PRESENTED BY:

Mark A. Van HeckeNational Science OlympiadEarth-Space Science Event Co-ChairEast China, Michiganmvanhecke@comcast.netwww.vanheckescience.com

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

1. Identifying Key Event Topics

2. How to write practice questions

3. How to use storyboards to design practice competitions

IDENTIFY KEY EVENT TOPICS

PREPARING PRACTICE QUESTIONS FOR SCIENCE OLYMPIAD EVENTS

IDENTIFYING KEY EVENT TOPICS

First, identify the Key Event topics found in ‘The Competition’ section of

the current year’s event rules.

This is the content or Key Event Topics

that you will need to organize for

creating training activities and practice

questions.

IDENTIFYING KEY EVENT TOPICS

Once you identify the Key Event Topics, you need to create a way to organize

the content information students will need to learn.

This can be done with binders that have a divider for each Key Event Topic. You

can also use file folders to organize content with a file for each of the Key Event

Topics

IDENTIFYING KEY EVENT TOPICS

You can also organize event content on the cloud using Live Binders

or with application software such as MS OneNote.

IDENTIFYING KEY EVENT TOPICS

You can find quality event content on the Internet using Resource Links

available online. My Resource Links are categorized by Key Event topics and

are annotated.

Earth/Space Science Resource Links

Dynamic Planet

Meteorology

Road Scholars

IDENTIFYING KEY EVENT TOPICS

A good rule of thumb is to look for content that meets the following

criteria:

• Is easy for you to understand and that you feel

comfortable teaching others about.

• Is age appropriate for the level of students you will be

working with. Middle school-aged students (Division B)

might need less difficult content than high school-aged

students (Division C)

• Comports with the current year’s Event Rules and Key

Event Topics that students will need to know

• Provides information that you can easily design training

activities and practice questions from

IDENTIFYING KEY EVENT TOPICS

Once you have built up a good bank of content for one or more of the Key

Event Topics you are coaching, you can now begin to design practice

questions for your students.

WRITING PRACTICE QUESTIONS

PREPARING PRACTICE QUESTIONS FOR SCIENCE OLYMPIAD EVENTS

WRITING PRACTICE QUESTIONS

What is it you want your students to learn about the content they are

gathering? How will you teach them what they need to know?

This is what you need to decide when you are ready to write practice

questions for Science Olympiad content events

OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES

In writing practice questions, you will want to use Bloom’s Taxonomy and action

verbs associated with each level. You can download a copy of my version of

Bloom’s Taxonomy for Scientific and Technical Content

OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES

There are six levels of ability in Bloom’s Taxonomy. If you read from left to write

the ability levels become more abstract and less concrete as shown in the arrow

above the table

OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES

Below each of the six ability levels are action verbs that you can use in writing

your own practice questions.

OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES

For example, if you are training students for the Meteorology Event and wanted

students to learn about different kinds of clouds, a knowledge level task might

be:

Name each cloud type shown in a sample

of images

OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES

Or another example might be:

Write a definition for the cloud shown in

each image

OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES

While knowledge level objectives are easy to write, all they really ask students

to do is to recall factual information. You will want your students to be able to

become proficient in the higher ability levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy if you want

them to be fully prepared for any task/question they might encounter in

competition

OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES

Let’s move form the Knowledge Level to the Analysis Level.

OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES

Here’s a sample task you might write requiring an analysis of information:

Categorize each cloud shown

in the sample as cumulus or

stratus

OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES

Here’s another Analysis Level objective:

Diagram the formation of a

cumulus cloud

OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES

In designing your practice questions, you do not have to follow Bloom’s

Taxonomy in any special order.

But you may need to build prior background knowledge at the lower ability

levels (Knowledge and Comprehension) prior to having students complete

tasks at more advanced levels.

USING STORYBOARDS

PREPARING PRACTICE QUESTIONS FOR SCIENCE OLYMPIAD EVENTS

USING STORYBOARDS

Storyboards are an excellent way to organize your practice questions.

A Storyboard (for

our purposes) is a

graphic organizer

consisting of slides

or panels that

outline a sequence

of questions used

in preparing a

Science Olympiad

competition.

USING STORYBOARDS

There are free downloadable storyboard/wireframe software

programs available such as Pencil. I especially like Pencil’s

drop and drag features and it is very easy to learn.

You can also use many different software applications such

as Illustrator, and MS Visio to storyboard…

USING STORYBOARDS

My hands-down favorite software for storyboarding is good old MS

PowerPoint

USING STORYBOARDS

Using PowerPoint’s Slide Sorter feature (View—Slide Sorter) you can view all of

your slides and use the drag function to change their configuration

USING STORYBOARDS

If you use the Section Feature found on the Home Tab on MS PowerPoint 2010

and beyond, you can create sections to organize your questions by Key Event

Topic.

Organizing your questions

by Key Event Topic will

allow you to monitor your

student’s ability to answer

questions related to each

of the Key Event Topic

areas.

You can also drag whole

sections in the Slide

Sorter to rearrange them

rather than move each

individual slide

USING STORYBOARDS

You can make storyboards as detailed as you would like them to be. Below is my

Event Planning Storyboard with its three main components

Title Frame Table of Contents Question Slide

USING STORYBOARDS

The Title Slide is just that. It identifies the event the storyboard is created for as

well as the year and Division.

If you are an Event

Supervisor, this is also a good

place to put your name and

contact information.

USING STORYBOARDS

The Table of Contents lists the Key Event Topics as Stations (Station Event) or

Sections (Workstation Event)

To facilitate use, you can add

links to each of the Stations

listed in the Table of Contents.

You can also add the number

of questions, point values and

other pertinent information you

might like to include.

USING STORYBOARDS

The Question Slide contains all pertinent information for that question

Add the text of the question

here

You can drop and drag each

of the answer bars anywhere

on the left side of the slide. I

like to color the text of the

correct answer red.

Under notes/instructions,

you can include any relevant

tips, background

information, etc.

USING STORYBOARDS

The Question Slide contains all pertinent information for that question

Include the visual/graphic you

will use in the question here

Include the source of the image

or graphic here.

Make as many copies as you need. Add sections to better organize your questions. You can then

remove the red font color and use as actual practice questions if you wish.

USING STORYBOARDS

And of course, you can download your own copy of the Science Olympiad Event

PowerPoint Template HERE.

Visit VanHeckescience.com for other training resources and CCSS prep tools

As with any of my other posted

downloads, feel free to adapt this

template to your own unique

needs.