Georgia Science Olympiad: Home Schoolers

Georgia Science Olympiad: Home Schoolers

Beginning with the 2000/2001 school year, the GSO began extending an invitation to the home school community. While this is new to Georgia, many states already have such a program and home school teams have even been state champions and competed at the national tournament.

Science Olympiad is a team activity, not an individual one, so a child must be a member of a team. A team consists of up to 15 children. At this time participation is only extended for Division B (grades 6-9) and Division C (grades 9-12).

Since there is no official method to determine what grade a home school child is in, we have established that a child's equivalent grade will be determined by their birth date. Hence, a child who will be eleven years old on September 1 will be considered to be a sixth grader and so forth and so on. This calendar age will be used to determine eligibility for Division B or Division C. A child may compete with a higher division team than their age indicates but not a lower one. For example, a tenth grader can only compete in Division C while a fifth grader could compete in Division B (or even C).

If a child has an academic relationship (such as taking a course) with a public or private school, they can only compete on that school's team. They may not be a member of a home school team even if that school has no team. An exception would be providing a letter from that school's principal that they could not compete on that school's team whether or not there is a team.

It is presumed that a home school team will be composed of children who have a pre-existing relationship of working together on a regular basis. We will require a statement from the coach as to the nature of that relationship. An "all star" team assembled by student abilities rather than by their pre-existing regular study relationship would not be allowed. Since this is a new aspect of the Georgia Science Olympiad, we may establish additional criteria as the home school activity materializes and unforseen problems become known. Our desire is to provide this opportunity to as many children as possible while, at the same time, keeping the playing field level.

For additional information please contact Pam Greene, an enthusiastic home school coach, at pamjgreene@yahoo.com or Milton Stombler at: 404-463-9620 or email mstombler@gsu.edu