Science Olympiad Research Articles

The IOI is (not) a Science Olympiad

The International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) aspires to be a science olympiad alongside such international olympiads in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology. Informatics as a discipline is well suited to a scientific approach and it offers numerous possibilities for competitions with a high scientific standing. We argue that, in its current form, the IOI fails to be scientific in the way it evaluates the work of the contestants.In this paper, we describe the major ingredients of the IOI to guide further discussions. By presenting the results of an extensive analysis of two IOI competition tasks, we hope to create an awareness of the urgency to address the shortcomings. We offer some suggestions to raise the scientific quality of the IOI.

Assessing tenth-grade students’ problem solving ability online in the area of Earth sciences

This study examined tenth-grade students' (n=263) problem solving ability (PSA) online through assessing students' domain-specific knowledge (DSK) and reasoning skills (RS) in Earth sciences as well as their attitudes toward (AT) Earth sciences related topics in a secondary school of Taiwan. The students' PSA was evaluated based on a previous model (Chang, C. Y. (2004, November 26-27). Trends in assessing student earth science problem solving ability: the importance of domain-specific knowledge and reasoning skills in earth sciences. Paper presented at the Seoul Conference for International Earth Science Olympiad (IESO), Seoul, Korea; Chang, C. Y., & Barufaldi, J. P. (submitted). Does problem solving=prior knowledge+reasoning skills in science? An exploratory study. Journal of Experimental Education; Chang, C. Y., & Weng, Y. H. (2002). An exploratory study on students' problem-solving ability in earth science. International Journal of Science Education, 24(5), 441-452) which empirically established that students' PSA is a composite of DSK, RS and AT subscales. Major findings are as follows: (a) The correlation coefficient among students' DSK, RS and AT was relatively small, indicating that these subscales might have successfully represented different constructs of students' PSA; (b) a significantly positive correlation existed between students' PSA total scores and each subscale. It is, therefore, suggested that students' PSA may be potentially assessed online by measuring their essential components in the area of Earth sciences.

Question Their Answers

Brenda Royce has been teaching high school chemistry and physics for nine years, and is currently science department chair at University High School in Fresno, CA, a college prep charter school on the CSU Fresno campus. She also enjoys coaching Science Olympiad, and working with science and math student teachers as a workshop leader and mentor teacher through the Science and Math Education Center at CSUF. Prior to teaching, she worked in analytical and environmental chemistry for several years. Brenda shares with us her strategy of answering students' questions by “questioning their answers.”

A new science competition for secondary school students: the First European Union ScienceOlympiad

The first European Union Science Olympiad (EUSO2003) took place at Dublin CityUniversity in April 2003. In this paper we discuss the philosophy behind andimplementation of this new competition, and the role third-level institutions can play inmaking science more attractive to second-level students via competitions of this nature.Emphasis is placed on the interdisciplinary nature of the experiments, the team-workingskills required and the potential for stimulating the uptake of science at second and thirdlevels. We use an experimental problem on photosynthesis, which has a strong physicscomponent, to illustrate our ideas and methodology and assess the overall success of thefirst EUSO competition.

Using the Science Olympiad To Prepare Preservice Chemistry Teachers

Preservice chemistry teachers can benefit from authentic laboratory experiences in which they participate from a teacher's perspective. This article discusses the participation of students from a laboratory course entitled Investigations in Chemistry for Teachers to facilitate Science Olympiad events in a regional competition. The processes of planning, preparing, supervising, and judging the competition are outlined in the article. Feedback is included from preservice teachers and current inservice teachers who participated in this project for the past three years.

TEACHING NOTES

The text of the article is available in the PDF.

Predicting Success in Selected Events of the Science Olympiad

Two studies were performed using students who competed at regional and national levels in the Science Olympiad. The Olympiad is a day‐long, multi‐event competition in which teams of junior high and senior high science students cooperate in the application of science process skills and reasoning to score points by solving problems or answering questions. High school participants in the first study took the Test of Integrated Process Skills (TIPS) prior to the Olympiad. In the second study, junior high students were given the Group Assessment of Logical Thinking (GALT) test before competing in three selected Olympiad events. Results indicate that both the TIPS and the GALT tests correlate significantly with student success “on the playing field” of science. Knowing students' initial process skills and logical reasoning abilities is useful for planning effective science programs, but is probably not a good way to select the best students for competition in the Science Olympiad.

Biological Olympiads in the USSR

Biological olympiads are the sort of intellectual competition widely spread nowadays, especially among high school students. Olympiads, often an integral part of the curriculum, stimulate the pupils' interest in acquiring knowledge and help to evaluate the level of their knowledge. Biological olympiads in this country differ greatly from the science olympiad in the USA. First of all they include only biological material and can be compared only with USA Science Olympiad events such as A Is for Anatomy, Bio-Process Lab, Designer Genes or Don't Bug Me. Secondly, it is a personal competition with no official teams. Current olympiads start at the school level and the winners take part in local and then federal olympiads.

What is the Science Olympiad?

What is the Science Olympiad?

Biology and Ethics: Their Role in Education for the 80s and Beyond

Peter F. Dedecker Peter F. Dedecker teaches college-prep biology and advanced biology at Hastings High School, 520 W. South St., Hastings, MI 49058. He has taught there since 1962 when he earned his B.S. in Biology from Northern Michigan College. Dedecker later finished his M.S. degree in Biology from Central Michigan Univ. in 1968. He is Central Michigan's regional director of the Michigan Association of Biology Teachers, a member of the NABT Awards Committee and active in other state and regional projects. Dedecker, an NABT member, advises the Hastings Biology Club and coaches the Science Olympiad Team. Honored with NABT's OBTA award in 1975, in 1985 Dedecker won honors with the Michigan Science Teachers Association Outstanding Science Teacher Award and as a state winner of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and Math Teaching. Last year, he attended the Honors Workshop in Human Genetics and Bioethical Decision Making at Ball State Univ., under the aegis of an NSF grant.

Design and implementation of a programming contest for high school students

The Computer Science Department at Northwest Missouri State University sponsors a computer programming contest each spring for area high school students. The contest draws about 250 people each year. The Olympiad has provided valuable student contact for the Computer Science faculty. The Computer Science Department views the Olympiad as a very powerful recruiting tool for the university. This paper will address the development of the Computer Science Olympiad at Northwest Missouri State University.

Student recruitment through a science olympiad

The Science Olympiad has proven to be extremely effective of making the Science Division of St. Andrews well-known to high schools and science teachers in the author's area.