Policies & Announcements

Policy on Constructed Devices
This policy applies to events that require a device to be constructed and brought to the Science Olympiad. The student primarily responsible for the design and construction of the device (lead student) must be present and operate the device when it is operated for scoring. The event supervisor(s) may extensively question the lead student as to the design and construction of the device. Questioning may include the overall design and construction as well as the component parts, how they operate and function in the device. Other students on the team may also be questionted. If the students cannot answer the questions correctly, then the event supervisor(s) has grounds to believe that the students did not design and/or construct the device. The team will be disqualified from the event and scored accordingly.

Mary K. Masterson Memorial Spirit Award
New for the 2008 State Finals tournament: Teams receiving the new Mary K. Masterson Memorial Spirit Award will receive free State and National registration for the 2009 tournaments. This is being made possible by a generous donation given in Mary's memory by the National Science Olympiad.

Number of Team Alternates Permitted to Compete in Trial Events
Teams may use as many alternates as are needed to cover the trial events. For the 2008 State Finals tournament, Division B teams may use up to 4 alternates and Division C teams may use up to 5 alternates.

Trial Events to Count Toward Team Placement in 2008
On September 18 the NJSO Steering Committee voted to include scores earned in trial events in calculating a team’s total score at the 2008 tournaments.  Team alternates may compete only in trial events.  If a team does not have alternates or a sufficient number of alternates, then regular team members, or a combination of regular team members and alternates, may compete in the trial events.
Rationale:  To validate the time and effort expended both by team alternates and by event officials in preparing for the trial event(s).

Science Olympiad Code of Ethics and Spirit of the Competition
The goal of Science Olympiad is to give one's best effort while displaying honesty, integrity and sportsmanship. Students, coaches, supervisors, parents and guests are expect to display courtesy and respect toward Science Olympiad officials, other teams and guests of Science Olympiad. Failure to show honesty and/or courtesy by a participant, coach or guest of the team may result in the disqualification of the team from the event, the entire tournament or future tournaments. Our collective example will promote the spirit of the cooperation among all participants.

Percentage of Teams Advancing to the State Finals
The percentage of teams that are invited to compete at the State Finals each year is based on the number of teams that register per regional. The percentage changes each year based on our goal to have equal representation from each region. The percentage of teams from each region which will advance will be 50%.

Notice: Internet access will not be provided or permitted in any event, unless the event rules specifically require it.

Notice: Teams that win awards but are unable to stay for the Awards Assembly must make arrangements with the tournament Directors to pick up their awards or have a school representative collect them at the assembly.

Notice: New Jersey Science Olympiad Scoring Procedures: All scores are tentative until 5 days following a tournament. If errors are identified and verified, they will be corrected. If correcting the errors results in place changes, the correction(s) will stand. We have made every effort possible to prevent errors, but they still can occur.

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