College of Education & Human Services

Update #1: 1.18.2022

Happy New Year to you all!  We hope your season is off to a great start!  As your Regional Director, I’d like to welcome you and send a bit of information to keep you as informed as possible.   The Regional competition is on March 12, 2022. 

Competition Format: All Regional tournaments will be in the satellite format.  We do not have host site approval to hold tournaments in person.

  • Student participants should be competing either from homes or schools based on the school/district protocols and coaches will organize their teams through the Scilympiad online testing platform. 

  • All written events will be virtual/online and simultaneous for all student competitors in the state (one test at the same time for all participants). 

  • Build events will be virtual and will be scored as regular events.   These events will be submitted through images/videos based on given expectations. They will be submitted using a Google script for each event. See below for more information.

  • Students will earn medals based on their assigned region.

Head-Coach Responsibilities:

  • Information will be coming soon about how to register your team with Scilympiad.  Once this information is sent, please follow the directions as soon as possible. 

  • Coaches may need to collect materials for some events and have this ready for students to use during the competition.  These materials will be communicated 2 weeks prior to the event. 

  • If students are competing at your school, head coaches should act as event supervisors.  Please make sure students are using the allowed materials (binders, etc) and monitor all competitors to assure they are doing things properly.  Please also make sure that V and JV competitors are on opposite sides of the room or far enough away that they are not helping one another. 

  • Varsity and JV teams must build their own, separate device for build and hybrid events. There is no sharing of devices.  

  • Illinois specific clarifications and updates are coming to the website soon. 

Practice Regional - February 12, 2022

  • The practice regional is intended to provide experience in using the Scilympiad platform before our Regional competition. 

    • It is highly recommended for teams who have not experienced the virtual competition in an invitational yet this year.  

    • Even if your team competed using Scilympiad last year, you may have new students on your team this year.  Please consider this opportunity and plan on participating. 

  • The practice regional will follow the posted competition schedule and will include 10-15 minutes of questions for each event.  The practice will not be a full test but will help students with the log-in process and event supervisors with the writing and grading process. 

Build Events 

  • Teams will submit the required images/videos for each build event through a Google script. The information required will be due the day before Regionals (March 11, 2022). 

  • Distances and materials needed will be posted 2 weeks prior to the event.  

  • Varsity and JV teams must build their own, separate device for build and hybrid events. There is no sharing of devices.  

Soppa: (Student Online Personal Protection Act)

  • Effective July 1, 2021, school districts will be required by SOPPA to provide additional guarantees that student data is protected when collected by educational technology companies, and that data is used for beneficial purposes only (105 ILCS 85).

    • Please assure that your district allows your students to compete using the Scilympiad platform. The Illinois Science Olympiad statement is on the homepage of our website. Please visit here if more information is necessary. 

    • This also causes some websites to be blocked.  If this is the case for your district, we will provide you with links for the scripts so that your district can whitelist them.  This will then allow your students to have access to turn in the required information.

Help Needed! 

  • We are looking for people who are interested in becoming state level event supervisors!  Do you know someone who has been involved in the program, has a science background, or is passionate about a particular event?  We are in need of event supervisors that will be able to either write a test and/or grade!  

Important Upcoming Dates: 

February 12

Practice Regional 

March 11

Build Event Submissions Due (Regional)

March 12

Regional Competition 

April 21

Build Event Submissions Due (State)

April 23

State Competition 

Please reach out with any questions you may have!  I’ll be in touch soon with more information.