Regionals

Regionals will take place in January of each year and will be hosted at various locations across the state.  Depending on your location in the state, you may or may not be required to compete in a regional competition.  For a full map of the regional-county assignments, click the map on the right.  See below for directions to prepare for the regional competition.

Florida Science Olympiad has an open Regional Policy. You are assigned to a region based on the county in which your school is located.  If you can not attend the regional competition in which you are assigned, please indicate which regional you would like to attend in the registration form.  If approved, the regional director will notify you.  No changes can be made after December 31.  Once approved and accepted by the team coach, no further changes can be made.  Note that ALL teams from a school must go to the same regional.

Information on this page includes the rules for team progression from regional to state, locations of the regionals, and details about each regional, including schedules, events, and forms.

Current Regional Locations:

1. Central:  Cypress Creek High School

2. South East:  Florida Atlantic University

3. Western:  Clearwater Central Catholic High School

4. Northeastern:  Matanzas High School - Palm Coast 

5. Northwest Regional:  University of West Florida

6. Southwest Regional - Edison College

Invitational:

1. Orlando Science Middle School

Selection and Progression of schools from Regionals to State Competition:

1. If there are fewer than 42 registered teams per division across the state, all teams that compete in a regional competition will be invited to the state competition.  If there are more than 54 teams per division across the state, the regionals will act as a qualifier for the state and only the top teams will be invited, up to a total of 42 teams, from across the state, in each division.
   
   

2. All teams that are in counties without a prescribed regional will automatically go to the state competition. (Starting in 2011, this rule no longer applies) For those who are in a prescribed regional competition and if there are more than 42 teams per division:
   
   

3. The top three teams from each division will automatically be invited to state.  There is no limit on the number of teams from a school that may progress to the state competition.  The remaining slots will be assigned based on the percentage of the total state membership per division that the regional has and the number of slots still available after teams from counties without regionals have been assigned a slot at the state.  The additional slots will be filled based on competition ranking.  For example, if a region is given 4 slots, then places 1-4 will compete at the state competition.
   
   

4. There will be a Wild Card position available in each region.  It is suggested that whichever team wins the spirit award be allowed to progress to the state competition.  The regional director must submit rationale for the selection of the Wild Card team.  The wild card can be used by the regional director for one of their host site teams at their discretion.  This will be communicated to the teams prior to the competition.
   
   

5. The remaining teams will be invited based on distribution of teams across the state.  Each region will receive additional slots based on their relative membership.  If a region has more slots than teams that showed, the remaining slots will be placed into a pool for distribution to other regions in the state based on percentage membership and this will be conducted by the state director.
   
   

6. State must be notified by 2 weeks after the end of the final regional of each year with the final list of attending schools, otherwise, the slots will be distributed to other regions, based on the discretion of the state director.
   
   

7. If there is a rounding issue as a result of calculations that results in a left over slot, the state director will assign this to a team at his discretion.

   1. Example: 100 teams register in Division B.  There are 5 regions in the state.  The number of teams that go to each region are as follows:  Regional A has 30 teams, Regional B has 20 teams, Region C has 15 teams, Region D has 5 teams, and Region E has 30 teams.  Three teams from each region automatically progress to the state plus the Wild Card progress to the state for each region.  The following shows the distribution of how the teams will be invited.

As we organize and prepare for the regionals, more information will be posted here.   If you are interested in becoming a regional director for the Florida Science Olympiad, contact Mike McKee.