The North Carolina Science Olympiad Organization likes to call Science Olympiad the Sport Science and we couldn't agree more!  The tournaments are run like a track meet.  There are 23 events and up to 18 kids per team.  Each event has 2 kids from the team that are entering that event.  The scores of how each team of 23 does in their individual events are added together for a team score, 1st place being one point and so forth.  Lowest score wins the team competition but individual teams also can get medals from 1-6th place for each of their own events.

Kids can compete in up to 4 different events, usually not more than four because the events are spread out in 4 different time blocks throughout the day.  Competitions take a full day with an awards ceremony at the end of the day.  For Regional Competitions  schools can have one Varsity team and as many Junior Varsity teams as it can fill.  Only the Varsity team can qualify for the State Competition.  Junior Varsity members are always welcome to come and observe the State Competitions.

Most events are testing events, either a questions and answer format, identifying samples, running experiments or calculating answers.  There are a few that are classified as building events.  These are Bridge, Elastic Launch Glider, Air Trajectory, Wheeled Vehicle,  Bottle Rockets and Mission Possible.  This events may take more time and/or money than other events.  We recommend that you try for a  mixture of testing and building events.