The PenguinSO Satellite tournament will run Preliminary Competition on February 8th and the Finals Competition from February 9th to 16th. You have the option to choose either of these tournament experiences (not both).

Events

All official National Science Olympiad events, including build events, will be conducted. Additionally, PenguinSO is pleased to announce that select trial events will also be held. 

The complete event slate and modifications document can be found here.

Format

The tournament will be conducted on Scilympiad (our page can be found here). 

The Preliminary day competition will be conducted via Zoom and Scilympiad. The Finals Tournament will follow the traditional Satellite SO format on Scilympiad. For both experiences, students must compete at their schools under the supervision of their coaches and/or live proctors.

For the Preliminary competition, teams are required to participate in their events within designated time blocks, with a live proctor and their camera and microphone on. The Finals Tournament is asynchronous, allowing teams to participate in any event within any 50-minute interval during the competition period (February 9-16, 2024). Teams from the same school are encouraged to take tests simultaneously to ensure academic integrity.

Policies

All teams are expected to follow the official Science Olympiad rules, including the following:

• Each Division B team can have a maximum of five 9th graders.

• Teams are allowed to have as many alternatives as desired, but they may only compete in the trial events.

• Participants, coaches, and others must ensure all Science Olympiad policies and guidelines are met, and that they should not be broken.

PenguinSO Policies:

To ensure a fair invitational, PenguinSO has policies to ensure this invitational is as educational and enjoyable as possible for all our competitors. While our specific guidelines can be found here,  general policies include: 

• All note sheets must be printed out and must be 8.5 x 11-inch piece(s) of paper. 

• Binders must be printed out beforehand, and pages are allowed to be taken out of the binder during the competition. 

• Participants are permitted to use various communication methods, including video calls, voice chats, and the built-in Scilympiad chat. Additionally, partners may communicate in person with their team members while participating in events. If you are in the preliminary day competition participants must use Zoom with both partners in frame with Camera and Microphone on.

• Participants who do not show up will receive [N + 1] points. Disqualifications due to cheating will result in [N + 2] points.

• Events will follow national rules, as indicated in the official National Science Olympiad rules manual and our event modifications.

• Final team scores will not be influenced by the placements of trial events. 

• Participants may use only the built-in chat box as communication to communicate with their partners and will be required to take the test at school, with a coach proctoring.

• For these events, as well as those that do not require any external resources, event supervisors will monitor "time out of browser." Disqualifications will be at the discretion of the event supervisors, based on the time spent out of the browser and the questions answered. In the case of an unexpected event or mishap, we expect coaches to contact us with a proper reason as soon as possible.

• All video submissions and practice logs will be securely disposed of two weeks (14 days) after the competition. No build videos will be retained.

Awards

Each participant is planned to receive a PenguinSO sticker. The top 1 team and events at the Preliminary competition day will be awarded custom, laser-engraved aluminum medals. Additionally, the top 6 teams and events at the Finals competition week will receive custom, laser-engraved aluminum medals. It is possible for teams to receive double medals for the same event.

Updates

To ensure transparent communication with all coaches and competitors, we will publicly share all email updates to coaches in the "Email Updates" document linked below.