Division  

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

South Carolina Science Olympiad is excited to host a Division C state tournament for the 42nd time since 1986! The Division C (“high school division”) competition is open to teams of fifteen students ranging from ninth to twelfth grade, with no more than seven seniors (12th graders) 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 C rules manual is available to download here.

2027 Science Olympiad Division C 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 B 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.

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

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

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

Earth and Space Science

  • Astronomy - Teams will demonstrate an understanding of stellar evolution in normal and starburst galaxies.

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

  • Remote Sensing* - Participants will use remote sensing imagery, data, and computational process skills to complete tasks related to climate change processes in the Earth system.

  • 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.

Physical Science and Chemistry

  • Chemistry Lab - Teams will complete one or more tasks and answer a series of questions involving the science processes of chemistry focused in the areas of kinetics and gases.

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

  • Forensics - Given a scenario and some possible suspects, students will perform a series of tests. These tests, along with other evidence or test results, will be used to solve a crime.

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

  • Protein Modeling - Participants will be assessed on a written exam, and, prior to the competition, will use computer visualization and online resources to construct a physical model of the sialic acid binding site of the 2009 H1N1 influenza hemagglutinin protein.

  • 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.

  • Electric Vehicle - Teams design, build, and test one vehicle that uses electrical energy as its sole means of propulsion to travel in a set amount of time and stop close to a target point.

  • Mission Possible - Prior to the competition, competitors will design, build, test, and document a Rube Goldberg-like device that begins with a specific starting action and ends with a specific final action, along with an optional series of specific actions between the start and final actions.

  • Wright Stuff - Prior to the tournament, teams will construct, analyze, and optimize a free flight rubber-powered airplane, including collecting data on test flights, to achieve maximum time aloft.

Inquiry and Nature of Science

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

  • Engineering CAD - Teams will read a set of engineering drawings and collaborate to CAD parts in Onshape and then incorporate these parts with provided components to create an assembly.

  • Experimental Design* - Participants will be assessed on their 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.