Eligibility

Each competing team consists of four student members and one student alternate. To be eligible to compete, a student must be enrolled for the current school year in grades six, seven, or eighth at the team’s school Teams of home school students are welcome to participate, but they must be ages 11 - 14. Teams of Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and science clubs are welcome to participate; however, if the school a student attends is competing in the Florida Southeast Regional Science Bowl, then that student may compete only on a team from that school.

No school or student group may compete in more than one regional competition. No student may compete on more than one team. No more than 1 team from one school or student group may compete.

Competition Structure

There will be two separate parts to the Science Bowl competition at the Florida Regional – an elimination round and a double elimination contest modeled after the National Science Bowl competition. In the elimination round, all the teams compete together until eight (8) teams remain to advance to the double elimination competition.

Rules of the Elimination Round

1. Multiple Choice Questions will be used in the elimination round.
2. During the elimination round, team members will be able to confer with each other on every question.
3. Questions will be read twice, but no further explanation of the question will be given.
4. After the question is read, teams will be given 20 seconds to confer and indicate their answer on their answer board.
5. A panel of judges will verify the answers and note any teams that have missed the question.
6. Teams are eliminated after four wrong answers.
7. The round continues until only eight teams remain with less than five incorrect answers. These teams advance to the double elimination contest.
8. During the elimination round, if the responses to any question results in less than eight teams being left in the competition, those teams who got the question right will advance to the double elimination contest while those teams who would have been eliminated by this question, will enter a sudden-death round to determine the remainder of the eight finalist teams
9. During sudden-death, questions continue until the number of teams remaining equal exactly eight. The three outcomes to each sudden death question are:
   1. The number of teams answering the question correctly plus those who have already advanced to the double elimination is less than eight. Those teams who answered the question correctly advance to the double elimination round. The remainder of the sudden death teams continue to the next question in the sudden death round.
      
   2. The number of teams answering the question correctly plus those who have already advanced to the double elimination is greater than eight. Those teams who answered the question incorrectly are eliminated and the teams that answered the sudden death question correctly continue to the next question in the round.
      
   3. The number of teams answering the sudden death question correctly plus those who have already advanced to the double elimination, equal exactly eight. The sudden death round is completed and the eight teams advance.

Rules of the Double Elimination Contest

1. Two types of questions will be used: toss-up and bonus questions. A toss-up question may be answered by any member of either team that is playing. A team answering a toss-up question correctly will always get a chance to answer a bonus question; the other team is ineligible.
   
2. On toss-up questions, no consultation among team members may occur. Should consultation among any of the team members occur, any answer given does not count (the moderator does not say whether the answer given was correct or incorrect) and the team loses the right to answer the toss-up question. The question is then offered to the opposing team, if eligible.
   
3. No team will have more than one opportunity to answer a toss-up question.
   
4. Questions are either multiple-choice or short answer. The only acceptable answer to a multiple-choice question will be one of those read by the moderator.
   
5. Once read in its entirety, a question will not be re-read.
   
6. For toss-up questions, the first player on either team to activate the lock-out buzzer system wins the right to answer the question except that no player may buzz in until AFTER the moderator has identified the subject area of the question. If a player buzzes in prior to the reading of the subject area, the moderator will inform the player that he/she has buzzed in too soon. The moderator may add time back to the clock, if necessary.
   
7. Before answering a toss-up question, the team member who has buzzed in must be verbally recognized by the moderator or scientific judge. (Before the match, this person will be identified.) If a student was not recognized, it is treated as a non-answer (Blurt) and the moderator will award 4 points to the opposing team but will not indicate whether the answer was right or wrong. The toss-up question is then offered to the opposing team, if eligible. If the question has not been completely read, the question is reread in its entirety, and the opposing team has an opportunity to answer the toss-up question with the chance to answer the bonus question if correct.
   
8. On any question, the first answer given is the only one that counts. However, if a participant gives both a letter answer and a scientific answer to a multiple choice question, both parts must be correct.
   
9. If the answer to a toss-up question is wrong and the question was completely read, the other team is given the opportunity to answer it. The second team is allowed a full 5 seconds to buzz in after the first team has answered incorrectly or has answered without being recognized.
   
10. The answer to a bonus question must come from the team's captain, including when the question has been interrupted. Moderators should ignore an answer from anyone but the captain on the bonus question.
    
11. The match is played until either the time expires or all the toss-up questions have been read. Regional competitions will have two 8-minute halves with a 2-minute break (halves at the Nationals are 10 minutes). Each half begins with a toss-up question.
    
12. After reading a toss-up question, the moderator will allow 5 seconds for the two teams to respond before proceeding to the next toss-up question. Timing begins after the moderator has completed reading the toss-up question.
    
13. A participant who has buzzed in on a toss-up question must answer the question promptly after being verbally recognized by the moderator or scientific judge. After recognizing a participant, the moderator will allow for a natural pause (up to 3 seconds), but if the moderator determines that stalling occurred, it will be treated as a wrong answer. The team loses its opportunity to answer the question and it is offered to the opposing team, if eligible.
    
14. After a team member has answered a toss-up question correctly, the team is given the opportunity to answer a bonus question. The team will have 20 seconds for its captain to begin to give its answer to the bonus question. Consultation among team members is allowed on bonus questions.
    
15. On a bonus question, the signal "5 SECONDS" will be given by the timekeeper after 15 seconds of the allowed 20 seconds have expired. Additionally, the timekeeper will indicate the end of the 20-second bonus period by saying "TIME." If the team captain has not begun the response before the timekeeper calls "TIME", the answer does not count. If the team captain has begun the response, he/she may complete the answer.
    
16. Toss-up questions are worth 4 points, and bonus questions are worth 10 points.
    
17. If a toss-up question is interrupted, the player recognized, and the answer correct, the team will receive 4 points. If the answer is incorrect or the player buzzing in answers without being verbally recognized, 4 points are added to the opposing team's score, the question is reread in its entirety, and the opposing team has an opportunity to answer the toss-up question with the chance to answer the bonus question if correct.
    
18. The double interrupt. If a toss-up question is interrupted and the answer is incorrect or the player buzzing in blurts out an answer before being verbally recognized, 4 points are added to the opposing team's score. The question is then reread in its entirety. However, if a student on the opposing team interrupts the re-reading of the question and gives an incorrect answer or blurts before being verbally recognized, 4 points are added to the first team's score. The moderator will give the correct answer and move on to the next toss-up question.
    
19. If the moderator inadvertently gives the answer to a toss-up question without giving either team a chance to respond, no points are awarded and the moderator goes on to the next toss-up question.
    
20. If the moderator inadvertently gives the answer to a toss-up question before allowing the second team to respond (after an incorrect answer, or an answer given without the team member having been recognized) the next toss-up question will be read to the second team in place of the inadvertently answered question.

Summary of Scoring
Type of Question	Points Awarded
Correct toss-up	4 points & eligible for bonus
Incorrect toss-up	0 points
Bonus	10 points
Incorrectly answers interrupted toss-up	4 points to opposing team
Blurt (unrecognized toss-up or unrecognized interrupted toss-up)	4 points to opposing team
Consultation or answering without buzzing in on a toss-up	0 points

21. Challenges must be made before the moderator begins the next question. All challenges must come from the team members who are actively competing. The alternate and/or the coach may not object verbally or by signal. If either the alternate or the coach objects verbally or by signal to the active team members, the challenge will not be allowed. All decisions of the judges are final.
    
22. Challenges may be made either to scientific content or to the application of the rules. Challenges may NOT be made to judgment calls by the officials, including but not limited to whether a question has been interrupted, whether 5 seconds have elapsed before a student buzzes in on a toss-up, whether 20 seconds have elapsed before a captain begins answering a toss-up, whether a half has expired before a new toss-up question begins, whether a stall or consultation has occurred, or whether time should be added back to the clock.
    
23. Should a question or challenge arise during a competition, the competition and the clock will be stopped until the question is resolved. Once the question has been resolved, the match will continue from that point. Should the moderator decide that some time was lost due to the interruption; the moderator has the right to put the appropriate amount of time back on the clock.
    
24. If a toss-up question is begun before time expires in a half, that question will be finished under the usual rules of play, including the bonus, if the toss-up is answered correctly. The half is then over. A question will be considered to have been begun if the subject area has been completely read. The second half will begin with the first toss-up question not read in the first half.
    
25. If the score is tied (in the double/single elimination phase only) at the end of the regulation time period, a series of five toss-up questions will be used to break the tie. Interrupt penalties are in effect.
    

Miscellaneous Rules For Both Competitions

1. No one in the audience may communicate with participants during the match; communication will result in ejection from the competition room (and monitored until the conclusion of that round). If someone in the audience shouts out an answer, the question will be thrown out (as will the person) and the moderator will proceed to the next question.
   
2. No notes may be brought to the competition table. Nothing may be written before the clock starts. Scratch paper will be provided at the beginning of each match and collected at half-time and at the conclusion of the match.
   
3. Calculators are not permitted
   
4. Cell phones must be turned off in the competition room. Spectators who violate this rule will be asked to leave the competition room (and monitored until the conclusion of that round).
   
5. Substitutions during the elimination round may only be made at times specified by the moderator. Substitutions during the double elimination may only be made at the half.
   
6. Prior to each match, the two team coaches will introduce themselves to each other and will sit together in the back row of the competition room.
   
7. Members of the audience, including the coaches, will not write down the questions/answers the moderator reads or use any electronic recording or transmitting device, including digital cameras during the match.
8. No reading or study materials may be used in the audience.