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March 22, 2024

This newsletter contains news and information of interest to Montana Science Olympiad coaches - current, past and future. For questions, please contact the MSU Science Math Resource Center.

See you at MSU in less than ONE MONTH!

Important question re: accessibility

One of our events is scheduled to be on an upper floor of an MSU building in which the elevator is currently broken. Please let us know ASAP if you have any students for whom this will be an accessibility issue! Email mtscioly@montana.edu or call 406-994-7476 for this specific question as well as any other factors we should know about.We are dedicated to ensuring the full participation of all students and coaches.

Hi, everybody – from here on out, these notices will be pretty much “all business” and will start coming every week and possibly more often as we approach the tournament. If you’re not coaching this year, we hope you will just delete these rather than unsubscribe (or better yet – you can pick up some tips for next year!)


Unless otherwise noted, all resources listed here are on the School Teams and Coaches Page of the Science Olympiad website.


Teams and team numbers are posted 

Want to know who else is coming to the state tournament? You might even be able to share transportation! All the competing teams are listed on the School Teams and Coaches page, along with team numbers, which you will need for Scilympiad (see more below).


Please check this carefully! If you think you registered a team, and you don’t see it here – contact us immediately! Also check for the correct number of teams (varsity, JV, etc.) 


Tournament Day schedule

The tournament day schedule is listed on the Competition Day Materials page and is the same as years past. Our opening ceremony is at 7:45am; competitions from 8:30 to 12:30pm; Talks & Tours from 1-2pm; and awards ceremony from 2:30pm until about 4pm.


Precise competition schedule (also know as the "Block Schedule") is coming soon (this will tell you when your school competes in each event).


Student Webinar series

Thanks to requests from student competitors and coaches, we launched a student webinar series this year that helps students connect with event supervisors and learn more about their events. These sessions are recorded. Students must pre-register. Visit our School Teams and Coaches page for more info and to sign up and view past sessions.

  • TODAY! Friday, March 22 · 4-5pm · Tower with Kirsten Matteson 
  • Monday, April 1 · 4-5pm · Wind Power with Kayce Williams
  • Weds., April 10 · 4-5pm ·  Tournament Wisdom with the MSU Science Olympiad Student Club 
  • Past events: Experimental Design

 

Scilympiad 

We are once again using Scilympiad for our scoring and team/event registration software. Full instructions are on our Scilympiad page.


If you made an account for a previous season, it should still be there. Please check to see that you can log in. https://scilympiad.com/mt

If you don’t have an account yet, please make one. Click Log in on the top right and create an account as a new member.


Once you have a coach account and are logged in, it is time to register your team(s). If you have more than one team, register each team separately, as you will be assigning your students to their specific team. To register your team, click on “register school” or go to

https://scilympiad.com/mt/Reg/AddSchool


Next, we will assign your team number to your team. This can take up to a day or two on our end, as we need to do it manually. You will get an error message and will not be able to proceed until we have done this.


After we have attached your team number, we will ask you to assign your students to events. First you will add your students to your team, then you will assign them to events. Don’t worry – this is flexible.

  1. Go to the Head Coach Dashboard 
  2. Click on Student/Team/Event assignments 
  3. Click Students to Teams on the top navigation bar 
  4. Add all your students to your team 
  5. Return to the Students/Team/Event assignments 
  6. Click Students to Events on the top navigation bar 
  7. Assign your students to the events they will be competing in


NEW THIS YEAR: We will use Scilympiad to collect Student Forms (Code of Conduct and Photo Release). Once you have completed all the other steps, go to your head coach dashboard and click Compliance, then look for release forms. You as a coach will be able to see which of your students have completed the forms.


Please complete these steps ASAP. This will help us with our organization planning, we recognize that there might be changes as we get closer to the event so if you need to change after this that is fine. Our event supervisors will be using the wristbands – not Scilympiad -- to identify competitors/school teams as in the past. Entering your students into events in Scilympiad just helps us plan roughly how many total people will be in each event. 


Event clarifications 

  • The Forestry event will be using the Western Tree List (posted on the Events page).
  • The Agricultural Sciences Trial event is "Year 1: Plants"


If more clarifications come in, we will post them on the Events page. Also be sure to check the National events clarification page often, even right up until the tournament. [Link is in the rules manuals box at the bottom of the page]

 

MoR STEM Night is April 18; registration deadline is April 10

Students and coaches alike tell us a highlight of their Science Olympiad experience is the Museum of the Rockies STEM Night on the evening before the tournament. Students and coaches receive FREE admission to the museum, private access to exhibits, and planetarium shows. Local STEM organizations and Montana State University departments will display their work!


Thursday, April 18 5:30-8:30pm


Coaches, please RSVP on behalf of your team. Please do not register as individual attendees. Registration deadline is April 10, 2024. Register here.


Do you have any SciOly alumni at MSU who want to volunteer? or join the new Science Olympaid club?

If any of your former students attend MSU and want to volunteer for this year's tournament, please send them to www.montana.edu/smrc/mtso/volunteers.html.We'd love to have them!


Learn more about the Science Olympiad student club here.

Remember to download the rule books and (continuously) look for event clarifications

The rule book is your friend! Download the rules manuals for the 2023-24 season from the National Science Olympiad website. Encourage your students to study every aspect of the rules - especially what safety equipment is required and what they are allowed to bring with them into the contest.


Never use a previous year's rule book, even if the event has the same title. There may be subtle and not-so-subtle changes in rules and themes from year to year.


The rules clarifications page is also your friend! As questions arise, clarifications to the rules are posted here on the national website.

Do you know an aspiring Science Olympiad coach or STEM teacher interested in cool opportunities? Please share this newsletter so they can join in. Or, they can subscribe at bit.ly/mtso-newsletter

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