Sample K-6 Events
Event Descriptions
A IS FOR ANATOMY - Each team will view models, slides, and pictures of organs and tissues from the human body. They will identify and explain the function of each.
AERODYNAMICS - Each team will build one paper airplane to be flown a distance of at least five meters toward a predetermined target.
ANIMAL, VEGETABLE OR MINERAL - Each participant will classify objects, pictures or models to the appropriate category.
BARGE BUILDING - Each team will construct a barge of aluminum foil that can support a cargo. They will predict the amount of cargo the barge will hold and will load cargo until the barge takes on water.
BIOMASS - Each team will grow a plant from a seed, give a report of its growing conditions, and take a quiz.
BLACK BOXES - Teams will determine the contents of a black box by using indirect evidence.
BOGGLE SCIENCE - Each team will attempt to locate science words pertaining to a particular subject on a board of 16 letters.
BOTTLE MUSIC - Each team will tune a set of bottles by filling them to different levels with water and use them to play two different tunes.
BRIDGE BUILDING - Each team will test their ability to build a strong, stable,
and reproducible bridge from common materials.
CALCULATOR CONTEST - Each participant will demonstrate his/her knowledge of problem-solving using a hand-held, non-programmable calculator.
CAN RACE - Each team will construct one single-can racer (before coming to the tournament), which will be raced against the clock in a drag racing format.
CATEGORIES- Teams will demonstrate their ability to sort information given into categories.
CHOPPER CHALLENGE - Contestants will build and test 3 choppers (rotary flying devices) using only the materials provided at the competition.
CIRCUIT WIZARDRY - Each team will test their knowledge of simple direct-current electric circuits, the difference between open and closed circuits and the difference between series and parallel circuits.
CLAY BOATS - Each team will build a boat from clay, launch it and fill it with the greatest number of plastic gram cubes before sinking.
COLOR WHEEL - Participants will test their knowledge of primary and secondary colors.
COMPUTER PROGRAMMING - Each team of two or three students will write programs to solve up to three problems.
COOL IT - Each team will construct a device to keep an ice cube from melting.
CRIME BUSTERS - Each team will test mystery powders, match fingerprints and use chromatography to identify a forged check found at a crime scene.
CROSSWORD SCIENCE - Each team will attempt to complete a crossword puzzle from terms used in typical elementary science books.
DEEP BLUE SEA - Each team will work cooperatively to answer questions and identify ocean flora, and fauna, physical features and phenomena related to marine science.
DENSITY - This event is designed to examine the students’ basic understanding of the nature of density using blocks of various materials that are square or rectangular.
DISEASE DETECTIVES - The goal of the Disease Detectives event is to have students understand connections between things they may encounter in daily life and various health problems that affect communities, risks for disease/injury, and opportunities for prevention.
DON'T BUG ME (INSECTS) - The contestants are to distinguish insects from non-insects, identify various body parts, characteristics, habitats, ecological significance, life cycles, and major orders of insects.
EGG DROP - Raw, grade A medium eggs will be dropped from ever increasing heights into a landing pad/egg catching device.
ELEMENTS, COMPOUNDS, MIXTURES - Each participant will classify materials into one of the three possible categories.
ENERGY BOX - Teams will construct and bring to the Science Olympiad competition an insulated structure to house a 100 ml beaker of hot water. The team whose water sample is the hottest at the end of the competition period is the winner.
ESTIMANIA - Groups will be asked to make quick estimates of large numbers.
EXTINCTION IS FOREVER - Students will be quizzed on organisms that: have become extinct; or are on the endangered list; or are on the threatened list; or have been removed from such lists and the reasons behind these organisms’ extinction or endangered status
FOOD FOR THOUGHT AND FOR ENERGY - Groups of students demonstrate knowledge of food groups and additives.
FOOD WEB - FOOD CHAINS - OWL PELLETS - Team of students try to determine the items in an owl's food chain/web.
FOSSIL FIND - Participants will determine where examples of fossils are put together in an environment grid. This is how paleontologists imagined what the Earth might have been like millions of years ago.
GRAB A GRAM - Teams cooperate to pick up given materials in an amount not to exceed fifty grams. There will be at least two rounds of competition using different substances in each round.
GRAPHING - Each student will be asked to analyze a group of different graphs and later to organize some data into a graph.
GRASP A GRAPH - The objective is to develop the skills of collecting and organizing information using pictographs, bar, line and pie graphs to solve problems.
GUNK - Each student will behave like a chemist or chemical engineer and produce a product, gunk, with certain characteristics.
HANGMAN SCIENCE - Each student will attempt to guess the name of a scientific term or phrase by first guessing letters as in the TV game "Wheel of Fortune".
HOT AIR BALLOONS - This event requires a team to build and fly a paper hot air balloon.
HOW DO YOU SPELL SCIENCE - Students will be asked to spell words from the earth, life, and physical sciences and give a definition of the word spelled.
"KNOCK, KNOCK" - "WHO'S THERE" - From examination of "evidence" students are to determine what animal passed by.
LARGE NUMBER ESTIMATION - Students will be asked to estimate the answers to approximately twenty questions requiring an estimate between ten and one
million.
LEAF AND TREE FINDER - Students will attempt to classify trees and or leaves using a simple dichotomous key.
LEAF BINGO TREE IDENTIFICATION - Using a bingo format students attempt to properly identify leaves.
MAGNETS - Students must demonstrate knowledge of how magnets work and identify materials through which a magnet can attract.
MAKING AND USING A KEY - Groups working cooperatively will develop a key from a group of objects, then later use a previously developed key to properly
identify another object.
MAP READING - Individual contestants will be given two-part questions that can be answered by using various kinds of maps.
MARY, MARY HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW - Students study the impact of different growing conditions on plants.
METRIC MASTERY - Students will demonstrate an intuitive feeling for estimating and later for measuring different events/objects using S.I. metric units.
MISSION POSSIBLE - Participants will design, build, and test a Rube Goldberg-like Device, which incorporates up to 20 unique Action Transfers, and uses up to five Forms of Energy in accomplishing a given task in two (2) minutes.
MONSTER MATCH - Students will demonstrate the ability to categorize by identifying similar characteristics.
MYSTERY ARCHITECTURE - Teams of students build the tallest, most stable tower from materials unknown to them prior to the competition.
MYSTERY BOXES --Students will be asked to identify the contents of various boxes using all their senses except sight.
MYSTERY LIQUIDS - Teams of students will identify mystery liquids.
MYSTERY POWDERS - A team of two contestants will be asked to identify a mixture of common white household powders.
NAME THE SCIENTIST - Individuals will properly identify scientists and their contributions to science/technology in a game format.
NO BONES ABOUT IT - A team of two (2) students will match each of 10-15 different kinds of bones with an appropriate skeleton or chart of various animals.
ORIENTEERING - Participants will follow a set of directions using their skills of pacing and using a magnetic compass.
PADDLE BOAT CONSTRUCTION - Groups of two competitors build a paddleboat from common material. They then race against the clock for time and distance.
PAPER ROCKETS - Students build and fly a paper rocket from materials that are provided.
PASSWORD - Password is a game for a 2-student team. The rules of the game are the same as in the TV game.
PASTA BRIDGE - Teams will build a bridge from pasta that will hold the greatest weight.
PASTAMOBILE -Teams build a cart that will traverse a course in a specified amount of time.
PENTATHLON - Five physical skills are interspersed with science questions in an obstacle course that will be run in a relay race style where each student passes the balloon to the next student.
PICTURE PERFECT - Students build a pinhole camera, bring it to the competition, take certain pictures, develop them and take a quiz on the process.
PICTURE THIS - This event has teams of 3 students each competing in a contest in which one member draws "clues" for the others to guess a science term or
concept.
PILL BUGS - Teams of students study the life cycle of pill bugs.
PLASTICS DETECTIVE - Teams of students investigate the properties of common plastics, then attempt to identify samples from their previous work.
POND STUDY - Students will be provided with pond samples and/or pictures of pond life to identify pond life and build a food chain.
PROPELLER PROPULSION - Teams of students build a device that is powered by a propeller.
REFLECTION RELAY - Three team members, each supplied with a pocket mirror, cooperate to bounce a light beam from a filmstrip projector onto a predetermined
target.
ROCK HOUND - Contestants will be required to identify various rocks and minerals.
ROCKETRY - Groups build and fly a model rocket.
RUBBER BAND CATAPULT - A team will design and construct a catapult device to shoot a rubber band at a target that is placed within a given range.
SAY IT AGAIN - The objective of this event is to have a team member describe a science term or concept by providing verbal clues and not saying the word(s).
SAVE OUR EARTH - Participants take a quiz on environmental problems and later do simple lab tests to determine problems in the environment such as acid rain.
SCAVENGER HUNT - Teams of students collect sample materials.
SCIENCE BOWL - This event is patterned after the College Bowl on TV. All questions will be taken from elementary school science textbooks and will encompass the areas of earth science, life science and physical sciences.
SCIENCE JEOPARDY - Contestants choose a category and a level of difficulty from the game board and view and listen to an answer to a question. The first team to respond with an appropriate question for the answer will be awarded points and will choose the next topic and level.
SCIENCE DETECTIVES - Students will list the properties of given items and locate items fitting a specified list of properties.
SIMPLE MACHINES - Participants demonstrate their knowledge of simple machines.
SINK OR FLOAT - Students will demonstrate their ability to determine which objects will sink and which will float.
SOLAR COLLECTOR - Students will construct and bring to the Science Olympiad competition a homemade solar heating device to heat 200 ml of water.
SOLID, LIQUID, OR GAS - Participants demonstrate their knowledge of the three states of matter.
STARRY, STARRY NIGHT - A team of two (2) students will identify constellations, planets, and other common celestial bodies in our universe.
STRAW EGG DROP - Teams of students build a device from soda straws to cradle an egg being dropped from a certain height.
STRAW TOWER - Teams of students build the strongest, tallest tower.
STRUCTURES - This event is to test a student's ability to build a strong, stable and reproducible structure from common materials.
SUPER PULLEY - Students demonstrate their knowledge and use of a pulley or pulley system.
SURFING THE NET - Students are asked to find information using a World Wide Web browser.
TENNIS BALL CATAPULT - Each two-member team will build a device to launch a tennis ball a selected distance from about 2 to 5 meters.
TREASURE HUNT - Students will demonstrate knowledge of compass use and use of a compass to locate a hidden treasure.
USING YOUR COMPUTER - A team of two students will use a database, spread sheet or word processing application to solve a science problem.
WATER ROCKET - Students will build and launch a 2-liter plastic bottle for maximum time aloft.
WEATHER OR NOT - This competition will test the students’ knowledge of meteorological terms, techniques, and events.
WHAT WENT BY - This event tests the student's ability to identify tracks to determine what animal or thing went by and the direction it was going.
WHICH WAY IS NORTH? - Teams of up to two students will attempt to navigate themselves around a state road map.
WILDLIFE SAFARI - Students identify basic ecological knowledge.
WRITE IT/DO IT - This event tests a competitor's ability to communicate with a colleague.
ZOWIE METRICS - Students will estimate 100 grams, 100 milliliters and the volume in cubic centimeters of various substances.
