Science Olympiad History
The first Science Olympiad nationals tournament was in 1985 at Michigan State
University, featuring mostly Great Lakes schools. The next year saw all states competing.
Today, 8000 schools compete and there are abundant invitationals.
Many schools field more than 4 teams and attend more than 4 invitationals.
Tournaments
SO can host massive online tournaments with sciolympiad.org, and there is a database
of results at sccioly.org and duosmium.com. Some tournaments can host 100 teams and get grading done
in time for an evening awards ceremony.
Many volunteers contribute to SO. Much work is needed for supervising events, writing tests,
and grading tests. Much money is needed for travel and materials.
The field of competition at some invitationals is almost as
strong as nationals.
Events
The SO is like a science track meet, with events in all sciences. There are engineering events
where you build things, and science events that are test-based.
Divisions
The C division is grades 9-12, B is 6-9, and A is 3-6.
9th graders may compete on a high school or middle team. 6th graders may compete on a middle school
or elementary school team.
There is an informal "Division D" consisting of alumni and volunteers.
Strong teams
Most heavyweight schools are public. For 1997-2021, there were no
private schools in the top 10 nationally. Good placements by private schools
include Pembroke Hill (3rd in 1996) and Marquette (4th in 2022).
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Strong states
Heavyweight states include California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.
Science Olympiad Nationals bids and the 2026 season
Good teams are often excluded from Nationals.
State champions (plus DC) get a bid to nationals, and the 10 states with the most Science Olympiad
teams get 2nd bids. California is a special case. North and South California hold separate state tournaments
and each gets one Nationals bid.
Invitationals give a measure of the strength of teams.
8 teams qualify. One of them is Syosset, which placed 3rd in New York.
The "States of death" are Cal North, Cal South, Wisconsin, New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts.
Alaska, Idaho, and Vermont declined their nationals bids.
Marquette from Wisconsin was chosen to replace them and placed 8th at nationals.
The previous year, Madison West from Wisconsin was an alternate and placed 7th at nationals.
The number under each invitational is a measure of the strength of the field,
which is calculated from nationals ranks from 2025.
The strongest invitational is MIT, which includes almost all top-16 teams.
MIT ranks correlate well with nationals ranks.
Placing in the top 16 at MIT indicates a national contender.
The table ranks the invitationals performance for teams that placed 2nd, 3rd, and 4th at state.
The standouts are Mountain View, Marquette, and Syosset. Syosset placed 3rd in New York.
Nationals State rank MIT Penn Mich Rickards Solon Lexi Gate Prin Mason Corn Loyola USC
rank 2026 2026 62.5 36 33 30.5 29 25 15 14 12 11 10.5 9.5
CAN Mountain View 2 3 2
WI Marquette 8 2 6 3 29 22 3
MA Lexington 2 12 5
NJ WWPN 2 17 11 7
IL Stevenson 14 2 18 3 6 16 2
MI Novi 19 2 24 4 6
OH Solon 6 2 8 2
NY Great Neck S 20 2 10 12
PA Cumberland Val 23 2 21 7
FL Frazer 25 2 6
TX Jordan 27 2
NC NCSM 28 2
GA Chattahoochee 31 2 27
CAS University 2 10*
VA Oakton 2
MO Pembroke 2
IN Northridge 2
WA Interlake 2
NY Syosset 3 9 3 7 4
CAN Castro Valley 3 47 9 5 6
CAS Wilson 3 8
IN Munster 3 10
PA Lower Merion 3 18 5 16
NJ WWPS 3 1 1
FL Rickards 4
CA Lynbrook 4 22 12
CAN Temple City 4 4 4
Invitationals
The MIT Invitational featured most of the top-16 from the previous year's nationals.
The first column is rank at the invitational and the second column is rank at 2025 nationals.
The number by the invitational is a measure of the strength of field, which is calculated from
nationals 2025 ranks.
MIT 62.5 U Pennsylvania 36 U Michigan 33 Rickards 30.5 Solon 29 Lexington 25 Golden Gate 15
1 5 ca Troy 1 10 nj Montgomery 1 3 oh Mason 1 - nj WWPS 1 6 il New Trier 1 5 ca Troy 1 5 ca Troy
2 10 nj Montgomery 2 22 ny Stuyvesant 2 6 il New Trier 2 8 ca Monta Vista 2 4 oh Solon 2 22 ny Stuyvesant 2 - ca Mountain View
3 - ca Mountain View 3 18 ny Syosset 3 9 wi Marquette 3 1 tx Seven Lakes 3 21 il Stevenson 3 - mn Mounds View 3 8 ca Monta Vista
4 8 ca Monta Vista 4 19 va Jefferson 4 13 mi Novi 4 - ca Temple City 4 7 wi Madison West 4 22 ny Stuyvesant 4 - ca Temple City
5 12 hi Iolani 5 1 tx Seven Lakes 5 - oh Mason 2 5 2 tx Seven Lakes 2 5 3 oh Mason 5 19 va Jefferson 5 11 ma Lexington
6 9 wi Marquette 6 - ny Stuyvesant 2 6 7 wi Madison West 6 - fl Frazer 6 13 mi Novi 6 14 mi Ann Arbor P 6 15 tx LASA
7 6 il New Trier 7 - va Jefferson 2 7 24 in Carmel 7 18 ny Syosset 7 20 pa Cumberland Val 7 3 oh Mason 7 - ca Troy 2
8 7 wi Madison West 8 17 nc Enloe 8 4 oh Solon 8 6 il New Trier 8 - oh Orange 8 - ca Troy 2 8 - ca Wilson
9 18 ny Syosset 9 2 pa Harriton 9 14 mi Ann Arbor P 9 - ny Jerico 9 24 in Carmel 9 - ny Bronx Sci 9 - ca Castro Valley
10 22 ny Stuyvesant 10 - ny Great Neck S 10 - in Munster 10 - ca University 10 - oh Mason 2 10 - or Sunset 10 - ca Palo Alto
11 3 oh Mason 11 - nj WWPN 11 - oh Solon 2 11 - ca University 2 11 18 ny Syosset 11 - ny Bronx Sci 2 11 - wa Tesla STEM
12 11 ma Lexington 12 30 nv Clark 12 - tx Tompkins 12 - ny Great Neck S 12 - ca lynbrook
13 2 pa Harriton 13 - pa Garnet Valley 13 - ca N Hollywood 13 - ma Wellesley 13 - ca Westview
14 - ma Acton-Box 2 14 - ny Melville 14 - 22 ny Stuyvesan 14 - ny Cardozo 14 - ca Mission San Jose
15 - ma Acton-Box 15 - nj Montgomery 2 15 - ca Portola 15 - ny Stuyvesant 2 15 - ca Sunny Hills
16 17 nc Enloe 16 26 md Centennial 16 - il New Trier 2 16 24 in Carmel 16 - ca Amador Valley
17 - nj WWPN 17 - pa Harriton 2 17 - ca West View
18 21 il Stevenson 18 - pa Lower Merion 18 - ca American
19 - ca Mountain View 2 19 23 ga Walton 19 7 wi Madison West
20 15 tx LASA 20 31 fl Boca Raton C
21 20 pa Cumberland Val
22 31 la Boca Raton Comm 22 - ca Lynbrook
23 - ca Nortwood
24 13 mi Novi
25 31 la Boca Raton C
27 - ga Chattahoochee
29 9 wi Marquette
32 - tx Clements
33 33 fl Archimedian
38 33 fl Archimedian
- 1 tx Seven Lakes
- 4 oh Solon
- 14 mi Ann Arbor Pioneer
- 16 ga Fulton
- 19 va Jefferson
Strength of field for invitationals
The strength of field is computed using nationals results from the previous year.
A "*" indicates that the host is a university. A "+" indicates that the invitational
is in-person and an "o" indicates online.
MIT 62.5 * +
U Pennsylvania 36 * Ivy +
U Michigan 33 * +
Rickards 30.5 o
Solon 29 +
Lexington 25 o
Berkeley Golden Gate 15 * +
Princeton 14 * Ivy +
Mason 12 o
Cornell 11 * Ivy +
Loyola 10.5 * +
USC 9.5 * +
Brown 7.5 * Ivy +
Marquette U 7.5 * +
Harvard 7 * Ivy +
U Texas Austin 7 * +
Columbia 5 * Ivy +
U Wisconsin Badger 4 * +
Yale 4 * Ivy +
Dartmouth 3.5 * Ivy +
Duke 2.5 * +
U North Carolina 2 * +
Stanford 0 * +
Northwestern 0 * +
Notre Dame 0 * +
State tournaments
The 10 states with the most schools get 2 nationals bids and the rest get 1.
California is divided into North and South, with each gettting one bid.
Alaska, Idaho, and Vermont didn't send teams
to nationals and were replaced by the alternate Marquette.
North Dakota sent its 7th-place team to Nationals (Davies).
Numbers are nationals ranks for 2026.
# of teams 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th
686 New York Stuyvesant 17 Great Neck S 20 Syosset Brooklyn Tech
506 N Carolina Enloe 16 NCSM 28 Green Hope Raleigh Charter
402 Michigan Ann Arbor P 13 Novi 19 Northville Troy of Mich
348 Illinois New Trier 9 Stevenson 14 Vernon Hills Lane Tech
273 Florida Boca Raton C 22 Frazer 25 Archimedian Rickards
272 Penn Harriton 5 Cumberland V 23 Lower Merion Penncrest
268 Georgia Walton 26 Cattahoochee 31 Fulton Brookwood
239 Ohio Mason 12 Solon 6 Olentangy Orange Centerville Beachwood
239 Texas Seven Lakes 2 Jordan 27 LASA Clements
491 Cal South Troy 3 University Wilson Temple City
428 Cal North Monta Vista 1 Mountain View Castro Valley Lynbrook
217 Virginia Jefferson 10 Oakton Fairfax Woodson
174 Missouri Watkins 24 Pembroke Lindbergh Parkway West
163 Wisconsin Madison West 4 Marquette 8 Medford Menomonie Hudson Boyceville
156 Washington Tesla STEM 29 Interlake Camas Eastlake
153 Maryland Centennial 30 Montgomery River Hill Marriotts Ridge
151 New Jersey Montgomery 7 WWPN WWPS Hillsborough
124 Mass Acton-Boxbor 11 Lexington Winchester Newton South
114 Indiana Carmel 18 Northridge Munster Lake Central
111 Tennessee White Station 38
106 Kansas Blue Valley W 37
100 Colorado Homeschool S 36
94 Nebraska Lincoln East 57
85 N Dakota Legacy - Century Red River Bismarck Carrington P Langdon Davies 52
80 Delaware Wilmington 34
76 Minnesota Mounds View 21
76 Alabama Clemens 43
75 Montana Hamilton 54
74 Connecticut South Windsor 40
59 New Mexico Socorro 46
54 Kentucky Manual 33
53 Hawaii Iolani 15
50 Arizona BASIS Chandler 32
46 Oregon Sunset 39
43 Iowa Cedar Falls 44
37 Oklahoma Cassidy 47
33 Rhode Is. Barrington 42
30 Arkansas Basis Chandler 32
29 Louisiana Baton Rouge M 41
28 Idaho Nampa -
26 Nevada Advanced Tech 35
25 S Carolina Clinton 53
24 DC Basis Chandler 45
22 Wyoming Walsh 56
21 Utah West 51
20 Miss Madison Cent 55
18 Maine Deering 49
17 N Hampshire Phillips Exe 48
14 W Virginia Morgantown 59
12 Alaska - -
9 S Dakota Yankton 58
8 Vermont - -
Number of teams in each state
California North has 428 teams and 8 regionals.
Most of the strong teams are in the Santa Clara regional.
Strength of field of an invitational
We use nationals results from 2025 to judge team strength.
The strength of an invitatinal is equal to the sum of the strengths of the
teams in the field. To convert nationals rank to points:
Rank Points
1 7
2 6
3 5.5
4 5
5-6 4.5
7-8 4
9-12 3.5
13-16 3
17-24 2.5
25-32 2
33-48 1.5
48- 1
Ratings algorithms and the 2022 season
Rating invitationals by previous nationals results is simple.
A more complex rating uses feedback from regionals to rate regionals.
The algorithm rates regionals and teams simultaneously.
Discussion of the ratings algorithm
Robot events can involve a game that is fun to watch.
A team can have many robots, so that there can be diversity of robot design.
Each tournament can be unique, so that robot design has to be tuned to the tournament.
For example, each Formula-1 circuit is unique.
Formula-1 changes the formula each season, to prevent hyperoptimization. Many other sports do
so as well, such as America's Cup yacht racing.
Scoring systems
In the "trajectory" event, you fire a projectile at a target, and the score
depends on how close the projectile got to the target.
In the "scrambler" event, you design a car to stop as close to a wall as possible without touching it.
The closer to the wall it stops, the higher the score. If it touches the wall, the score is zero.
The scrambler score function is a sawtooth function and the trajectory score function is a sharktooth
function. Scoring functions should be continuous.
The scoring functions for Fermi Questions and Metric Mastery can be unified, enabling
the possibility of Fermi-style questions that have an accurate answer.
Caltech has a class on Fermi-style questions called "Order of Magnitude Physics", and the
techniques can usually calculate things to better than 20% accuracy.
Academic Contests
Dr. Jay Maron
Robot soccer
Build a team of remote-control robots to play soccer. The robots will push a
ball around. The robots may have moving parts, but they're not allowed
to carry the ball.
Robots are allowed to ram each other.
A team may have at most 6 robots. The total mass of the robots must be less than 1 kg.
You may equip any robot with flight.
The ball is a beach ball with a diameter of 30 cm and a mass of 15 grams.
The field is the size of a half-size basketball court. Goals are 3 meters wide and .5
meters high. The boundary extends vertically to the gym ceiling.
If the ball goes out of bounds, the team that didn't touch it last gets a free kick from outside the
boundary, from any point behind where the ball went out of bounds.
There is no special "goalie" status for robots.
A game is 15 minutes.
Robot construction is governed by the robot rules.
Robot derby
Build a team of remote-control robots to race a racecourse. You are racing against another team 1-on-1.
You may have up to 6 cars, and the total mass must be less than 1 kg.
Your score is the number of laps completed by your top 3 cars.
Cars may ram each other.
Flight is disallowed.
The race lasts 15 minutes.
Parts of the course are on-road and parts are off-road. The racecourse is unique to each venue.
Robot construction is governed by the robot rules.
Robot rally
Build a remote-control robot to race a racecourse. You are racing all teams at
once, like a Formula-1 race. You may have 3 cars in the race.
Ramming is allowed.
The race lasts 15 minutes, and the time for one lap is around 30 seconds.
Flight is disallowed.
Parts of the course are on-road and parts are off-road.
The racecourse is unique to each venue.
A photograph of the racecourse will be provided at least 1 week prior to the race.
The car mass has a maximum of 30 grams.
The car can have moving parts. For example, it can have a wing with a variable angle of attack.
Robot construction is governed by the robot rules.
Robot golf
Design a robot to play golf. The ball is a whiffleball the size of a golf ball. The game features
both fairway shots and putts.
The robot must be able to move to the ball.
No caddy or golf bag allowed. The robot has be one connected object.
The robot can have moving parts. Whatever is being used as a golf club can have moving parts. The golf club
face can have a variable angle of attack.
The course will feature crooked fairways. Spin will be essential.
Robot construction is governed by the robot rules.
Robot rules
For structural material, you may use wood, glue, cotton, rubber, and lubricant.
No metal, carbon fiber, or plastic allowed. This applies to the chassis,
wheels, wings, and propellers.
Cotten may be used for cable, sails, wings, or any other purpose.
Gears and axels may be metal.
Metal may be used for electric components such as motors,
batteries, capacitors, wires, and tranceivers.
For power sources, you may use batteries and capacitors.
No commercial kits are allowed. You have to build everything yourself from raw materials.
You must carve the wood yourself.
Power sources:
Energy/Mass Power/Mass
MJoule/kg kWatt/kg
Battery, LiPo .55 1.4 Rechargeable
Battery, Aluminum air 4.6 .2 Not rechargeable
Battery, Formula-E .78 .8 The battery in a Formula-E racecar
Battery, NIO EP9 .51 1.54 The battery in a NIO EP9 racecar
Supercapacitor .05 20
Rubber band .008 100
Aluminum capacitor .01 100
Gasoline motor - 6
Electric motor - 6
Propeller - 15
Electric generator - .15
A capacitor and a rubber band can deliver big power, but only for a short time.
A battery can give 1.4 kWatts. A capacitor giving this much power lasts 7 seconds
and a rubber band lasts 6 seconds. For a race lasting longer than 10 seconds, use batteries.
Also, capacitors lose voltage and power during the race. Batteries do as well, but to a much
smaller extent.
A Formula-1 car is ⅓ the mass of a mid-sized commercial car and can
take a lateral acceleration of 5g, A commercial car can take 1g.
Formula-1 cars achieve high lateral acceleration with high down acceleration.
Wings provide downforce.
To make for a thrilling engineering challenge, maximize the down acceleration
when the car is at top speed. The larger the down acceleration, the larger the
demand on structural engineering for the car.
Maximizing down acceleration means maximizing power/mass ratio, maximizing
cross-sectional area, and minimizing mass.
The rules should specify a maximum height and width for the car, and specify
a maximum mass for the battery. The car should be as large as possible, but small enough to
travel by commercial airplane.
We specify an example set of rules. For the car, the maximum width is 30 cm
and the maximum height is 15 cm. There is no maximum length. The maximum
battery mass is .008 kg. With these parameters, the maximum speed is 8
meters/second and the down acceleration is 40 g.
Battery power/mass increases as mass decreases, suggesting that cooling matters. A racecar
will likely have active cooling for the battery.
A catapult unifies strength and accuracy. The contest can have two parts:
An accuracy part and a distance part.
Build a bridge to span a 40 cm gap. A train car will drive across the bridge. If the bridge survives,
the train mass is increased and the train makes another pass. The train mass is increased until the
bridge fails.
The score is the mass of the train at failure divided by the mass of the bridge.
The maximum bridge mass is 8 grams. The maximum mass that the train can have is 20 kg. You can't get
credit for supporting more than 20 kg.
The bridge doesn't have to include the train rails. The testing rig will have train rails that will
be laid across the bridge. The bridge must contain a bed to support the rails.
The rails will be for a standard electric model train, 16.5 mm apart. The train width and height are
both 4 cm. There will be one train car, which will have 2 axels that are 17 cm apart.
The bridge will be placed on test supports, and the train track will be at the
level of the test supports. While the train crosses the bridge, the rails may
go no higher than 1 cm above the supports and no lower than 2 cm below the
supports. This includes when the bridge is loaded with the train.
The bridge may have unlimited height, length, and width. The bridge may extend as much as 10 cm below the
test support.
Tower building
Build a tower to support a weight that is 30 cm above the ground. The tower
will be weighted until it collapses, and the score of the tower is:
You may use any wood and any glue. The wood can be in any shape. You can carve the wood.
Competitors will navigate an obstacle course and then take a science test.
There is zero rest time between the obstacle course and the science test.
The science test is timed and lasts 10 minutes. There will be way more questions than there
will be time to answer. Speed will be a factor.
For scoring, contestants will be ranked by their time in the obstacle course
and given points according to the table below. Also, competitors will be ranked
by their performance on the science test and given points accourding to the
table. The total score is the sum of the obstacle score and the science score.
Ties are broken by placement in the obstacle course.
A team consists of 4 players. Questions are asked, and teams write their answer on a
touchpad.
The contest is televised, and viewers can see what's written on the touchpads.
Current scores are displayed.
Tackle the hard problems
A contest should encourage contestants to tackle the hard problems, and this can be
done by weighting problems by difficulty.
N is a parameter that depends on the number of competitors.
A natural choice is
If a contest has 64 competitors, then if more than 48 people solve a problem, no points are awarded.
The algorithm is convergence style. Ratings are initialized at zero for each team.
Game results are a set of forces on each team's rating. The ratings are adjusted
according to the forces.
The forces depend on rating. After the adjustment, the forces change.
Let L be the difference in rating between a player and his opponent.
If the player has a higher rating, L is positive. If the player wins, the
force function for that game is:
The force function is constant for |L| > 2. It doesn't give
excessive weight to upsets.
The force function is rigged so that for L=1, the probability of the stronger player to
win is 3/4.
A team's rating is calculated from its scores from events (event =
tournament). For each event, a team has a rank, and the score is:
The score has a floor. If the score is less than zero, it's set to zero.
The team rating can be refined by including event rartings. An event rating is determined
by the sum of the strengths of the teams participating.
T and E are interdependent. They can be separated with a convergence
algorithm. Initialize Ee=0 for all e and compute T. Use T to compute E. Repeat until
convergence.
For each state, the table shows the number of teams with a rating larger than 1.
States of Death include California, Ohio, New Jersey, New York, Illinois, Michigan,
Wisconsin, Massachusetts, and Washington.
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