About

About

Bird Science Olympiad (also called BirdSO) was founded in December 2020 by a group of enthusiastic and experienced Science Olympiad competitors and alumni with the mission of providing Science Olympiad students with a high-quality competition experience during a mostly virtual season. During its inaugural season, BirdSO hosted an online Mini tournament for both Divisions B and C, which saw 62 and 121 teams, respectively, from across the United States. During its second season, BirdSO hosted two invitationals: a virtual Mini tournament in December 2021 and an in-person, at-your-school Satellite tournament in February 2022.

This season, BirdSO is hosting its familiar at-your-school Satellite tournament in February 2024, as well as one In-Person tournaments combining Division B and C at USC on January 13th, 2024.

Mission

Bird Science Olympiad strives to deliver a competition experience that is enjoyable in all aspects. Here’s what you can look forward to as a coach or competitor.

• A stress-free competition experience. Our team of experienced student and alumni volunteers handles all aspects of each tournament, from event planning to test writing, freeing up coaches to focus on coaching their students. Our tournaments also span several days, offering your teams the flexibility of finding a time to compete that works best.
• High quality tests. Our Event Supervisors are selected from a pool of the nation's most experienced competitors and alumni. Along with our Event Supervisors working their hardest to write tests that are both challenging and enjoyable, these tests are then carefully reviewed by our organizers to ensure that each is of high quality and adheres to event rules.
• Career-focused initiatives. Computational skills and tools developed in computer science are becoming increasingly important for success in every STEM field, and through our Computer Science Initiative, we uniquely feature an extended slate of events to help students hone their abilities in fields such as software engineering, machine learning, and cybersecurity.
• Equal attention given to all parts of the competition. From event modifications and test evaluation to communications with teams and awards ceremonies, we give the same level of attention to all aspects of our tournament to ensure a competition experience that is uniformly enjoyable.

Tournament Directors

Disclosures

Finances for Bird Science Olympiad are handled by Southern California Science Olympiad, a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit with the state of California. All profits from BirdSO tournaments during the 2022 season will be used to fund the 2022 National Tournament hosted by Caltech in partnership with Southern California Science Olympiad and Science Olympiad, Inc.