Scoring will be conducted consistent with all Science Olympiad rules (including clarifications and FAQs) and policies. Relevant policies include the Code of Ethics and General Rules, Scoring Guidelines, Laser Policy, Building and Tools Policy, Eye Protection Policy, Copyright and Use Policy, Significant Figures Policy, Battery Policy, and Calculator Guide. All of these rules and policies are publicly available on the national organization website.
If a team believes they have been treated unfairly, or in a manner inconsistent with Science Olympiad rules and policies, they have the right to seek recourse. The Head Coach for any such team may file an appeal using our Arbitration Form to outline their case and requested remedy. Only a Head Coach acting on behalf of their team may file an appeal; individual students, parents, assistant coaches, alumni, and other third parties lack standing to submit an appeal. Additionally, teams may not file an appeal to request an adverse action against one of their competitors.
All appeals will be reviewed by the Arbitration Committee, who may gather evidence and input from whichever source(s) they deem appropriate. Altering the appealed decision, such as by granting the appeal or imposing an alternative penalty, requires support from a simple majority of the Arbitration Committee.
Appeals will not be considered if received more than one hour after the publication of the final results.
At the independent discretion of the Tournament Director(s), offensive, disruptive, unethical, or illegal behavior by students, coaches, parents, or other individuals may result in sanctions against those individuals or their affiliated team(s). Behaviors that may potentially result in sanctions also include repetitive or egregious violations of tournament policies. Sanctions against teams may include team penalty points, disqualification in an event, or disqualification as a team. Sanctions against individuals may include temporary or permanent bans from participation in, or attendance at, the tournament. Any imposed sanctions are subject to appeal and review by the Arbitration Committee.
Our tournament acknowledges the national policy stating that "schools with grade levels lower than those stated in a Division are permitted to invite members below the grade level designations". In alignment with this policy, our tournament has implemented the following process for any such students.
The student's parent or guardian, Head Coach, and Principal or Assistant Principal must review the event rules and jointly discuss which event(s) are age-appropriate and safe for the individual student. The Principal or Assistant Principal must then submit a written request on school letterhead containing the following information to neoregionals@gmail.com at least two weeks prior to the tournament:
The student's name, age, and grade level
Certification that the student is in good standing without active behavior or discipline concerns
The list of specific event(s) in which the student would like to participate
Confirmation that the student's parent or guardian, Head Coach, and Principal or Assistant Principal have each reviewed the event rules and unanimously agreed that each event is age-appropriate and safe for the individual student
Within one week of receipt, the Tournament Director(s) will review requests and communicate back a final decision on both the student's overall participation and their participation in each specific event. Decisions will be made with consideration of student safety and any host site restrictions.
The NEON Regional Tournament depends on dedicated volunteers to ensure a smooth and successful event. Each participating school is required to provide volunteers to assist with various tasks throughout the day — a commitment known as the volunteer requirement. Schools with one team are expected to provide one volunteer, while schools with two teams are expected to provide three volunteers. Volunteers serve for the full day, which may include both a morning and afternoon event or a single full-day assignment. Teams that do not fulfill this requirement will incur a five-point penalty added to their total team score for each volunteer that they do not have confirmed and signed-up via the volunteer form three weeks prior to the tournament.
You can monitor your team's progress towards our volunteer requirement on our public dashboard here.
All Helicopter participants must properly wear Category A or B eye protection at all times (reference the Eye Protection Policy found on www.soinc.org). Teams without proper eye protection will be immediately informed and given a chance to obtain eye protection. Participants not wearing proper eye protection will not be allowed to compete and receive a score of "participation".
In brief: no. Students will be competing alongside students from the other region(s). Events will be overseen by the same Event Supervisors and volunteers. All students will be taking the same exams, completing build events with the same parameters (e.g. target distance), and performing the same hands-on laboratory tasks. However, during the scoring process, results from the regions will be separated and students will only be scored against other teams from their own region. Each region will announce and award their own complete set of results, medals, trophies, and state tournament bids.
Based on the results of their best team, schools from each region and each division will qualify to advance. The state program will inform us of the number of bids in each region and division by January.
No. Your state registration fee includes the cost of registering for our regional tournament. We do not anticipate any additional fees for participating teams.
Yes. Your team must first register with the state program. We may also be asking teams to register with our tournament in Scilympiad.
Alternates may assist with impound, observe public events and participate as competitors in trial events.
If a member of your competition team is unable to compete for any reason, you have the option of replacing them with another student (e.g. an alternate) listed on your approved roster(s). You must notify Tournament Headquarters of this decision as soon as possible so that we can maintain an accurate roster for your team. Making a substitution is equivalent to submitting a revised roster. As all of the same rules apply to your revised roster as your original roster, it is important to note the following:
The student you are replacing on the roster cannot have already competed in an event, as this would result in your team competing with 16 students over the course of the day.
The revised roster must still abide by all team composition rules. For example, if you are a Division C team and you already have seven 12th grade students, you cannot substitute an additional 12th grade student in place of a ninth grade student, as this would result in eight total 12th grade students on the roster.
The Rules and Code of Ethics of the Science Olympiad declares: “One or more of a 15-member team must have constructed all pre-built devices presented for judging.” We will use your revised roster to determine whether your devices meet this requirement. If your team intended to compete with a device, but you remove or replace the only student on your roster who can claim responsibility for constructing that device, you can no longer use it in competition.
Any late requests to change a self-schedule slot after this end time should be made directly to the event supervisor on the morning of the tournament. While we encourage event supervisors to accommodate these requests where possible, they retain ultimate authority to approve or deny changes requested after the close of self-schedule.
This decision is at the discretion of the event supervisor. While we encourage our event supervisors to allow late arrivals to participate to the fullest extent possible, we defer to their judgment. The integrity and fairness of competition is paramount.
Students should plan to arrive and be ready to compete at the start of their selected time slot. Students should not arrive near the end of the designated time slot and expect to be given the opportunity to compete.
This decision is at the discretion of the event supervisor, and should be based upon their best judgment as to whether the offending students were attempting to gain an unfair advantage. We strongly recommend that students do not have phones, smart watches or other electronic devices on their person while competing unless such devices are explicitly permitted by that event’s rules.
At least one student from the 15-member competition team must be present to impound a device. They can be assisted by other team members, alternates, parents, coaches, etc.
Students will be permitted to practice in the Helicopter venue during the impound hour; no practice opportunities will be available later in the day, aside from trim flights declared during students’ official competition time. Coaches, parents and other spectators will not be permitted in the Helicopter venue during competition or during the morning practice period; they will only be permitted to observe.
Student's concrete pucks will be dropped onto a steel plate.