At the end of 6 min. the event supervisor will stop the round. For each round all students should start and stop writing at the same time as directed by the event supervisor. Students beginning before or after the supervisor starts/stops the round will have their scoresheet not scored for that round.
c. Students are to write their names and school on the scoresheet for each round. A scoresheet without student names and school will not be scored resulting in that scoresheet not being added to the final score.
d. At the end of each round the supervisor will pick up all scoresheets. Then a new set of scoresheets will be distributed to students. This will be repeated for each of the 3 rounds.
e. Names of the categories must not be used in the answer. If a correct response has more than one word, the 1st letter of the first word will be used (e.g., "D" is the 1st letter of "Doppler Effect"); Exceptions: The 1st letter of a word following the articles "the" or "a/an" will be considered the 1st letter of the term (e.g., "G" is the 1st letter for the term "The Grand Canyon").
g. Students may not write two or more different forms of a response within a category to get credit for two or more different answers (e.g., Category - "Human Organs", Letters - "I", "L" and "S", and the student writes "small intestine", "large intestine" and "intestine". The student would only get credit for "small intestine" and "large intestine" because these terms are the most precise of the three responses).
h. If the category asks for the name of a person, both the given (first) and surname (last) of a person must be written. The first letter of the surname must match the required letter (e.g., "C" — Marie Curie)
Incorrect spellings of the word will be allowed if the Event Supervisor is able to determine the intended must be found in an English based science dictionary. Abbreviations are not allowed.
a. The number of points earned depends upon the number of correct terms listed in a row and in a column. Points will be awarded as follows:
One correct term in a row = 1 pts.
Two correct terms in a row = 4 pts.
Three correct terms in a row = 9 pts.
Four correct terms in a row = 16 pts.
Five correct terms in a row = 25 pts.
One correct term in a column = 1 pts.
Two correct terms in a column = 4 pts.
Three correct terms in a column = 9 pts.
Four correct terms in a column = 16 pts.
Five correct terms in a column = 25 pts.
b. The round score will be determined by adding the scores from each of the rows and columns. Final score will be determined by adding all of the round scores. Highest total score wins.
c. Tiebreakers will be determined by the following sequence: 1. Highest individual round score; 2. Second highest individual round score; 3. Most columns/rows with 5 correct; 4. Most columns/rows with 4 correct; 5. Most columns/rows with 3 correct; 6. Most columns/ rows with 2 correct.
Recommended Resources: The Science Olympiad Store (store.soinc.org) carries a variety of resources to purchase for this event; other resources are on the Event Pages at soinc.org