Greene SciOly (Science Olympiad) is a competition-based STEM club run at Greene Middle School by members of Paly’s award-winning SciOly Club. In 2022-23, we had 3 teams of 15 students preparing for competitions across 23 events in the Santa Clara Regional Science Olympiad in March. Another 3 teams of 5 prepared for competition in the California South/West Bay Area Regional Middle School Science Bowl in February. In April 2023, Greene came in 5th at the Northern California State Finals for Science Olympiad.
Who Should Join?
Self-motivated students who love science, work well with others, and are willing to put in extra time to learn and work with team members after school. Best suited for students who thrive on competition with parents willing and available to mentor and coach.
SciOly Tryouts
Registered students will be tested on September 9 and September 11 for current science and engineering skills as well as potential to learn. Test results will be used for event and team placement. Complete event rules for 2025-2026 can be found here.
Team results will be released on Thursday, September 18. We hope to see all the students there.
Preliminary Registration
Please read this entire site first to understand how our club works and what we need from both students and parents. If this sounds like a fit for your family, register by clicking on the button below to get on our mailing list.
What's Science Olympiad?
Science Olympiad (aka SciOly) is a team-based STEM competition where teams of 15 students compete with other teams across 23 events listed below. There are usually 2 students per event, and each student participates in 3-4 events.
Science Olympiad 2026 Events
Anatomy and Physiology – Teams will be assessed on their understanding of the anatomy and physiology of the nervous, special senses, and endocrine systems of the human body.
Boomilever - Teams will design and build a cantilevered beam or truss structure that extends from a vertical testing wall and supports a load at a specified distance from the testing wall.
Circuit Lab - Teams will complete tasks and answer questions about electricity and magnetism.
Codebusters – Teams will cryptanalyze and decode encrypted messages using cryptanalysis techniques for historical and modern advanced ciphers.
Crime Busters – Given a scenario, a collection of evidence, and possible suspects, teams will perform a series of tests. The test results, along with other evidence, will be used to solve a crime and answer questions.
Disease Detectives - Teams will use their investigative skills in the scientific study of disease, injury, health, and disability in populations or groups of people.
Dynamic Planet - Teams will complete tasks related to physical and geological oceanography.
Entomology - Teams will be asked to identify insects and selected immature insects by indicated taxonomy order and family, answer questions about insects, and use or construct a dichotomous key.
Experimental Design – This event will assess a team’s ability to design, conduct, and report the findings of an experiment conducted on-site.
Helicopter - Before the tournament, teams will construct, collect data on test flights, analyze, and optimize free-flight rubber-powered helicopters to achieve maximum time aloft.
Heredity - Teams will answer questions, solve problems, and analyze data about classic and molecular genetics.
Hovercraft - Before the competition, teams will design, construct, and calibrate a self-propelled air-levitated vehicle that moves down a track.
Machines - Teams will complete a written test on simple and compound machine concepts and construct a level-based measuring device prior to the tournament to determine the mass ratios between three test masses.
Meteorology – Teams will use scientific process skills involving qualitative and quantitative analyses to demonstrate an understanding of the factors that influence everyday weather through the interpretation of meteorological data, graphs, charts and images.
Metric Mastery - Teams will estimate and then measure properties of identical objects including mass, area, volume, density, force, distance, time, and temperature. Teams will also perform metric unit conversions.
Mission Possible - Prior to the competition, teams design, build, test, and document a Rube Goldberg-like device that completes required Start and Final Actions through a series of specific actions.
Potions & Poisons - Teams will be tested on the chemical properties and effects of specified toxic and therapeutic chemical substances, with a focus on household and environmental toxins or poisons.
Remote Sensing - Teams will demonstrate an understanding of the basic principles of remote sensing and use imagery, data, and maps to complete tasks related to earth systems processes. An understanding of mapping principles is a component of this event.
Rocks and Minerals - Teams will identify and classify rocks and minerals and demonstrate knowledge of how rocks and minerals help to understand geologic processes, interpretation of Earth's history, the development of natural resources, and use by society.
Scrambler - Teams design, build, and test a mechanical device, which uses the energy from a falling mass to transport and egg along a track as quickly as possible and stop as close to the center of a terminal barrier without breaking the egg.
Solar System - Teams will demonstrate their knowledge of planet formation and structure within and beyond the solar system.
Water Quality - Teams will be assessed on their understanding and evaluation of freshwater aquatic environments.
Write It/Do It – One student will write a description of an object and how to build it, and then the other student will attempt to construct the object from this description.
How are SciOly Tournaments scored?
Event scores are ranked by team, then scores from each event are added to get the team score, less is better. Usually top five event teams are given medals and top 3 teams are awarded trophies. Top 4 schools in the Santa Clara Regional Science Olympiad get to compete in the Northern California State Science Olympiad in mid-April.
Scores from the 2025 Santa Clara Regional Science Olympiad can be found here.
Tournament Schedule
In-person tournaments are full day events where all 15 team members attend but compete at different times, capped by an awards ceremony. Virtual tournaments, introduced during COVID, vary from a single day to several afternoons over a week.
Parent Volunteers
Paly student-mentors are great because many have been through the middle school experience. However, they're also get busy preparing for their own events before tournaments. Parent volunteers help pick up the slack when Paly students aren't available. Help is needed in the following areas:
Coaching: Parents with subject matter expertise or project management experience are welcome. It can be convenient to coach your own child, but sometimes more effective and educational to coach others. Expect 1-2 hours a week time commitment.
Logistics: Many engineering events require space for building and testing, which need advance reservations. Full day tournaments require transportation, food and photography.
What's Science Bowl?
Science Bowl is a fast-paced competition where 5-person teams face-off against each other answering short questions in physical science, life science, math, energy, and earth and space science.
A full description and history can be found here, and an example competition can be seen below:
Time Commitment
Science Olympiad
Club meetings Thursdays after school for one hour in the MPR, except for our first club meeting on Tuesday, August 26, and tryouts/tournaments listed below.
Tryouts on Tuesday and Thursday after school for 2 hours on Sept 9 and Sept 11
Greene tournaments Tuesdays and Thursdays after school for 2 hours on:
Oct 14, Oct 16
Nov 4, Nov 6
Dec 2, Dec 4
Off-site tournaments Saturdays 7am-6pm on the following dates (subject to change):
Jan 24, 2026 in Cupertino
Mar 21, 2026 in Milpitas
April 5 or 11, 2026 in Hayward (varsity team members only)
Self-arranged partner study/work meetings (1-2 hours/week/event) which increase in frequency before competitions.
Science Bowl
Club meetings once per week September through February (exact day TBD)
One Science Bowl Tournament in February (exact date TBD)
Presentation Archives
Club Meeting #1