National Science Bee
Middle & Elementary School Divisions

Competition Format

For students competing in the Middle School and Elementary School Divisions, the National Science Bee is a three-stage competition, consisting of an Online Regional Qualifying Exam, the Regional Tournaments, and the National Championships. Students can also qualify for the International Science Championships and the International Environmental Science Olympiad by competing in the National Science Bee.

The second stage of the National Science Bee for the Middle and Elementary School Divisions is the Regionals. The Regionals are held throughout the year both online and in person. A full list of Regionals is available here on the Registration page. Students who have qualified on the ORQE may compete up to 4 times at the Regional Tournaments in the National Science Bee. All National Science Bee Regional Tournaments are held in conjunction with the Regionals for the National History Bee and National Geography Bee, so students who qualified on the ORQEs for those subjects can compete in all 3 events.

Regionals: Timing of Tournaments

At in-person Regional tournaments, typically the Science Bee is held in the morning; the History Bee is held in the early afternoon, and the Geography Bee is held in the late afternoon. At online tournaments, the Bees for two subjects are held on a Saturday, and the third is held on Sunday afternoon. The time and day that each subject is contested on an online event varies from one tournament to another, so that students who cannot compete on Saturdays (or Sundays) will have options to play all subjects at their preferred time over the course of the academic year.

Regionals: Tournament Structure

The Regionals consists of 3 preliminary rounds, each with 30 questions, and 1 Final Round, likewise with 30 questions. All students play in all preliminary rounds; the scores are then added together to determine placement. Typically 20-50% of students then make the Final Round to determine the Regional Champion in each age division. To qualify for the National Championships, students must finish in the top 50% of their age division after the preliminaries rounds, inclusive of odd numbers and ties for the final Nationals spot, among students who have not already qualified for Nationals. Students who have already qualified for the National Championships at a prior Regionals are not counted in determining the top 50% of students for Nationals qualification. There are separate age divisions for students in 8th grade, 7th grade, 6th grade, 5th grade, 4th grade, and 3rd grade and younger. At some tournaments with small numbers of students in an age division, two or more divisions may be consolidated. However, the qualification for the National Championships will be determined solely based on a student’s official age division: students are never at a disadvantage in terms of national championships qualifying if age divisions must be consolidated.

Note that for students in 2nd Grade and Younger, it is possible to qualify for the National Championships by finishing either in the top 50% of students inclusive of 3rd Graders (against whom they also compete at the Regional Tournaments) or in the top 50% of students in 2nd Grade and Younger (against whom they will compete at the National Championships). Students in 3rd Grade may likewise qualify for the National Championships either by finishing in the top 50% among solely the 3rd Grade students, or also among the combined students in 3rd Grade and Younger.

Regionals: Game Play Rules

All questions at the Regionals are played using a buzzer system and take the form of a short paragraph. Please see here for sample questions to practice with. The questions are read out loud to students, and the clues in each question are arranged in descending order of difficulty. Students buzz in as soon as they think they know the answer. If they are correct, they score a point; if they are incorrect, they cannot ring in again on that question. Three incorrect answers kills the question. If a student is the third student incorrect before the end of the question, they lose a point (because they have killed the question for the remaining students who now are unable to hear the rest of the question). If they are the first or second student incorrect, or if they are the 3rd student to answer incorrectly but the question has already been read to completion, they do not lose a point.

Once students reach 5 points in a round, they are done for the rest of the round. This ensures that if one student is particularly gifted, they will not run away with most of the questions while the other students get frustrated. However, students can earn up to 10 bonus points in each round depending on how quickly they go out (i.e. a student who answers the first 5 questions correctly scores 15 for the round).

Regionals: Study Guides

Each Regionals is played using one of four question sets: Red, White, Blue, or Gold. There is no difference between the sets in terms of content focus or difficulty except that Gold Set is slightly more challenging as it it meant as a tune up for the National Championships. Students can compete at up to four Regional Tournaments, once on each question set. Each question set has a Study Guide that is compiled once the questions for that question set have been written, so students who are competing at a tournament should review the correct study guide in advance! The Study Guides do not contain information on every question in the tournament, but they typically reference things to know about harder topics that will come up.

Regionals: Tournament Registration and Logistics

Students and their families must register for each Regionals tournament on the Registration Page. Typically, the deadline is 12 days in advance of each tournament, but please check the Registration Page to be sure. After the deadline passes, a wait list is maintained for each tournament: we will attempt to accommodate as many students as possible, but we need to ensure sufficient staff first. The cost to compete in the Regionals of the National Science Bee is $50 per tournament with a $10 surcharge if registered for after the deadline. There is no obligation to bring a question reader or buzzer system to the tournament; IAC will provide these. An email will be sent in the week prior to each tournament, as well as within a week after the tournament with further logistical details.

For all questions on the Regionals, please email ems-info@iacompetitions.com.

The third stage of the National Science Bee for the Middle and Elementary School Divisions is the National Championships which is held on Memorial Day weekend at the Hyatt Regency Orlando in Orlando, FL. For 2026, the National Championship weekend runs from May 21-25, but all rounds of the National Science Bee are contested on Friday-Sunday, May 22-24, 2026. A full schedule of events is available here. The National Championships for the National Science Bee are also held in conjunction with the National Championships of the National History Bee, National Geography Bee, and many other events. In particular, students who have qualified through the National Qualifying Exams are also encouraged to compete in the all-life science-focused National Biology Bee. There are also a number of Science-themed National Championship Exams. Each event is held at different times during the weekend, so students who wish to compete in multiple events may do so.

National Championships: Tournament Structure

At the National Championships, all students compete in 4 National Science Bee preliminary rounds using the same style of questions on which they played at the Regional Tournaments. The rounds are held in different blocks of 2 rounds each. Students are assigned to 2 blocks based on their full schedule of events for the weekend. Students’ preliminary round point totals are summed, and then the top students (usually around the top 30-35%) qualify for the Playoff Rounds. The number of students who qualify for the playoffs is a function of enrollment in each age division at Nationals, and will be clarified to all before the competition begins.

Note that beginning in 2026, students who are in 2nd Grade & Younger will compete in a separate age division at the National Championships. The number of playoff rounds for this age division may be one less than the other age divisions, as we expect it will have slightly fewer students.

National Championships: Novice Classification

Beginning in 2026, students who choose to do so can compete in a separate Novice Classification for the National Science Bee at the National Championships. Students in the Novice Division receive their own awards, though they are not eligible to make the playoffs of the main draw of the National Science Bee National Championships or qualify for the International Science Championships or International Environmental Science Olympiad through it. The Novice Division is only open to students who fulfill the following criteria. Note that the Novice Classification is entirely optional; no students are obligated to compete in it:

1. Students must be in 4th-8th grade in the 2025-26 academic year. There is no Novice classification available for students in 3rd grade and younger, as we doubt that there would be a sufficient critical mass of such students.
2. Students must not have competed in the National Science Bee National Championships more than once
3. Students who made the playoffs at a prior National Science Bee National Championships are ineligible
4. Students who won a medal at any 2025-26 National Science Bee Regional Tournament are ineligible provided there were at least 6 students in their grade who competed at the Regional Tournament where they medaled. If there were fewer than 6 students, then only the gold medalist is ineligible. If there was only 1 student, the student in question must email ems-info@iacompetitions.com to ask for a ruling regarding eligibility for the Novice Classification. This is then at IAC’s discretion.

Registration for the National Championships is done on this page. Nationals weekend will also feature many other events, including the Opening Ceremonies, a Family Quiz Night, Universal Studios Night, Intro to Model United Nations, various talks and receptions, and the Jeopardy! Charity Games. A full schedule of the 2026 National Championships is available here.

For all questions on the National Championships, please email ems-info@iacompetitions.com.

Students who compete in the Middle and Elementary School Divisions of the National Science Bee can qualify for the International Science Championships and the International Environmental Science Olympiad! Students qualify for ISC and IESO (though note the exceptions at the bottom of the list) by accomplishing any of the following:

• having a score of 75 or higher on any version of the Varsity / Junior Varsity Science National Qualifying Exam in any academic year prior to Summer 2028 if they were in 9th grade or higher in the year they took it
• having a score of 65 or higher on any version of the Varsity / Junior Varsity Science National Qualifying Exam in any academic year prior to Summer 2028 if they were in 7th or 8th grade in the year they took it
• having a score of 55 or higher on any version of the Varsity / Junior Varsity Science National Qualifying Exam in any academic year prior to Summer 2028 if they were in 6th grade or lower in the year they took it
• placing in the top third at a National Science Bee Regional Tournament (or first or second place in the case of small fields)
• placing in the top two thirds in their age division at the National Championships of the National Science Bee in any academic year prior to Summer 2028
• having previously medaled at the 2024 International Environmental Science Olympiad

Qualification for the International Environmental Science Olympiad works the same way, except that a) students have until any year prior to Summer 2029 to qualify and b) students who would have just finished 11th or 12th grade in May or June of 2029 must qualify for Team USA in the Varsity Division. The Varsity Division of the International Environmental Science Olympiad will feature 5 students per country only. Further information on how to qualify for Team USA at IESO will be posted by 2027.

The International Science Championships will debut in Summer 2028 and then be held every other summer. The International Environmental Science Olympiad will be held in Summer 2029 and then be held every other summer.

Both the International Science Championships and the International Environmental Science Olympiad are week-long event with numerous competitions, field trips, family activities and more. In each event, medals are awarded to the top 3 competing students in each age division. With the exception of the Varsity Division at the International Environmental Science Olympiad, US students compete for their state; students from other countries (or students in the USA who were born abroad or who have foreign citizenship) represent those countries. Please see www.iesolympiad.com for further details on the International Environmental Science Olympiad, the website of the International Science Championships will be launched shortly.