Science Olympiad is really unfair. (Small rant)

[SciOlyEnthusiast]

I’m in middle school in MN and I’m not part of a team but my friends are and they have had a really bad experience with science Olympiad that makes me kind of angry as well.

For months they stayed multiple hours after school twice a week, then every day for hours for the last 2 weeks leading up to the state competition (they won regionals).

Now my middle school is kind of bad. It funds almost no clubs even though we have some of the smartest kids in the state (which is really unfair). During this year’s state competition they did extremely well, one of my friends scoring gold medals in all of his events and my other friends has a ton of gold, silver, and bronze medals. I don’t think anyone got below fourth in their respective events.

However, as I states earlier, we got NO access to materials and study resources because our school is…. bad. Some of my friends had to use their OWN (not their parents’) money to buy 1 book for one of their events.

In the state competition, they placed 2nd, 2 POINTS BEHIND THE WINNING SCHOOL. do you even realize how close that it!?!?! This gets much worse when you learn the winning middle school has 4 teams with 12 members each while my school’s team has 1 team with ~8 members. In addition, it’s fully funded by the school and they have endless amount of resources and things like that.

IT GETS EVEN WORSE. According to the Minnesota SciOly website, 1. That school has won state every year since they started SciOly and 2. Registering an extra team costs 100$ per team. That means THE MONEY IT TAKES TO BUY 3 EXTRA TEAMS IS MORE THAN 3X AS MUCH MONEY AS OUR SCHOOL NEEDED TO BUY ENOUGH RESOURCES TO DEFINITELY WIN. not even COUNTING the materials that other school bought for their students.

And, on top of all of that, my friends had to literally fund their own pizza party (mandatory) and give the trophy to the school without question. There is also NO ADVERTISEMENT for Science Olympiad other than a one time, short announcement over morning announcements.

I’m not blaming Science Olympiad. I blame my school. But I wished that Science Olympiad would just think of all of the amazing students being hindered by their dumb schools and make it somewhat fair??? I think it’s so unfair we got 2nd just because we didn’t have enough resources because our school is worse. I wish it actually provided the materials and books that we need to study and learn. We could’ve easily won with just the cost it takes for registering ONE extra team to Science Olympiad.

Please just consider this.

Thank you for reading.

[ypang9804]

Hi there! While I have only done Scioly for a year, I have done other competitions, and here are my opinions.
I am not going to deny your efforts and your team's efforts. Be proud of that, and know you accomplished something on your own initiative without the help of your school. However, I do have some issues with what you said.
Firstly, Scioly is a competition, some people win, some people lose. A cutoff has to be drawn between who can move on and who can't. It might be a close race, but it might not. But at the end of the day, some really good teams don't make it. It is an unfortunate and brutal reality.
Secondly, Scioly is only an organization that provides tests and organizes events, they are not supposed to provide the resources to help you study. It is up to the competitors, in this case, students, to take the initiative and work for it. While the school can provide resources, they may not always be enough or helpful.
Third, Scioly Organization has limited money, they can't provide quality resources on large scale. A textbook can easily cost 100 dollars, multiply that by thousands, if not tens of thousands of competitors. This can get very, very, expensive. Writers of resources have their own time, they might not be able to afford to provide quality materials without pay.
Fourth, Scioly, the organization, can't do much to support struggling teams like yours. From a realistic standpoint, they could provide grants to schools with low funding, but I really do not see anything else practical. They can't say "Oh team X gets to go to nats, even though they had higher points than Team Y, simply because they had a horrible school/coach/etc."
Fifth, Scioly is expensive and needs experience. 100 dollars likely won't cut it. Engineering events can easily cost a few hundred dollars total due to the needed parts and tools. Travel costs, books, and everything else, all take up money. Poor funding can make or break things, but again, the Scioly organization can't do much besides provide some grants. Furthermore, experience matters. A coach with good experience can and will make or break a team's win. They know how the rules work, where to bend them, and how to maximize a team's chance of winning.
Again, this isn't to say Scioly is perfect. Personally, I think many of the engineering events can be pay to win (everyone shows up with the same car/bridge). There always is that one school that is so much better equipped and organized in every state, and it isn't easy to catch up. Schools do matter, a lot, but they are only part of the equation. Students, therefore the team, make up the rest. Both sides need to carry their weight, but at the end of the day, the team will always have to give in more if the school or coach can't or won't.

[onshape]

It's not about where you end up, it's about your experiences and what you learned. Making it to 2nd in states is something to be proud of, some teams like ours didn't even make it to states. I do agree that some build events can be based off of the resources that you have, but at the same time, studying an hour a day for Chem Lab got me 22nd at regionals. Sometimes that's just how it works.

[knightmoves]

I’m in middle school in MN and I’m not part of a team but my friends are and they have had a really bad experience with science Olympiad that makes me kind of angry as well.

In the state competition, they placed 2nd, 2 POINTS BEHIND THE WINNING SCHOOL. do you even realize how close that it!?!?! This gets much worse when you learn the winning middle school has 4 teams with 12 members each while my school’s team has 1 team with ~8 members. In addition, it’s fully funded by the school and they have endless amount of resources and things like that.

I'm confused. If your team placed second in Minnesota, then your team is Black Hawk Middle School, and finished 23 points behind Chippewa. Looks like your team did well, particularly for a team with only 8 members, which means you must have had a number of events with a teammate competing solo. But then I'd have to ask why your team's website clearly features a picture of 13 people posing on a stage with medals and trophies.

[pumptato-cat]

I agree with everything everyone above has said.
As someone who comes from a team that has no school support and funds everything ourselves, it's not easy.

That school has won state every year since they started SciOly and 2. Registering an extra team costs 100$ per team. That means THE MONEY IT TAKES TO BUY 3 EXTRA TEAMS IS MORE THAN 3X AS MUCH MONEY AS OUR SCHOOL NEEDED TO BUY ENOUGH RESOURCES TO DEFINITELY WIN. not even COUNTING the materials that other school bought for their students.

Your team is not going to win by spending $100. If knightmoves is correct, more money will likely not make up for the 23 points between 1st and 2nd. Also, spending more money to buy resources won't cause you to "definitely win". Builds are about spending money and putting significant time and effort into each and every event. If Chippewa put more funds into build events, I wouldn't call the results unfair.
(I am in no way trying to discredit your team's accomplishments)

I’m not blaming Science Olympiad. I blame my school. But I wished that Science Olympiad would just think of all of the amazing students being hindered by their dumb schools and make it somewhat fair??? I think it’s so unfair we got 2nd just because we didn’t have enough resources because our school is worse. I wish it actually provided the materials and books that we need to study and learn. We could’ve easily won with just the cost it takes for registering ONE extra team to Science Olympiad.

1. I do not think Science Olympiad is unfair. Those who have more money and resources win. Those who spend more time win. It's just how things are.
2. You can provide materials and books yourself. I found textbooks on Ebay for $20. They were quite helpful, but you can also get along just fine by using the internet. There are countless resources out there on the internet, and you can succeed in every event by using them. To a certain extent, some SciOly events are pay-to-win. But it's also about how you can utilize the resources you already have and work around obstacles like this. If you want to win, you find a way.


edit: holy gneiss i was a yapper in 2023

[Jehosaphat]

I would say your story almost proves how fair Scioly is. The fact you took second at states with as little resources as you did is awesome. There are activities where money directly translates to performance, and Scioly is definitely on the better end of that spectrum.

I competed in Scioly for the full seven years, and slight confession, I never used a text book. All of my research came from the internet, and I competed at a high level with only that level of information. Is that saying that text books don't help? No, but today there is more information available for free than ever before, and taking advantage of that will take you much further than a textbook ever will.

Money is important, and my school is plenty underfunded as well. We operated on $600 a year, which is not even in the same ballpark as some top teams. But we still showed up, had fun, and Scioly is where I made some of my best memories. It's not easy to be the best, and maybe you will have to put in a more work than the other kids will. But that's just life.

[StarlightSonata]

That situation definitely sucks. Though, I'd like to point out that even schools perceived as more "rich" don't always provide all the resources for competitors either. Most schools I know at least require those with study events to pay themselves if they want extra study materials such as anatomy textbooks for A&P, etc

[T-55M]

Unfortunately that's just the way it is. Builds are inherently pay to win to some extent, study events somewhat less so. So I would just enter some bare minimum builds that won't get DQed, and try your best at study events.

Ironically the events our team did best at were study events that we didn't really study for. Mainly because our builds got demolished by better funded schools (let's be real, a surgically modified R/C car is never going to win Electric Vehicle).

[CSLA]

You sound like you need a hug. *air hug*