This competition (Top Class) runs over several weeks from March up to the Olympiad. It comprises matches for whole classes or a combination of classes. The matches take place in schools at times of your convenience, and last about half an hour. Questions are based on a series of colourful images as shown here.
The students are allocated to ten teams with up to three students in any one team. Each team works at a computer that downloads multiple-choice questions from the Internet. All the questions refer to attractive images depicting some scientific situation. The teams have one attempt to answer the question collectively. The quicker the correct answer is given, the more points the team scores. You can see a demonstration on the Top Class web-site. In the first two rounds, the classes compete against the clock. After Round 1, the sixteen classes with the highest total scores progress to Round 2. In the quarter-and semi-finals, the classes play matches head-to-head against each other. Each team in one class is paired with a particular team in the other class to play a game. All ten games take place at the same time. In each game, the two teams simultaneously receive the same questions.
After twenty-four questions, the team with the greater number of points has won their game. The class winning the greater number of games has won the match. The grand final is a stage show before an audience of pupils, teachers and parents at the University of East Anglia. The stage show involves practical tasks (think "Generation Game"), quickfire rounds (think "Top of the Form") and "what happens next?" (think "Question of Sport"). We often use footage from the natural history ARKive website for rounds involving videos.
To enter the competition find this year's entry form on the menu to the left of the page.