home search rss email
  



Subscribe to
NJSO Updates

Follow NJSO on

Like NJSO on Facebook


Affiliated with
Science Olympiad, Inc.

Designed for 1024 x 768 Screen Resolution

New Jersey Science Olympiad Policies

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.

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 questioned. 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.

Home-Schooled Students

Option 1 - Participation through a Local Public School If the state in which a home schooled student resides allows home schools students to participate in public school activities, home schooled students may either (1) choose to participate as a member of the Science Olympiad team at the local public school they would attend were they not home schooled, or (2) form a home school team as set forth in Option #2, below.

Option 2 - Participation through a Home School Team Science Olympiad will recognize Home School Teams consisting only of students who live within the boundaries of two contiguous (side-by-side) geographic counties in a single state. Science Olympiad will permit existing multi-county and multi-state Home School Teams to participate in Science Olympiad events for a period of three years from the date this policy is adopted. As of July 20, 2011, the two-contiguous-county/single state policy will apply to all Science Olympiad Home School Teams who wish to attend to the 2012 Science Olympiad National Tournament and Science Olympiad will no longer qualify multi-county or multi-state Home School Teams.

Award Ceremonies
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.

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

Mary K. Masterson Memorial Spirit Award
The Mary K. Masterson Memorial Spirit Award will be awarded in both Divisions B and C at the State Tournament. The State Registration fee will be waived for the 2010 NJ Science Olympiad for the winning teams

Number of Team Alternates Permitted to Compete in Trial Events
Teams may use as many alternates as are needed to cover the trial events.

Maximum Registration for Regional Tournaments
Registration is limited to the first 20 middle school teams and first 20 high school teams at each regional tournament.

Percentage of Teams Advancing to the State Finals
Approximately 50% of the teams that compete at each regional tournament advance to the State finals tournament. We reserve the right to change the percentage from year to year in either one or both divisions depending on the total number of teams that compete at regional tournaments.

Scoring Procedures - 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. Overall tournament results will be posted 5 days after a tournament.

Appeals Procedure
All appeals must be submitted no later than 45 minutes after the conclusion of an event. Coaches must consult with the Event Official before submitting an appeal form for arbitration. No appeal will be honored without the Event Official’s signature.