Osborne Academic Competitions

In February, fourth and fifth graders compete in the Scripps School Spelling Bee. The purpose of the Spelling Bee is to help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabulary, learn concepts, and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives. The school champion advances to the Western PA Spelling Bee.

The Calcu-Solve is a math competition at Duquesne University for 5th and 6th grade teams. At this event, teams of four students are challenged with math questions.

The History Bowl is held at the Heinz History Center each November. A team of fourth and fifth graders work through five different activities throughout the History Center. Team members were students who scored the highest on the classroom preliminary competition.

The Science Bowl is held at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History each January. A team of fifth graders compete in six different challenges. Team members are students who scored the highest in their classroom preliminary competition.

Math Olympiads
Math Olympiads is a math problem-solving contest using non-routine problems.  Fourth and fifth grade students participate in five monthly classroom contests that introduce important mathematical concepts and strengthen mathematical creativity, ingenuity, and flexibility in problem solving.  Nearly 150,000 students from 6,000 teams worldwide participated in the Olympiads.

STEM Design Challenge
Teams of fifth grade students (up to four) will be given a challenge in the fall to design and build a K’Nex structure.  They will have from October until March to create a blueprint and narrative about their structure. The winning school-level team will be asked to build it at the competition, held at Duquesne University in March. Winning teams advances to the state-level competition.

For information about any of these competitions, please contact:

Emily Ackerman
Academic Specialist
[email protected]
412-749-5557 x4238