ILLINOIS SCIENCE OLYMPIAD Information

Illinois Science Olympiad is a non-profit organization devoted to improving the quality of science education, increasing student interest in science, and providing recognition for outstanding achievement in science education by both students and teachers. Illinois Science Olympiad is a non-profit organization devoted to improving the quality of science education, increasing student interest in science, and providing recognition for outstanding achievement in science education by both students and teachers. ISO accomplishes its goals through classroom activities, research, training workshops and the encouragement of intramural, district, regional, state and national tournaments. ISO tournaments are rigorous academic interscholastic competitions that consist of a series of team events, which students prepare for during the year. These challenging and motivational events are well balanced between the various science disciplines. There is also a balance between events requiring knowledge of science concepts, process skills and science applications. ISO has divided the state into ten regional competition sites. Each site hosts both middle school and high school competitions on the same day that run simultaneously. Approximately 24 schools send their team(s) to a local site to compete in these events on a Saturday in February or March. Each event is evaluated according to the scoring criteria that is published in the coaches' manual. The top students in each event receive medals according to their rank. The scores of the team in each event are then combined for an overall score for the team. At the end of the day, the top percentage of the teams then advance to the State Tournament. The scenario begins again there and the top teams advance to the national competition.