Montreal Science Olympics

Science can be so much fun. One of the best showcases of this are the Science Olympics. When I taught in Alberta, everybody knew what the Science Olympics were. They are a big thing there. They have big sponsors like APEGGA, and there is one almost in every little town: Check out the Science Olympics Schedule for 2008 in Alberta here.

In Montreal however, nobody ever heard of the Olympics in the few schools I have taught at. I decided to see for myself if there was a Montreal-wide Science Olympics, and to this day I couldn't find one. There are some in Ontario, where Montreal students can participate, but none for Montreal. Such a big city, and no Science Olympics?! (It is possible that I am terrible at searching for such things, and that actually there exists something to that effect in Montreal. So if you're reading this post and know of the Montreal Wide Science Olympics, please let me know. Another possibility is that they exist in French, but I think I would still have found them somehow.)

Anyway, Science Olympics are different from a Science Fair in that the Olympics are "fun science" and the Science Fair is more "serious science". I really like both of the events, but Science Olympics definitely brings in the fun aspect of science. Usually, there are events for all levels of students: Elementary, Junior and Senior High students.

Just like for the Science Fair, there is a part of the Olympics that needs to be prepared at home / school prior to the event, but this assignment is given to the students a week in advance (not like in the Science Fair, where students have as much time as they need, and do it last minute anyway). The science olympics consists of two types of events:
- work-at-home events, which are made in advance and brought to the science olympics for on-site
testing and judging or practiced in advance and performed the day of the science olympics
- mystery events, which are solved the day of the science olympics with no pre-planning.

The work-at-home events are more "challenges" rather than scientific investigations. For example, some cool ones that I found, while searching through some Science Olympics sites were:
- To train your favorite rodent to go through a maze;
- To build a working model of a solar house that will passively collect heat from the sun;
- To construct a rocket that will carry an egg to greatest possible altitude and land without breaking the egg.

That's fun in itself, but the funnest part of all is when you get there, and you are asked to do the silliest things, and compete with other teams from other schools. For example:
- Build the tallest tower from a set amount of straws;
- Make the biggest bubble;
- Make a barge out of aluminum foil to hold the most pennies;
- To use any or all items in the box of junk provided to create a variety of musical instruments.
- Solve chemistry problems in a relay race.
- To hit a target with a laser beam, after deciding on certain calculations.
- To gather and analyze samples of biological material from a crime scene.

I have made it my goal to have a Science Olympics day at my school this year. I have to decide how to do it with a whole school. So many students, and not all are passionate about science. The details still need to be ironed out, but how can I go through a year of science teaching and not include this vital part: FUN?!