Rules Clarifications

Clarifications & FAQs open October 1 and close May 1. Official Rules Clarifications/Changes are made to correct the rules in the Science Olympiad Rules Manuals. FAQs are replies to commonly asked questions. If a FAQ reply changes the meaning or corrects a rule it will be posted as a Clarification. The Official Rules Clarifications and FAQs apply to all states and all tournaments and originate at the National level (please check your Regional or State Website for special updates pertaining to your regional or state events). Click here to view Event FAQs or to Submit a Question. The official event rules can be found in the Science Olympiad Rules Manual free online and in print versions; each registered member must join through their state Science Olympiad organization to participate.

2020 Science Olympiad Rules Clarifications/Changes

Codebusters

9/16/19 (Division C) 3.f.v. should read, edits in bold: "the Hill Cipher - Encrypting plaintext or decrypting ciphertext with a 2x2 encryption matrix or 3x3 decryption matrix provided” (the word Encrypting was misspelled)

Fossils 

9/16/19 (Divisions B and C) Page 2, Column 2, Row 8, should read, edits in bold: “Species H. sapiens” (sapiens should be plural)

Ornithology

9/16/19 (Divisions B and C) on the Official Bird List, Page 2, Column 3, Last Row, should read, edits in bold: "European Starling Sturnus vulgaris” (The word Sturnus was misspelled)

Protein Modeling 

10/8/19 (Division C) 3. Part I: The Pre-Built Model a. should read, edits in bold: a. Participants will use the program Jmol/JSmol to visualize cytidine deaminase (chain A, residues 31-145) based on data found in the 5keg.pdb file. The atomic coordinate data file… (Replaces "deaminase (chain A, residues 214-310)" based on data found in the "5td5.pdb file".)