Tournament Expectations

Students, coaches, supervisors, parents, and volunteers are expected to be courteous and

Teams are expected to make an honest effort to follow the rules and the spirit of the tournament:

  1. Actions and items (e.g., tools, notes, resources, supplies, electronics, etc.) are permitted, unless they are explicitly excluded in the rules, are unsafe, or violate the spirit of the problem.
  2. While competing in an event, participants may not leave without the event supervisor's approval or receive any external assistance. All electronic devices capable of external communication, as well as calculator applications on multipurpose devices (e.g. laptop, phone, tablet,) are not permitted unless expressly permitted in the event rule or by an event supervisor. At the discretion of the event supervisor, participants may be required to place their cell phones in a designated location.
  3. Participants, coaches and other adults are responsible for ensuring that any applicable school or Science Olympiad policy, law or regulation is not broken. All Science Olympiad content (e.g., policies, requirements, clarifications, FAQs, etc. on soinc.org) must be treated as if it were included in the printed rules.
  4. All pre-built devices presented for judging must be constructed, impounded, and operated by one or more of the 15 current team members unless stated otherwise in the rules. If a device has been removed from the event area, appeals related to that device will not be considered.
  5. Officials are encouraged to apply the least restrictive penalty for rules infractions (see examples in the Scoring Guidelines). Event supervisors must provide prompt notification of any penalty, disqualification or tier ranking.
  6. State tournament directors must notify teams of any site-dependent rule or other rule modification with as much notice as possible, ideally at least 30 days prior to the tournament.
  7. Cell phones should be set to vibrate or silent mode during the entire tournament except AND set to airline mode or off during an event.

Failure by a participant, coach, or guest to abide by these codes, accepted safety procedures, or rules (see sections on interference, cheating, and vandalism) may result in an assessment of penalty points or, in rare cases, disqualification by the tournament director from the event, the tournament, or future tournaments.

Furthermore, the Maine tournament expects teams to keep the USM campus clean and exhibit care not to knowingly or willfully damage facilities.

Every team home base MUST be supervised/occupied at all times by an adult from the time the base is established until it is vacated.

CAUTION: All door knobs lock from the inside. This elevates the risk for being locked out of a room. Extreme care must be taken to avoid being locked out. If this happens, security must be called as they are the only ones with keys.

Every team MUST provide one volunteer to assist on the day of the tournament. Please contact tournament directors at least two weeks before the tournament (i.e., March 16) to identify the volunteer.

Please contact tournament directors at least two weeks before the tournament (i.e., March 16) if someone associated with your team requires specialized adaptive accommodations. Note: Bailey Hall has an elevator and gender neutral bathrooms.