User:John Richardsim

Hello, my name is John Richardsim. I am going in to 10th grade at Grand Haven High School. From 6th to 9th grade, I participated in Division B for Lakeshore Middle School. As you will see below, I mainly participate in study events.

6th Grade (2012)
I only participated in two events in 6th grade; Towers and Reach for the Stars. I didn't make the traveling team, making my Science Olympiad season only three months long (January-March).

Towers-I participated in Towers, but I didn't exactly do very well. This is mainly because I only managed to finish one tower in about two months. The one tower I did finish was poor relative to the towers being built by people who did end up making the team.

Reach for the Stars-I also participated in Reach for the Stars, and did decent in it, but still not as well as others who ended up making the team.

7th Grade (2013)
This year, I ramped things up a bit, participating in six events. I did end up making the traveling team, but I was an alternate and did not compete (seeing what circumstances the district reconfiguration put me under, I'm okay with having been an alternate).

Forestry-I participated in forestry, and absolutely hated it. It didn't interest me, and therefore I didn't bother studying for it in my free time (or at all for that matter).

Metric Mastery-I participated in Metrics and did pretty well...at estimation of lengths. As for estimation of mass, I just can't.

Meteorology (Everyday Weather)-I also participated in Meteorology. I did well in it and I enjoyed it.

Water Quality-I participated in Water Quality. I only did it because it was right after the Meteorology practice, and the coach for Water Quality, who was also the coach for Meteorology, said that I should stay for Water Quality. Since we started with macroinvertebrate identification, and I sucked at it, Water Quality became low priority for me.

Reach for the Stars-I participated in Reach for the Stars again, this year doing even better (I guess it's pretty hard not to).

Rocks and Minerals-I participated in Rocks and Minerals, and although it started off as rather low priority, it definitely gained priority.

Pentathlon-I competed in Pentathlon which was a trial event at Regionals. My partners and I ended up getting 2nd. When I said I participated in 6 events, I didn't count this seeing as how I didn't practice for it.

8th Grade (2014)
This year I kicked it up a notch again, participating in 10 events. I did compete this year, in 4 events; Meteorology, Water Quality, Rocks and Minerals, and Metric Mastery.

Can't Judge a Powder-I participated in Can't Judge a Powder for a little while, but ended up dropping it. Although it did teach me the valuable lesson of observation over inference, I'm just not good enough at fast, coordinated movements, and it just doesn't interest me all that much.

Science Crime-Although I did see Science Crime through, It was similar to Can't Judge a Powder in the fact that I'm not good at moving quickly and coordinated.

Solar System-I participated in Solar System, but it was pretty low priority for me. Something about extraterrestrial water just doesn't interest me that much.

Disease Detectives-I participated in Disease and actually did pretty decent, but didn't compete in it (although I was close).

Water Quality-I decided to do Water Quality again this year, and luckily for me, there weren't macroinvertebrates. For some reason I was good at coral reef indicator organism identification, and I put quite a bit of effort into learning the other stuff. Water Quality went well for my partner and I, and we placed 1st at Regionals, 9th at States (I blame the recently killed Gorgonia), and 8th at Nationals.

Rocks and Minerals-Continuing the trend of last year, Rocks and Minerals was one of my higher priority events this year. I'm surprisingly good at rock and mineral identification, which is strange when you consider how much Forestry and macroinvertebrates just didn't interest me. My partner and I placed 3rd at Regionals, 2nd at States, and 16th at Nationals.

Meteorology (Severe Storms)-I participated in Meteorology again this year, this time competing in it. I started off the season with it as a low priority and I didn't look into stuff about severe storms, but when I was put in for regionals, I started to look into severe storms, and I found out that I really enjoyed it. My partner and I placed 1st at Regionals, 1st at States, and 23rd at Nationals.

Heredity-I participated in heredity and put in a lot of effort, and did quite well.

Metric Mastery-I competed in Metrics this year, but it was pretty similar to last year. I'm very good at estimating lengths, but when it comes to estimating the mass of objects, I just can't. My partner(s) and I placed 4th at Regionals, 2nd at States (despite feeling horribly about it), and 35th at Nationals (despite feeling really great about it).

Boomilever-After one of my teammates recommended that I do at least one building event last year, this year I decided to do Boomilever. After all, I had done Towers. How much different could they be? Well, as it turns out, Boomilever is much more difficult (in my opinion).

9th Grade (2015)
This season I practiced for 10 events, all of which were study events (well, I guess Bio-Process Lab is technically a lab event...and also the build portion of Simple Machines...). Throughout Regionals, States, and Nationals, I ended up competing in a total of 8 different events.

Fossils-Ah Fossils. I managed to get identification down pretty well (except for dinosaur ID), but I was still missing the key aspect of binder building. I think what really kept me from sitting down and making documents useful for me to have in a binder was different sources having different information (granted, usually when this happens it is information that is similar and from sources of equal credibility, but this still managed to deter me from getting what I needed. Perhaps I was just impatient, but whenever I tried making binder documents I felt as if I was not making nearly enough progress as I should have). Because of that, Fossils started to receive less of my attention closer to Regionals (and sadly I wasn't able to attend the last month of practices for it due to random other things popping up on Mondays).

Simple Machines-I first became interested in doing this event last year around the time of States when a teammate of mine described it as "mainly a lot of math". With this in mind, I decided to give it a go this year. I did well with the study part of it, and I did eventually find my way with the building portion (....eventually...). Building the lever was my introduction to power tools (a lesson administered in a pole barn during the middle of January with air temperatures well below freezing). Once I had the base of the lever done, it only took me three tries to get the beam "perfect" (when I say that, I actually mean I screwed up twice and finally made something I could work with on my third try). Getting a suitable counterbalance was also a nightmare for me, and after well over 3 hours of searching for materials and other trial and error, I ended up with a counterbalance made of a few rocks taped to the end of the beam (and even at that, I accidentally put them upside-down, resulting in me having a beam with markings that were upside-down...yeah). As States approached, my partner and I decided to take the beam from his lever and attached it to the base of mine (no more upside-down markings!). After a few more minor modifications, we finally had our lever. In conclusion, whereas the study portion of this event came easy for me, the building portion ended up having more twists and turns than Lombard Street. My partner(s) and I got 3rd at Regionals (once again, I would like to apologize for my embarrassing mistake), 9th at States, and 19th at Nationals.

Crave the Wave-Oh Crave the Wave...at first I was very opposed to competing in Crave the Wave because it conflicted with Green Gen. Yes, I will admit that I am more interested in environmental science than waves. However, I am also more interested in helping the team than environmental science, and if I am a better fit for the team in Crave the Wave than in Green Gen, so be it. And hey, I did indeed learn a few valuable lessons while doing Crave the Wave, while also having some interesting times (e.g., crashing two different computers while working on Crave the Wave...). My partner and I got 3rd at Regionals (a really "interesting" setup on that test), 7th at States, and 27th at Nationals.

Anatomy and Physiology-I wanted to do Anatomy in 7th grade, but I decided not to in order to keep my number of events down a bit. The same thing happened in 8th grade. This year, I finally decided to go for it (only after another body system and physiology was added to Division B...). I put a lot of focus into this event early on in the season, but as Blue and Gold started to approach, I had to draw back my focus in order to hit a few other events more. I continued going to practices for it in case of the rare occurrence that I would need to compete in it for whatever reason (and the practice for it was also still very convenient to go to), and that day did come. The Tuesday after the Michigan State Competition (my first day back at practices), my coach alerted me that from the looks of it, I needed to compete in A&P at nationals (one of the A&P competitors now had a conflict with Picture This), as opposed to doing Dynamic Planet as previously planned. At first, the idea of trying to catch up with A&P in less than two weeks horrified/terrified/etc. me, but I could see that it was the best course of action from the standpoint of the team. So, I had the lovely (and unexpected) opportunity of competing in A&P at Nationals, where my partner and I got 32nd (I must say, it was a very "interesting" test for my first time competing in A&P; if you are wondering what it was like, ask anyone who took it and they will love to tell you...).

Bio-Process Lab-I suppose this event fit in well for me. I have very in-depth experience with the metric system from Metric Mastery, a good knowledge of genetics from Heredity, etc. In addition, I was also taking Bio in school, so that also helped a bit. With all of this taken into account, I still did learn many valuable things in this event that I would not have gotten from other events (well, other events that I would be interested in doing). My partner and I got 1st at Regionals, 16th at States (the test was much more like "Bio-Process" than "Bio-Process Lab"...very little "lab" in it, in my opinion), and 20th at Nationals.

Dynamic Planet (Oceanography)-Whereas the idea of doing Dynamic Planet had crossed my mind, I never did Glaciers (there were practice conflicts with it for both years, if I recall correctly). However, after last year, I did latch on to Oceanography pretty early on (mainly for the small parts of the event that were covered in Water Quality). This was fueled by an interest for the topic in general. I was able to compete in it at Regionals, in which my partner and I got 1st. However, I was unable to compete in it at States due to a conflict with Disease Detectives (Disease could have either conflicted with Meteorology or Dynamic, and the skill sets of the potential competitors in both Meteorology and Dynamic were pretty similar, so it was more of just picking one of the two events to take a break from), and then I was unable to compete in it at Nationals due to me being unexpectedly relocated to Anatomy & Physiology during that timeslot.

Meteorology (Climate)-Meteorology throughout the season was a bit more complicated due to practice conflicts with Disease Detectives (I went to practices for Disease, and therefore was unable to attend most practices for Meteorology). Thankfully I had done a great job getting an early start on it, so when I was put in this event for states, I wasn't far behind. My partner and I got 1st at States and 14th at Nationals (a truly disappointing test in the opinions of myself and my partner).

Ah, I'm going to miss Meteorology. Whereas I will openly admit to loving Severe Storms more than Everyday Weather and Climate, all three have found their places in my heart. The other day my friend (who also happened to be my partner in Meteorology this year) asked me what I will do now that I'm going to a place with no Meteorology (otherwise known as Division C). I simply responded, "I will look to the sky". I mean, just because my days of cramming my Meteorology notes into tiny font on a single sheet of paper are over, doesn't mean I've kissed meteorology goodbye. I'm sure I will run back into it somewhere down the line...

Disease Detectives-I don't think anyone truly gets a good grasp on epidemiology the first time they do it. Thankfully for me, this was my second time doing it! I expanded on my knowledge and understanding of all epidemiological concepts from the basic to the...less basic (I still have three more years of Disease Detectives in Division C, I'm sure I still haven't hit the peak of complexity just yet). As an additional note to Disease Detectives, while making my cheat sheet, I did learn all about text boxes and their uses and dangers, so I do plan to (possibly?) put this knowledge to work in upcoming years. My partner and I got 1st at Regionals, 7th at States, and 11th at Nationals.

Green Generation-As I described in my paragraph about Crave the Wave, I originally hoped to compete in Green Generation over Crave the Wave (mainly due to having competed in Water Quality last year and therefore having a background with the topic of aquatic ecosystems), but the needs of the team sadly can't always align with the wishes of each individual, so I just did my best no matter where I was placed.

Solar System-Although at the end of last season I didn't really feel all that interested in extraterrestrial water, I think this year I started to find that interest. One thing that held me back in this event was a strange sensation of not really "getting the event", kind of like studying the wrong stuff, or not heading in the right direction (even though I knew that I was studying the right stuff and heading in the right direction). This strange feeling thankfully started to fade as States approached. At states, my partner and I got 1st place (I loved that test (if I recall correctly, there was not a single question about missions <3)), and we went on to get 27th at Nationals.

After the first week of practices, I made the heartbreaking decision to drop Picture This, due to the practice being held at a very inconvenient location (I'd rather not have to race between schools every hour for practices...).

Blue and Gold Results
Blue and Gold is Grand Haven's intramural competition. In Division B, competitors compete individually, ribbons are awarded to the top 3 competitors in each grade level in each event, along with a medal for the overall champion of each event. Unless otherwise noted, each of the placements are within the respective grade level.


 * 1: Achieved 1st place in both grade level and overall.
 * 2: This test was harder than the National test for this event that year.

10th Grade (2016)
Right now, I'm looking into participating in the following events:
 * Anatomy and Physiology
 * Cell Biology
 * Disease Detectives
 * Green Generation
 * Invasive Species (I know, I'm just as surprised as you are)
 * Astronomy
 * Dynamic Planet
 * Wind Power

Other Interests
As crazy as it may sound, I do a few things outside of Science Olympiad.

Television/Movies
Some of my favorite TV shows/channels include:
 * Jeopardy
 * Malcolm in the Middle
 * The Weather Channel
 * Mysteries at the Museum

In addition, my favorite movies are Norbit and Click

Video Games
Video games constitute some of my earliest memories. However, today I rarely play any new games. Some of my favorites include: If you would like to play one of these games with me sometime, send me a private message on the forums or hunt me down on IRC.
 * The Sims 1, 2, and 3
 * DDR
 * SimCity (2013) and SimCity 4
 * The Sims Bustin' Out (GBA), The Urbz: Sims in the City (GBA), The Sims 2 (GBA)
 * Modern Warfare 2
 * Need for Speed Hot Pursuit (2010), Hot Pursuit 2, and Carbon
 * Monday Night Combat

My Test Gallery

 * Metric Unit Conversion Practice Test
 * [[Media:Metric Unit Conversion Practice Test.pdf|Test]]
 * [[Media:Metric Unit Conversion Practice Test Key.pdf|Key]]
 * 2015 SSSS Meteorology practice test
 * [[Media:MeteorologyTestUpdated.pdf|Test]]
 * [[Media:MeteorologyTestKeyUpdated.pdf|Key]]
 * 2016 SSSS Bio-Process Lab practice test - Coming soon to test exchanges near you!