Team registration open for ISU Science Olympiad scheduled March 7

Team registrations for seventh through ninth grade students are now being accepted for the regional Science Olympiad scheduled March 7 that will held on the ISU Pocatello campus.

The ISU Department of Physics is the event sponsor.

Seventh through ninth grade students from throughout eastern Idaho will represent their schools and communities and compete in teams in a variety of science competitions. Schools with winning teams will receive cash awards totaling $500 courtesy of the J.R. Simplot Company to support science education.  

Winning teams will be encouraged to compete in the state competition in Nampa on April 4. The Idaho champion team will be invited to compete in the National Science Olympiad at Indiana University in May.  

The Science Olympiad is a national non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of science education, increasing student interest in science, and providing recognition for outstanding achievement by both students and teachers.

At least a dozen teams from Eagle Rock Jr. High, Franklin Middle School, Hawthorne Middle School, Irving Middle School, and White Pine Charter School will be competing.  There is room for more teams.  

Steve Shropshire , Ph.D., of the ISU physics department, and ISU faculty and students from the departments of biology, chemistry, geosciences, and physics  will serve as judges, along with several scientists and engineers from the Idaho National Laboratory.

Students will compete with robots and catapults, compete in a forensics challenge, test their knowledge of amphibians, reptiles, and geological processes, and compete in several other fun science events.

More information on the Science Olympiad program is available at www.soinc.org.  For more information on the ISU Science Olympiad, or how to register a team, contact Shropshire at shropshi@physics.isu.edu, or 282-2212.