Anatomy:  Teams will be tested on their knowledge of anatomy and health concepts including skeletal and muscular systems.

Compute This:  Teams will be presented with a problem which requires quantitative data capture from the Internet and the presentation of data in a graphical format.

Crime Busters:  Teams will identify the perpetrators of a crime or crimes by using paper chromatography and analysis of unknown solids, liquids, and plastics found at the scene of a crime.

Disease Detective:  This event requires students to apply principles of epidemiology to a published report of a real-life health situation or problem.

Dynamic Planet:  Teams will work at stations that display a variety of earth science materials and related earth science questions. (earthquakes/volcanoes).

Experimental Design: Given a set of unknown objects, teams will design, conduct, analyze and write-up an experiment.

Food Science:  Students will answer questions and perform developmentally appropriate experiments pertaining to food chemistry.

Forestry:  Students learn identification and detailed knowledge of trees.

Keep the Heat:  Based on the knowledge of thermodynamics, students build a device to "keep the heat" from escaping a beaker of water.  Students may also be given a written test.

Meteorology:  This event involves the use of process skills as applied to meteorology (everyday weather).

Microbe Mission:  Teams will answer questions, solve problems and analyze data pertaining to microbes.

*Mission Possible:  Prior to the competition, participants will design, build, test and document a "Rube Goldberg-like device" that completes a required Final Task using a sequence of consecutive tasks.

*Mousetrap Vehicle:  Teams will design, build and test a vehicle that uses one or two snap mousetraps as the sole propulsion energy source to travel a distance and return to the starting line center as quickly as possible.

Optics:  Teams compete in activities and answer questions related to geometric and physical optics.

Reach for theStars:  Going where no man has gone before students learn about stars and deep space objects.

Road Scholar:  Requires the accurate interpretation and understanding of various map features using a variety of road and topographic maps.

Rocks & Minerals:  Teams will demonstrate their knowledge of rocks and minerals.

*Storm the Castle:  Prior to the tournament, teams design, construct and calibrate a device that uses only the energy of a falling counterweight to launch a projectile as far and as accurately as possible. 

Practice Schedule:

Tues 9/20 & 9/27  5 - 6pm

Sat 10/1  2 - 3pm

Sat Oct 8, 15, 22, & 29  1 - 3pm

Fri Nov/Dec/Jan  6-8pm

*Towers:  Team members design and build the most efficient tower.

Water Quality:  Water quality includes the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of water. In countries around the world, especially in the U.S. under the direction of the EPA, standards are set to determine which water is potable.   Important components of the event in the past included identifying aquatic invertebrates and understanding the indicators of water quality.  

Write It/ Do It:  A technical writing exercise where students write a description of a contraption and other students will attempt to recreate it using only the written description.