User:Jaspattack

Jaspattack is a member of the 2020 Central High School Science Olympiad team.

Years
IB is kicking my butt and I hardly have any time to work on Science Olympiad :/ However, IB Biology is helping a lot to prepare for Designer Genes, so there's that... I'm working on Forensics as much as I can, but Fossils has been put on the back burner due to a lot of other things. The real grind for regionals starts as soon as winter break does and I can afford to work on extracurriculars instead of homework.

As of February 13th, I've finished the Designer Genes notesheet that I've been working on since last season! We used a sheet made by my partner last year, but I had started one before we made that decision. Now, I have a sheet that should be suitable for at least regionals and probably with minimal editing for state. However, saying that will probably mean I have some super obscure question about something I don't cover in depth on my notes... knock on wood. All systems are a-go for Forensics, with Fossils still being the black sheep of my events. I'll do my best.

Region VII Tournament

The notes for Forensics were finished the day before the tournament, and I hadn't worked with my partner until the day of the tournament. The exam itself was really fun, and even though we were super crunched for time I still felt like we did really well. In the future, I feel like most of what I need to work on is time management. I was confident in all of the powders but one, and the chromatography went super well. Unfortunately though I forgot to pack a scoopula in our kit so getting the powders out of the bags was... fun. We placed fifth, which was really surprising because our analysis was approximately three and a half sentences long. I really feel like we would've gotten first if we had spent more time on the analysis, which is why time management is the thing I want to work on.

For Designer Genes and Fossils, I feel about as good as I did last year. Both tests were run/written by the same proctors, and some of the questions were reused (though a lot of them were different). The test for Designer Genes was hard, but I felt a lot more confident about it this year. Fossils was pretty easy, and I feel like I would have placed higher if I had diverted more time to review last year's binder (which is getting completely redone before state!). I need to hit the books again in the month before state, but for now I'm taking a much needed break.

2018-2019 2019 season events have been announced and my team has placed me in Designer Genes, Experimental Design, Fossils and Mousetrap Vehicle. I have no experience with Fossils or Mousetrap, and am a little concerned about my performance in these but my events still have the potential to change before February. I have faith in my partner for Mousetrap Vehicle, but Fossils is another story.

Regionals are creeping ever closer, and I'm still viciously unprepared. My partner has taken the lead for Mousetrap and I still feel in over my head despite all my research into how it works. I'm okay with Designer Genes and Experimental Design, since I've had plenty of time to practice (and lots of background knowledge). We're still working on our notes for Designer Genes, but we also have access to a lot of textbooks with valuable information. Fossils is going to take a little longer, but the binder is in good shape. Just give me some more time to sit down and work on it, and it'll be done within a week.

Region VII Tournament

Regionals are here, regardless of whether I'm ready or not. I've been working on my Fossils binder every day for the past week, and I still don't know how prepared I am. Experimental Design and Designer Genes are okay, and my partner has done some great work with Mousetrap Vehicle. My schedule is pretty favorable, all things considered. I have Experimental Design then Designer Genes, a break, Fossils and then Mousetrap Vehicle, which is an open event. Luckily, my first two and last two events are with the same partner so I don't have to hunt anyone down.

Experimental Design was... strange? I definitely didn't prepare for using live bugs in an experiment, but we were given beetles that we had to expose to various stimuli. It was really frustrating, since the beetles kept getting flipped over and wouldn't move. Designer Genes was also a little unexpected, since the test was really difficult. My partner seemed to know what he was doing, which was nice.

After that, I had a much needed break. Our crash room was calm and peaceful for a moment, but before I knew it I was out the door for Fossils. We absolutely killed it at Fossils, in my opinion. We were a couple of stations ahead at some points, and finished all of the tiebreaker questions. Mousetrap also went pretty well, with the cup only resting 9 cm from the end point. We obviously still have a long way to go before state, but I think we can iron everything out before then.

By the end of the day, everyone was super excited about their events. I had confidence in our team, and I thought we would do well. We got to the hall that awards were being given out in, and waited. The time for events came and went. Finally, at least 15 minutes after awards were supposed to begin we got news. A transformer had blown somewhere else on campus, causing a fire and blowing out the power. Scores could not be tabulated, and everyone went home without medals. Now, every team at the competition will play the waiting game to find out what their scores are.

Missouri State Tournament

My events have been changed around! I'm no longer competing in Experimental Design and Mousetrap Vehicle, and am now competing in Write It Do It as my third event. This is probably the best possible scenario since I don't have as much spare time these days. I'm kind of sad I don't get to do these events anymore, but ultimately I'm okay with it.

States this year was a total blast. I feel like I did really well in the events I competed in (except for Fossils, but we knew that) and I enjoyed doing them. Kind of salty that I didn't place in Designer Genes, but there's always next year. I'm also salty with how long that awards took, since 4 hours is really just ridiculous. It was also kind of ridiculous that the ribbons were just regionals ribbons at first, and all our members that ribboned had to exchange them for state ribbons. We didn't end up getting home until midnight, and I was exhausted by then. However, it's worth it for placing fifth overall. Our team has come so far just in the past two years, and there's nowhere to go but up. 2017-2018 My first year of Science Olympiad! I was originally going for our Div C team [as a freshman], but it's probably better that I didn't end up there. I signed up for way different events than I ended up being placed in and was thrust into Wright Stuff halfway through the year with a terrible partner, so I didn't end up placing at regionals. My other events went really well, taking home a medal and a ribbon for WIDI and Rocks and Minerals. State went 10x better since it was rescheduled [giving us more prep time]. Pretty bitter I didn't place in Rocks at state by one point. Here's hoping that 2018-19 season goes even better.

Current Projects
(just to remind myself, not in order of importance)
 * Making and adding to Trial Event pages (focusing on WiFi Lab and Nuclear Science Lab)
 * Eventually making the Fossil List look nice/complete (see: my sandbox) *
 * Making pages for teams in Missouri
 * Making pages for regions and regional tournaments in Missouri
 * Add older events to the Comprehensive Event Listing and update the alphabetical listing for events older than 2006 *

* This will probably not happen for a long, long time.