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Academic Olympiads Information
(Revised May 2006)
OVERALL DESCRIPTION
The five Academic Olympiads are the more challenging
events and makes the Varsity Academic Games a little
more challenging than the JV Academic Games and many
students and coaches enjoy these challenges the
most.
Starting in 2007 one of the olympiads will be a
Geography Challenge with the top scorers going on
into a final Geography Bee.
The participating schools take turns designing these
five "well designed academic team challenges" of
approximately 35-45 minutes in length covering
Language Arts, Science, Logic, History, Current
Events, etc.
These events are usually held in a large
multipurpose room or auditorium where separate
tables are set up for each team.
Schools conducting the academic olympiads need to
let the host school know if any special equipment is
needed at least one month prior to the games, and
the time required for their event (35-60 min.).
Following the tournament, during the coaches
meeting, schools volunteer for the next year's
academic olympiad events. Schools need to be
reminded by the host school in early January, at the
latest, about their obligations.
Teams do NOT prepare in advance for the olympiads
and do NOT receive any information about any
olympiad prior to the actual olympiad.
GUIDELINES: DESIGNING AN OLYMPIAD EVENT
The tournament is an 'academic event' so an olympiad
needs to be 'academic' in nature, but hopefully an
enjoyable one.
Where possible the olympiad should be an event where
teams have to use 'higher level thinking skills' to
be successful.
The olympiad should not be one that is 'commonly
done' in schools that many students will have
experienced before in regular classes.
An olympiad could require an individual from one
team to compete against other individuals from other
teams, but most olympiads require teamwork, group
planning and cooperation to solve the challenge.
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