<aside> <img src="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/6f45c3d8-c18c-4e97-aef1-8308d48e5cbe/svlogo.jpeg" alt="https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/6f45c3d8-c18c-4e97-aef1-8308d48e5cbe/svlogo.jpeg" width="40px" /> Want to learn live? Enroll in ScioCamp.
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<aside> 🛰️ Courses were taught from ScioVirtual Astronomy lead faculty, including:
<aside> 👨🏼‍🚀 Amir Akbar, Astronomy gold medalist at Science Olympiad nationals and senior at Mason High School. Amir is an experienced and popular teacher at ScioVirtual, teaching both Solar System and Dynamic Planet. “Amir is cracked” says one of his Solar System students.
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<aside> 👨🏻‍🚀 Vy Le, former captain of Cumberland Science Olympiad and current Chemical Engineering student at Penn State. Vy has played an important role at ScioVirtual, serving as one of the first course managers and camp coordinators in addition to teaching Solar System and Astronomy.
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<aside> 🌚 Shreyash Singh, a national medalist from WW-P North (including third place in Meteorology) and camper at US Earth Science Olympiad, Shreyash has taught multiple courses in astronomy and meteorology at ScioVirtual.
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Hello there! If you’re here on this document, you’re probably looking for ways to prepare for Solar System for Science Olympiad, and fortunately you’re in luck! This event is a pretty niche topic, but as we begin to launch the James Webb Space Telescope, it becomes more important that we look for exoplanets and understand how they’re related to our own Solar System!
One of the bigger challenges with this event is the lack of close-up investigations that we can do with astronomical bodies besides Earth. Sure, there’s rovers and satellites that take photos, but we are still left with making theories as to what exactly goes on in these bodies. Thus, your answers will usually be based on well-supported evidence that you should know and understand.
As with many of the other events in Science Olympiad, these are not just facts to know. The statistics and fun facts about planets are going to be things to put on notes, but this event really calls for you to connect how planet formations/structures are not all that different from each other. The ultimate goal, here, is to develop a baseline understanding where you can use what you understand about the formation of our Sun and Solar System and apply it to systems beyond that (hence the topic of exoplanets).
If you’re a middle schooler, I’m fairly certain that you have some familiarity with the internet and the variety of websites that are available. This vast amount of information available to us is very useful for Science Olympiad, because it allows us to research specific topics easily, without the need to purchase a textbook. For Solar System, you can expect a large majority of your study time to be spent scouring the internet and taking notes. Of course, textbooks are always an option to supplement your learning, however I’d suggest against using textbooks for the Solar System event, as most textbooks go far beyond the scope of the event.
Of course, with the expanse of the internet available to us, it’s important to make sure the websites used are accurate and of high quality. It’s important to be able to understand the content and be sure that the content is actually true.
Whenever you are considering the quality of a website as a resource, ask yourself the following questions:
If you answer “yes” to all three questions, then you’re all set! If not, then you may want to reassess whether the website is worth using or not.
With a topic as broad as Solar System, there are many aspects of space that don’t appear in the event. This year’s topic focuses on planet formation and exoplanets, so an article about galaxy formation probably won’t be super helpful. Many websites go beyond the middle school level as well, so it’s important to make sure that the content isn’t too advanced for a middle school level competition.
Lastly, it’s always important to ensure that the information on the website is actually true. Content from well-known organizations and telescopes such as NASA and Chandra is most likely to be accurate, whereas information from a random website with no sources might be questionable. Also, Wikipedia can be very helpful, but only use it once you’ve exhausted more credible sources. Additionally, cross check information from Wikipedia with other sources to ensure its accuracy.
Here are some good resources to get you started:
Introduction to Solar System - #1
Introduction to Solar System - #2
Introduction to Solar System - #3
Introduction to Solar System - #4
Introduction to Solar System - #6
Introduction to Solar System - #7
Introduction to Solar System - #8
Introduction to Solar System - #9 The Finale
