How do I start a Science Olympiad team?

Hi! I’m a rising sophomore at a pretty big high school. My school doesn’t have a Science Olympiad team so I thought it’d be cool to start one because it seems pretty interesting! I talked to my principal today and he said it sounds super cool and we’re meeting about it on Tuesday. What materials will we need to start the team? If any of you have started Sci Oly teams/been on them before, what was your experience like?

You should talk to science teachers at your school to see if any want to be the head coach. Check out your state’s science Olympiad website to see what info is available there too.

@mom2twogirls Thank you! My principal said he’s sure there’s a teacher that would be willing to be the coach. He said he’ll find one for me. I’ll check out my state’s Science Olympiad website. Thank you!

Definitely get some science teachers on board to be the head coach but also reach out to your school’s parent group to see if some parents with STEM backgrounds would be willing to volunteer coach specific events. Good luck!

Another possibility for help with event coaching (and maybe other advice) would be to contact whoever runs the regional science Olympiad that your school would be part of. Ask them if any of their judges also offers to coach teams. I know one of ours does and he is a fantastic coach.

At least where we are, there is are regional competitions in late winter and then the top 4? (I think 4) teams from each regional competition are invited to the State competition in early spring. From there, the top 2 go to National.

Realistically, a new team probably wouldn’t make it to States until they’ve gotten a few competitions under their belts. Like anything, practice and familiarity help. Some schools do invitationals with other local schools as well, in early winter, for practice.

@momofsenior1 I hadn’t thought about asking parents- I’ll go to like a PTA meeting or something and ask!

@mom2twogirls I will ask them! It sounds right for us, too- invitational period, then regionals, states, and nationals (don’t expect us to make states, seeing as it’ll obviously be our first year).

Thank you!

Not all schools do invitationals though, so don’t worry if there aren’t any schools nearby that want to do them.

@mom2twogirls I Googled it, there’s a college nearby that hosts one

One thing to note, if you want to start a team just to start a team, that’s one thing, but if you want to be at the top, that’s going to take a very heavy commitment. Perhaps 20 hours a week and on tournament days, perhaps 30 hours a week.

I throw out this warning because my niece was the captain on her team, which was a very good team and always near the top of most tournaments. However that’s all she did for ECs because there was no time to do anything else. I’m not sure how AOs feel about that. She had a great GPA and a good SAT but she wound up going to one of her lower-on-the-list match schools.

@ProfessorPlum168 I’m not starting it to win, just kinda for fun! It’ll be our first year so I’m not expecting Ws

If you’re competitive and a true team leader, trust me, it won’t be for fun. You’ll be going all out, especially if there are some other really good competitive people on the team.

The kids at my daughter’s school spend maybe 2-3 hours a week on average from October-March. They do well at regionals and go to States where they get a couple of medals. They are happy with that since they are competing against teams that have paid coaches and actual classes for Sci Oly where kids can be cut from the team.

I take that back, now that I think about it, there were a lot of schools that had mediocre teams where I think the kids were out there just to put it on their resume.

Also, if you plan on going to any state or national competitions, you may need to do fundraising, which is a very good skill to have on your resume. If there are any large businesses nearby, this would be a good chance to interact with them.

Actually, there are a lot of teams out there who are enjoying science and teamwork while keeping a reasonable balance in life. I wouldn’t call that “mediocre” and it sure isn’t about putting it on their resumes. The kids at my daughter’s school have been participating in Sci Oly since 6th grade, way before it occurred to them to put it on a college app, and many of them continue to coach various events for the middle school teams just because they love it.

Coaching a successful SO team is a HUGE time and energy commitment.

Thank you all for the responses! I’d be willing to put in a lot of time but honestly my school doesn’t have much of an interest in science teams (we’ll probably get 10-15 people, though) so I’m not hoping for a state championship- that would be nice, though.

Rising soph. I have to wonder how much high school science you’ve taken. I’m not discouraging you, but the more familiarity with scientific knowledge, the better your own founding/managing, and participation can be. So maybe you find some upperclassmen to get involved in the planning and formatting.

There’s no loss in trying, but often the right idea at the right time gets one further. Someone has to not only create this, but recruit and set up the training formats, get others interested enough to stay with it.

And please tell us there isn’t already another form of science competition or someting like Quiz Bowl that can cover science.

@lookingforward I’ve taken Honors Earth Science, Honors Biology, and self-studied 1/2 of AP Physics 1.

We have an academic team that has a tiny science section but it’s incredibly boring and repetitive, unlike Science Olympiad. I have a teacher willing to help through the process and the principal is totally on board.