Science Olympics

From Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium

Science Olympics, like the Olympic Games they were inspired by, are a series of friendly competitions organized in tournament style, just that the strengths tested are cognitive rather than physical. Such competitions exist in a variety of disciplines ranging from Biology, Chemistry and Physics to Earth sciences, Mathematics, Informatics and Linguistics. They are usually organized for secondary school students who are given a number of challenges to solve in a limited amount of time. The top scorers of the competition at school level go on to compete at a regional level and so forth until an international tournament in that discipline, then often referred to as an 'olympiad', though that term, in Ancient Greek, originally referred to the period (of usually four years) between two consecutive Olympic Games.