The Science Olympiad National Tournament is the pinnacle of more than 450 regional and state tournaments each academic year. Upwards of 7,900 teams in 50 states compete head-to-head for a chance to compete against some of the brightest and most creative students in the US at the National Tournament. Each May, 120 teams are put to the test, launching Helicopters and Gliders, building Boomilevers and Scramblers, matching wits in Water Quality, Chem Lab, and Meteorology, and solving world health pandemics in Disease Detectives. This blend of engineering, knowledge, problem-solving, technology, and process skills makes Science Olympiad unique in the world of science competitions.
Students on Science Olympiad teams develop a sense of teamwork and collaborative reward similar to the work, sweat, and dedication required of an athletic team. Maybe that's why so many Science Olympiad competitors go on to such successful careers, and tell us that they learned more in Science Olympiad than anywhere else. They also say that their experience at Science Olympiad National Tournaments was the highest point of their school careers, where they built friendships, made memories and gained confidence that would last a lifetime. Not to mention the awards, trophies, cash scholarships, tuition awards, trips, and prizes offered by the host universities and sponsors like Texas Instruments, Lockheed Martin, and the Centers for Disease Control. In 2008, The George Washington University gave each of the 1,800 student competitors a $20,000 tuition stipend toward attending TGWU. In 2010, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign reprised awards of four-year full-ride scholarships for all high school gold medal winners valued at more than $100,000 each. In 2012 and 2014, the University of Central Florida offered $30,000 scholarships to all gold medal winners at the National Tournament.
