The South Carolina Science Olympiad Competition, often abbreviated as SCSO, is an annual

Science Olympiad Science Olympiad is an American team competition in which students compete in 23 events pertaining to various fields of science, including earth science, biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering. Over 7,800 middle school and high school team ...

competition comprising

middle school A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school. ...

and

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

teams across

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

. The competition was first held in the C Division (grades 9–12) in 1985, with the inaugural state champions being

Irmo High School Irmo High School is a public high school in Columbia, South Carolina, United States. Irmo High School falls under the administrative jurisdiction of District 5 of Lexington and Richland Counties. It is an International Baccalaureate school. At ...

from Irmo. Bell Street Middle School from Clinton won the first B Division (grades 6–9) state championship a year later. The winners of the tournament represent South Carolina at the Science Olympiad National Tournament, held in May at various universities across the nation. The current state champions are Clinton Middle School and Clinton High School, who won their 22nd and 13th state championships, respectively, on March 2, 2024. Dr. Jennifer Albert assumed the position of State Director for the 2019 season; she replaced Dr. Bret Clark.

History

The competition has been held every year since 1985 for Division C and since 1986 for Division B, with the exception of 2020, when the competition was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Indicates team won the national tournament.

Statistics

State Championships by School

BOLD denotes a national championship.

Results

*Score is calculated by giving 1 point for a first-place finish, 2 points for a second-place finish, etc. *In final events standings, (D) denotes defending champions.

2024 Competition

2023 Competition

The 2023 competition featured an amended slate of middle school events due to a lack of registered teams. The high school competition included the regular number of events. Both Division B and Division C competitions took place on April 1, 2023.

2022 Competition

Like the 2021 competition, the 2022 competition did not include regional competitions due to lingering uncertainties regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. The state competition marked a return to an in-person format and included the standard slate of 23 events. While the middle school tournament was initially scheduled for an earlier date, a lack of registered teams resulted in both the competitions for Division B and Division C taking place on April 2, 2022.

2021 Competition

The 2021 competition did not include regional competitions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The state competition was the first to be held virtually, and only included a selection of 12, test-only events. Many hands-on portions of some events were also cut. A trial competition was held on January 23, 2021, to test the virtual format, though only four events were run, and the results had no bearing on the actual competition. The state competition for Division C took place on March 20, 2021, and the competition for Division B took place a week later on March 27, 2021.

2019 Competition

The 2019 competition was the first to feature regional competitions; teams were able to compete in whichever regional they prefer but were only allowed to compete in one. Regional competitions were held on February 23, 2019, at

Newberry College Newberry College is a private Lutheran college in Newberry, South Carolina. It has 1,250 students. Accreditation Newberry College is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) to award bac ...

and March 2, 2019, at

The Citadel The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, commonly known simply as The Citadel, is a Public college, public United States senior military college, senior military college in Charleston, South Carolina. Established in 1842, it is one ...

. The state competition was held on March 16, 2019, at The Citadel.

2018 Competition

2017 Competition

2016 Competition

2015 Competition

Both winners represented South Carolina at the 2015 Science Olympiad National Tournament, held at the

University of Nebraska–Lincoln The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Nebraska, NU, or UNL) is a public land-grant research university in Lincoln, Nebraska. Chartered in 1869 by the Nebraska Legislature as part of the Morrill Act of 1862, the school was known as the Universit ...

. Competition took place on May 15–16, 2015.

2014 Competition

References

{{Reflist Science competitions Education in South Carolina Science events in the United States Science and technology in South Carolina Annual events in South Carolina 1985 establishments in South Carolina Recurring events established in 1985