Starting Science Olympiad

[gneissisnice]

anyway, 60 people is exactly enough to make 4 teams, so you dont have to weed anyone out. 4 is the maximum amount of teams you can have, so its perfect.

[rocketman1555]

if you can afford that many teams, if not, i would suggest just waiting a month, and you will lose some people, testing to determine who does what event (remember, don't base off scores alone, use the high scorer and the next highest scorer that they work well with, because if they can't work well together, they probably won't do well), or using event conflicts to determine who does what

[Uncle Fester]

Posting about dynasties, IQ tests, and how many people are going to quit is pointless (and downright confusing) when, in most states, a team application (with payment or grant application) is due IN FOURTEEN DAYS, especiall y if may organizations have accounts payable setups that take THIRTY DAYS. A good quarter of the people who have asked me about starting teams over the years fail this deadline. So let's get the immediate, deadline-related stuff done FIRST, and then move on.

First of all, go here (NSO website) NOW: http://soinc.org/start_a_team

Since you haven't mentioned what state you're in, go here, and use the info to contact your State (or Regional Director: http://soinc.org/state_websites

This is very important; Almost ALL of the people you will be dealing with are either SO volunteers or do SO as a no-extra-pay-or-time addition to their regular jobs. They can't drop what they're doing at the last minute, so you probably don't have fourteen days after all. When your adult advisor/coach/whatever calls (mail would be a little risky this late), they should choose words that make it sound like you have a flotilla of check writers and equipment orderers standing right behind, ready to get started-- they get lots of "We're thinking of maybe looking at having a meeting to decide if it would be possible to decide about a someday team". Being certain at call #1 WILL put your people ahead of "the happy wishers" and that lunch appointment your future director really didn't want to go to anyway.

While you're doing this, have a movie night. Or laser tag. Or something. Keep the interested ones in personal contact, set up friendships, and collect email addresses and phone numbers. set up calling trees and a master email distro list. This will help enormously with retaining all 60-- 9ers don't sit around waiting for stuff to do, and if something else comes up that happens to be more inviting at the moment, they're gone. Like posted above, you'll lose people almost immediately, and this will help stem that lost. My "interesteds" went from just under 100 to 44 in three weeks, and yes, we're showing INDIANA JONES a week from now, ordering pizza, gallons of pop, etc.

Also, check your State/Regional websites (see above) for any coach seminars and stuff that may be available. While the BIG coach doings are over, many states have localized get-togethers. Sorry, but I don't know of any that admit students.(disclaimer: this doesn't mean that none do, or that they won't make exceptions). You still may be lucky; I happen to have a full set of materials from Dearborn last month that may become surplus.

Some states (Michigan, for example) PAYS experienced teams to work with new or disadvantaged teams. Again, check above. I think Michigan's deadline is mere days away.

This should keep your crew busy for a week. Keep us posted, and once you're a registered team, move forward with the events. Good luck.

[astrocrazy123]

Hi! My friend and I wanted to start our own Sci O team. Our school is only composed of 9th graders, but 9th grade is considered at the junior high level in our district. Our team would have to consist of 15 9th graders. The general rule is only 5 ninth graders per team. Would we be in the junior high or high school division?

[starpug]

Are you guitargals friend cause she already started a topic on this.

http://www.scioly.org/phpBB3/viewtopic. ... &sk=t&sd=a

[gneissisnice]

Though its in the other thread, i'll say it here too. Its gotta be in C (high school) division, cause of the 9th grader limit. Unless you want 5 people per team, but thats bad.

[Uncle Fester]

And it's only been in THIS thread like, what, FOUR times?

[gneissisnice]

yeah....

[GuitarGal800]

okay thanks so much for all the feedback.
with the amount of people who signed up we've dcided to hav two teams of 19 so four altenates
i was wondering, if we should keep the teams equal in ability or should we have a strong team, and a weak team?
what do you guys do?

[genes_girl]

We generally have a strong team and a weak team because only one team can go to states, and then from there nationals if you qualify. It makes it easier to say, "ok, A team qualified and is going to state," instead of having to remake your team for each competition.