General Rules

Teams are expected to compete in tournament events with honest effort to follow the rules and the spirit of the competition. Team members are expected to be the builders of all the devices used in the events. The goal of competition is to give one's best effort while displaying honesty, integrity, and sportsmanship. Students, coaches, supervisors, parents, and guests are expected to display courtesy and respect toward Science Olympiad officials, other teams, and guests of the Science Olympiad. Failure to show honesty and/or courtesy by a participant, coach or guest of the team may result in disqualification of the team from the event, the entire tournament or future tournaments. Our collective example will promote the spirit of cooperation among all participants. Consider the words of Albert Einstein regarding integrity, “The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depends on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to our lives.” Therefore:

1. Teams may not interpret the rules so that they have an unfair advantage over the rules or another team.

2. Unless otherwise stated, it is generally understood that if notes, resources, calculators, actions etc., are not excluded, then they are permitted unless they violate the spirit of the problem.

3. Once teams have entered the event area to compete, they may not a) leave until they are finished, b) nor return once they have left, c) nor communicate with outside resources, including people, places, etc. by any means. This effectively excludes the use of any computer, PDA, calculators, wireless devices, phones, etc. that have access to external communication or data retrieval during an event unless specifically permitted.

4. Safety is of the utmost importance. Event supervisors are obligated to prevent unsafe acts and devices. Safety decisions are not subject to appeal as long as they are applied equally to all teams. Contestants may not bring or use a) flammable liquids or flame sources of any type, such as matches, cigarette lighters, alcohol and acetone b) nor bring or use acids/bases of any concentration except for lemon juice, vinegar and other mildly acidic/alkaline naturally occurring substances.

5. Coaches, teachers, parents, and other adult supervisors are responsible for insuring that any applicable laws, regulations and school policies are not broken.

6. One or more of the 15 current team members must have constructed all pre-built devices presented for judging. Any of the current team members may impound/demonstrate/operate the device at the competition unless stated otherwise in the rules.

7. Any person designated by the coach can impound devices unless stated otherwise in the rules.

State and regional tournament directors must notify teams of any site-dependent rule or other rule modification at least 30 days prior to the tournament.