Resources for New Coaches

If you are new to Science Olympiad, this page offers some resources to help you get started.

From a new coach in Missouri:
I'm in northwest Missouri and last year was my first time coaching.  Last year we were thrown into it with very little knowledge so we were all winging it.  Anyway, we started far too late and had no prior experience. So, we gathered the kids who were interested and picked events that they wanted to try and that we thought we could figure out and went from there.
We left out several events due to lack of kids and time.  We took everything with us that we needed according to the manuals and rules and took a chance!  After we got there and figured out what was going on we decided to send kids to every event so they could at least gather some info.  We decided that it would be our building year and we would use it to train for the next year. It worked out really well and the kids had a blast! We are from a small rural district and we had only 13 kids on the team last year, but we brought home 5 medals and placed 10th!
So, my suggestion to you is just make it fun and do what you can this year and consider it a learning year.  Tell the kids to absorb all they can at competition and take notes.  The national SO web site is helpful and there are materials you can purchase to help you.  We used our allotted budget this year to buy some test booklets, DVD's of the events, etc. Just don't overwhelm yourself or your students and it will be just fine! Good luck!

Be sure to visit the National Science Olympiad site for lots more information, including very useful info on organizing a team.

Information Meeting Presentation
This is a link to a Power Point presentation that can be downloaded, adapted for your purposes and used for the first information meeting for students and parents. It contains events from 2007, so edit the master slide and add your own school logo, then update as you see fit for your needs.

Information Meeting Handout
This is a link to a Power Point presentation that can be downloaded, adapted for your purposes and used for the first information meeting for students and parents. It contains events from 2007, so edit the master slide and add your own school logo, then update as you see fit for your needs

Student Sign Up Form
This is a Microsoft Excel file that can be customized to the needs of your school.  I liked to have kids select their events and rank them in the order of their preference. This document was created in 2007, so you will need to update it.

Master Roster for Head Coach
This is a Microsoft Excel file that can be customized to the needs of your school. It contains several worksheets to help you keep track of your students, coaches and other important information

Pre-Event Meeting Presentation
This is a Power Point presentation that can be used for your students, coaches, and parents just before the Regional Science Olympiad competition. It covers things like where to meet, what to bring, etc. It contains information from 2007.  Edit the master slide, add your own school logo, then update the rest of the material to suit your needs.

Meeting Agenda
This is a Microsoft Word file.  It's an agenda that one coach used to make sure everything was covered with students, parents, & coaches several days before the Regional Science Olympiad competition.

 

Number of students in an event:

 

If an event description states "Up to 2", that means that a pair of students may work together as a team during that event. One student may do that event alone if a partner is sick or no one else wanted to do that event.  The only event that requires two students is Write It, Do It.

Two students working together on a written test like Astronomy C or Reach for the Stars B usually tear the test booklet in half.  Each student works on half of the test, then they discuss things they do not know - whispering, of course - and try to fill in the remaining answers.

For the events with lab stations, the two students work together on each station.

For construction events, the students work together with the device at the Competition. One student may do a construction event alone if necessary. Also, you may send another student from the same team to help someone test a device, but be sure they know who will get the medals if the device does well.