Predicting Success in Selected Events of the Science Olympiad

Two studies were performed using students who competed at regional and national levels in the Science Olympiad. The Olympiad is a day-long, multi-event competition in which teams of junior high and senior high science students cooperate in the application of science process skills and reasoning to score points by solving problems or answering questions. High school participants in the first study took the Test of Integrated Process Skills (TIPS) prior to the Olympiad. In the second study, junior high students were given the Group Assessment of Logical Thinking (GALT) test before competing in three selected Olympiad events. Results indicate that both the TIPS and the GALT tests correlate significantly with student success “on the playing field” of science. Knowing students' initial process skills and logical reasoning abilities is useful for planning effective science programs, but is probably not a good way to select the best students for competition in the Science Olympiad.