Division B

Division B Science Olympiad is for middle school age students, in 6th to 9th grade. Out of the fifteen students on the team, a maximum of five members can be in 9th grade. All students on the team must be from the membership school, with the exception of five members who attended the school the previous year. This is to accommodate for middle schools which may not have 8th or 9th grade students.

For the High School competition, see Division C

Anatomy
Teams will be tested on their knowledge of anatomy and health concepts including respiratory and digestive systems.

Awesome Aquifers
Students will construct an aquifer and answer questions about groundwater concepts - includes a presentation.

Bottle Rocket
Prior to the tournament, teams construct two rockets designed to stay aloft for the greatest amount of time.

Compute This
Teams will be presented with a problem which requires quantitative data capture from the Internet and the presentation of data in a graphical format. The 2012 domain is www.cdc.gov.

Crime Busters
Teams will identify the perpetrators of a crime or crimes by using paper chromatography and analysis of unknown solids, liquids, and plastics found at the scene of a crime.

Disease Detectives
This event requires students to apply principles of epidemiology to a published report of a real-life health situation or problem. (Food Borne Illness)

Dynamic Planet
Teams will work at stations that display a variety of earth science materials and related earth science questions, specifically Earth's Fresh Waters.

Experimental Design
Given a set of unknown objects, teams will design, conduct, analyze and write-up an experiment.

Food Science
Using their understanding of the chemistry and physical properties of baking ingredients, teams will answer questions at a series of stations.

Forestry
This event will test student knowledge of North American trees that are on the Official National Tree List.

Keep the Heat
Teams must construct an insulated device prior to the tournament that is designed to retain heat. Students must also complete a written test on thermodynamic concepts.

Meteorology/Climate
This event involves the use of process skills as applied to meteorology (Climate).

Microbe Mission
Teams will answer questions, solve problems and analyze data pertaining to microbes.

Mission Possible
Prior to the competition, participants will design, build, test and document a "Rube Goldberg-like device" that completes a required Final Task using a sequence of consecutive tasks.

Mousetrap Vehicle
Teams will design, build and test a vehicle using one mousetrap as the sole means of propulsion to reach a target as quickly, accurately and close to their predicted time as possible.

Optics
Teams compete in activities and answer questions related to geometric and physical optics.

Reach for the Stars
Students will demonstrate an understanding and basic knowledge of the properties and evolution of stars, open clusters and globular clusters, and normal and star-forming galaxies.

Road Scholar
Requires the accurate interpretation and understanding of various map features using a variety of road and topographic maps.

Rocks and Minerals
Teams will demonstrate their knowledge of rocks and minerals.

Storm the Castle
Prior to the tournament, teams design, construct and calibrate a device that uses only the energy of a falling counterweight to launch a projectile as far and as accurately as possible.

Towers
Team members design and build the most efficient tower.

Water Quality
The event will focus on evaluating aquatic environments.

Write It Do It
A technical writing exercise where students write a description of a contraption and other students will attempt to recreate it using only the written description.