New Jersey Science Olympiad Policies

Allergen-Free Facilities
New Jersey Science Olympiad attempts to maintain an environment free of common allergens to ensure the good health of all participants, coaches and volunteers. To accomplish this, teams are required to not use any common allergens when constructing their devices, event supervisors will avoid common allergens when designing lab activities and all attendees are asked to be cognizant about food items which they bring to the tournament.

Appeals Procedure
All appeals must be submitted no later than 45 minutes after the conclusion of an event. Coaches must consult with the Event Official before submitting an appeal form for arbitration. No appeal will be honored without the Event Official’s signature. Appeals may only be filed regarding a team's on participation in an event. A team may not appeal a ruling regarding another team.

Award Ceremonies
Teams that win awards but are unable to stay for the Awards Assembly must make arrangements with the tournament Directors to pick up their awards or have a school representative collect them at the assembly.

Code of Ethics and Spirit of the Competition
The goal of Science Olympiad is to give one's best effort while displaying honesty, integrity and sportsmanship. Students, coaches, supervisors, parents and guests are expect to display courtesy and respect toward Science Olympiad officials, other teams and guests of Science Olympiad. Failure to show honesty and/or courtesy by a participant, coach or guest of the team may result in the disqualification of the team from the event, the entire tournament or future tournaments. Our collective example will promote the spirit of the cooperation among all participants. - https://www.soinc.org/ethics_rules

Constructed Devices
This policy applies to events that require a device to be constructed and brought to the Science Olympiad. The student primarily responsible for the design and construction of the device (lead student) must be present and operate the device when it is operated for scoring. The event supervisor(s) may extensively question the lead student as to the design and construction of the device. Questioning may include the overall design and construction as well as the component parts, how they operate and function in the device. Other students on the team may also be questioned. If the students cannot answer the questions correctly, then the event supervisor(s) has grounds to believe that the students did not design and/or construct the device. The team will be disqualified from the event and scored accordingly. New Jersey Science Olympiad will follow the National Science Olympiad policy as documented at https://www.soinc.org/building_tools_policy

Event Rules
Event rules for ALL Science Olympiad events printed in the current year's Official Rules Manuals supersede any and all materials found at the "Science Olympiad Student Center Wiki" or anywhere else online. The "Science Olympiad Student Center Wiki" is not maintained by National Science Olympiad. National Science Olympiad does not publish any event rules online or any location other than the Official Rules Manuals and Official Rules Apps.

Eye Protection
New Jersey Science Olympiad will follow the National Science Olympiad policy as documented at https://www.soinc.org/eye_protection

Home-Schooled Students

Option 1 - Participation through a Local Public School If the state in which a home schooled student resides allows home schools students to participate in public school activities, home schooled students may either (1) choose to participate as a member of the Science Olympiad team at the local public school they would attend were they not home schooled, or (2) form a home school team as set forth in Option #2, below.

Option 2 - Participation through a Home School Team Science Olympiad will recognize Home School Teams consisting only of students who live within the boundaries of two contiguous (side-by-side) geographic counties in a single state. Science Olympiad will permit existing multi-county and multi-state Home School Teams to participate in Science Olympiad events for a period of three years from the date this policy is adopted. As of July 20, 2011, the two-contiguous-county/single state policy will apply to all Science Olympiad Home School Teams who wish to attend to the 2012 Science Olympiad National Tournament and Science Olympiad will no longer qualify multi-county or multi-state Home School Teams.

Internet Access in Events
Internet access will not be provided or permitted in any event, unless the event rules specifically require it.

Lasers
New Jersey Science Olympiad follows the National Science Olympiad policy on lasers as documents at https://www.soinc.org/lasers

Number of Team Alternates Permitted to Compete in Trial Events
There is no specific number of alternates that coaches may include on a team. Teams may have as many alternates as are needed to be compete in trial events as well as additional alternates to substitute for any regular team members if any of them should become ill on the day of the competition.

Division B alternates may be 9th grade students in addition to the five 9th grade students already allowed on the regular team.
Division C alternates may be 12th grade students in addition to the seven 12th gradealready allowed on the regular team.

Percentage of Teams Advancing to the State Finals
The capacity of the State Finals tournament is 27 teams in each division due to facility limits. Roughly the same percentage of schools advance from each regional. We reserve the right to change the number of schools which advance from year to year.

Scoring Procedures - New Jersey Science Olympiad Scoring Procedures
All scores are tentative until 5 days following a tournament. If errors are identified and verified, they will be corrected. If correcting the errors results in place changes, the correction(s) will stand. We have made every effort possible to prevent errors, but they still can occur. Overall tournament results will be posted 5 days after a tournament.

Significant Figures Policy
New Jersey Science Olympiad will observe the National Science Olympiad policy on significant figures as defined at https://www.soinc.org/sites/default/files/uploaded_files/SO%20SIGNIFICANT%20FIGURES%20FINAL12-5-12.pdf

Small Schools
Small Schools (defined as schools with total enrollment under 300 students) may elect to combine with another small school to form a team as defined by National Science Olympiad. https://www.soinc.org/small-schools

Smart Phones & Smart Watches
All smart phones and smart watches must be stored and not used during any event unless specifically allowed for that event. Phones and smart watches may not be used as calculators in events. Smart watches may not be worn during events.

Spectator Events
When events are open to spectators, all spectators must be respectful to participants and event supervisors. Spectators should keep the volume of their conversations low. Spectators may not point out potential rules violations to the event supervisors. It is the job of the event supervisor to run the event and not the job of spectators. Spectators are welcome to ask event supervisors questions about the event, however, running an event takes a great deal of attention so the event supervisor may not have time to answer your questions.

Students with Disabilities
New Jersey Science Olympiad will make every attempt to accommodate the needs of students with disabilities as defined in the National Science Olympiad guidelines documented at https://www.soinc.org/sites/default/files/uploaded_files/StudentsWithDisabilitiesGuidelines2016.pdf

Team Qualification
Team Qualification policies are defined by National Science Olympiad and can be found at https://www.soinc.org/home_virtual_schools

Tournament Schedules and Team Numbers
There is a separate tournament schedule for each regional. The schedules in the back of the Division B and Division C Rules Manuals are only for the National tournament. Numbers in the blocks on the schedule for each tournament correspond to the team number assigned. Teams that advance to the State Finals tournament will be assigned a new team number after responding to an invitation to compete at States.

Use of Photography Policy
New Jersey Science Olympiad reserves the right to take photographs of participants and activities at New Jersey Science Olympiad events, retain the rights to those photos exclusively, and to use those photos for any purpose, including posting to Internet and Social Media sites, including, but not limited to, Facebook and Twitter. All participants agree to this policy automatically by registering for and/or attending a New Jersey Science Olympiad event.