Division  

The SCSO Division B State Tournament will be held February 27, 2027, at Presbyterian College!

South Carolina Science Olympiad is excited to host a Division B state tournament for the 41st time since 1986! The Division B (“middle school division”) competition is open to teams of fifteen students ranging from sixth to ninth grade, with no more than five 9th grade students on each team. The national Science Olympiad event slate for the 2026-27 season is listed below. Short descriptions for each event are listed below, and the full Division B rules manual is available to download here.

2027 Science Olympiad Division B Event Slate

Learning and competition resources for each event can be seen at the webpage linked here, which updates as the season progresses. Events marked with an asterisk (*) are also a part of the Division C event slate. Events highlighted in sky blue are new to this division for the 2027 season.

Life, Personal and Social Science

  • Anatomy and Physiology* - Participants will be assessed on their understanding of the anatomy and physiology for the respiratory, digestive, and immune systems of the human body.

  • Botany* - Participants will demonstrate their knowledge of plant life and general botany principles.

  • Disease Detectives* - Participants will use their investigative skills in the scientific study of disease, injury, health, and disability in populations or groups of people.

  • Heredity - Teams will answer questions, solve problems, and analyze data pertaining to classic and molecular genetics.

  • Water Quality* - Participants will be assessed on their understanding and evaluation of marine and estuary aquatic environments.

Earth and Space Science

  • Dynamic Planet* - Teams will complete tasks related to the properties and processes of Earth’s fresh waters.

  • Meteorology - Participants will use scientific process skills involving qualitative and quantitative analyses to demonstrate an understanding of the characteristics of severe weather, including the factors that contribute to, cause, and influence severe weather and storms on Earth. The interpretation of meteorological data, graphs, maps, charts, tables, and images will be emphasized.

  • Remote Sensing* - Participants will demonstrate an understanding of the basic principles of remote sensing and interpret imagery, data, and maps related to Earth observation.

  • 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.

  • Solar System - Participants will demonstrate their knowledge of habitability within and beyond the Solar System.

Physical Science and Chemistry

  • Circuit Lab* - Participants must complete hands-on tasks and answer questions about electricity and electronics.

  • Crime Busters - Given a scenario, a collection of evidence, and possible suspects, students will perform a series of tests. Test results, along with other evidence, will be used to solve a crime and answer questions.

  • Food Science - Teams will study the science behind milk products and experiment with ingredients and other variables to produce and analyze results to produce the best dairy products.

  • Hovercraft* - Prior to the competition, participants will design, construct, and calibrate a self-propelled, air-levitated vehicle to carry nickels down a track.

  • Thermodynamics* - Teams will construct a device prior to the tournament designed to collect heat, and they will complete a written test on thermodynamic concepts.

Technology and Engineering Design

  • Boomilever* - Teams will build a cantilevered beam or truss structure that extends from a vertical testing wall and supports a load at a specified height and distance from the testing wall. The structure must meet requirements specified in the rules to achieve the highest score, which is a combination of structural efficiency and a load bonus.

  • Elastic Launch Glider - Prior to the tournament, teams will construct, analyze, and optimize free flight elastic launched gliders, including collecting data on test flights, to achieve maximum time aloft.

  • Roller Coaster - Prior to the competition, teams design, build, and test a roller coaster track to guide a ball/sphere that uses gravitational potential energy as its means of propulsion to travel as close as possible to a target time.

  • Scrambler - Teams design, build, and test a mechanical device which uses the energy from a falling mass to transport an egg along a track as quickly as possible and stop as close to the center of a terminal barrier as possible without breaking the egg.

Inquiry and Nature of Science

  • Codebusters* - Teams will cryptanalyze and decode encrypted messages using cryptanalysis techniques for historical and modern advanced ciphers.

  • Experimental Design* - Participants will be assessed on the ability to design, conduct, and report the findings of an experiment entirely on-site.

  • Ping Pong Parachute* - Prior to the tournament, teams will design and build up to two bottle rockets, which will be brought to the tournament. The bottle rocket(s) will be used to launch a ping pong ball attached to a parachute, and teams will aim to keep the ping pong ball aloft for the greatest amount of time.

  • Write It Do It - One participant will write a description of an object and how to build it. The other participant will attempt to construct the object from this description.