Crime Busters B

Skink
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Re: Crime Busters B

Post by Skink »

Ouch. Getting thrown in at this point in the season is difficult. Do what you can. I'm sure your kids appreciate the effort!

I'd send you one of several tests I have, but they're all long packets that I admittedly don't want to scan all of the pages for. If I can condense one of them down to a reasonable sample, I might be able to send another sample your way.

Before I address your individual points, there is a fair bit of information available on the National site CB notes page you linked. Your team can be successful working just from that assuming your team already has most of the samples (powders, plastics, hairs, fibers, liquids, et cetera).

1. Everything your kids need to know is listed in the rules (section 3 or later...I don't have them in front of me now to direct you where specifically). See how their ID is. If I recall, there are more powder mixtures at State competitions than at Regionals. Failure to adequately ID powders is fatal to their score, so I would assess them on that for sure while checking the other areas like fibers and plastics. Where to focus your attention should in part be a result of their performance thus far. Get feedback from the event coach or your team's coach.

2. At the minimum, I would know how to identify them, in what they are found or used in, and with whom they are found, for sure. The most common example is bakers use flour and salt. Get a bit more sophisticated than that if you can. I'd reserve the different plastics, for example, for the cheat sheet if you have the space for it.
Again, the main thing here is ID (check the scoring section, maybe section 5, for how that goes). At Regionals, good powder ID is often times medaling. The bar is a bit higher at State, but it's do-able with good practice and a little talent.

3. Your students ideally would practice writing in the same conclusion style as opposed to flip-flopping. There is no single accepted format; the recommendations are bullet points or an essay. The latter is better, but some teams tend to ramble making it more ineffective practically.
Length is a nonissue so long as the content is all there. One tip I can hand you now is all good supervisors--and I expect your State supervisor to be one--will credit teams for conclusions they themselves did not intend if they are sound with the data (and the data is correct, of course...erroneous ID will not be credited, and neither will write-ups based on it). Another general tip, that may be a given, is your kids should have a dedicated powder person and someone who starts the chromatography and works on the 'other stuff'. They can collaborate, but dividing the work is almost essential in the interest of finishing and cleaning up in fifty minutes.

Feel free to ask follow-up questions. There are many folks here more than willing to help!
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Re: Crime Busters B

Post by dholdgreve »

Having written tests for this event for the past 17 years, I agree with everything Skink mentioned... identifying the unknown chemicals, mixtures, liquids and metals is critical to your success... it constitutes a full 50% of you final score... next is the analysis... read the instructions very carefully. If it says ..."in paragraph form..." make sure they don't use bullet points... Do Not use pronouns in the essay... ever... pronouns will not get you any points. Use suspect's names and actual evidence that implicates or exonerates the suspects.... not "a whole of stuff points to THAT guy..." (yes, I've seen that many times). Organize your essay. Start out by identifying the prime suspect, then the evidence that points to him, then his motive. then move to the second suspect, what evidence points to him, and why that evidence should or could have a logical reason to be discounted, and what motive they might have, and so on... move through the entire list of suspects. The Essay also counts for a MAJOR portion of the score, and this is where the teams are truly separated... All good teams will get about 80 to 90% of the chemicals correct, but there is a huge spread in the quality of the essays, and big points are available here. Before writing the essay, go back to the beginning and reread the scenario and suspect backgrounds, picking up on small things, like so and so is a diabetic (he shouldn't be eating sugar)... so and so weight 215 pounds (he couldn't possibly fit through the pet door). Draw conclusions from what you are being told. Inference is a big part of a well written essay. As a part of this inference, they should know not only the common uses of chemicals, but some of the oddball stuff, like did you know that sodium acetate is used both as a commercial deicing agent at some airports as well as the salt and vinegar flavoring on some chips? Much of this comes from pounding the keyboard and thoroughly researching each chemical. The physical evidence; hair, fibers, prints, polymers, and to a point even chromatography, have very little point value, but it is extremely difficult to write a scenario without giving away the culprit in the chromatography portion... it always points to the suspect... One way around that is to create the scenario where 2 or 3 suspects happen to have identical pens. Also, always be aware that there could be multiple suspects working as a team... or on occasion, no suspect at all. Hope that helps... and like Skink, feel free to PM me with questions! It's a great event that is very satisfying when the kids finally nail it!
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Re: Crime Busters B

Post by caseyotis »

Hi everyone,
About the aprons. Will the event supervisors be supplying those, or will I have to bring them in the event?
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Re: Crime Busters B

Post by geminicross »

Bring your own...like don't even chance it. :P
You can be DQed for not having them (I believe [?]), so I doubt they'd provide them.
And they've never provided them for me.
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Re: Crime Busters B

Post by Skink »

caseyotis wrote:Hi everyone,
About the aprons. Will the event supervisors be supplying those, or will I have to bring them in the event?
I wish. The rules clearly state that it's on you to wear the proper protection. And ensure that if you use aprons that you wear long sleeves; otherwise, you need lab coats. You cannot compete without these (in other words, you'd get an NS instead of a DQ). They're just as important as eye protection.
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Re: Crime Busters B

Post by caseyotis »

Skink wrote:
caseyotis wrote:Hi everyone,
About the aprons. Will the event supervisors be supplying those, or will I have to bring them in the event?
I wish. The rules clearly state that it's on you to wear the proper protection. And ensure that if you use aprons that you wear long sleeves; otherwise, you need lab coats. You cannot compete without these (in other words, you'd get an NS instead of a DQ). They're just as important as eye protection.
Okay, awesome! That means I can wear that all day and inscribe "FREE HUGS" on it, right? I was planning on wearing a long-sleeved shirt to that event. :lol:
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Re: Crime Busters B

Post by theriddler »

On the wiki, it says the aluminum has a delayed reaction with HCl. However, when I tried this at school, I didn't seem to find any reaction whatsoever. I'm wondering if our HCl was just weak, or if nobody else saw a reaction with aluminum in HCl either.
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Re: Crime Busters B

Post by stephritz929 »

We definitely saw a reaction; it wasn't a big one, but it was a reaction. We have the same problem with our Iodine and H202. No reaction when practicing but at regionals there was a definite reaction.
Without motivation, what is success?
2012:
Regionals, States
Compute This: 14, 9
Disease Detectives: 3, 10
Team: 1, 7

2013:
Regionals, States
Crime Busters: 2, ?
Disease Detectives: 5, 5
Forestry: 2, ?
Helicopters: 9, ?
Team: 5, 3
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Re: Crime Busters B

Post by stephritz929 »

caseyotis wrote:Hi everyone,
About the aprons. Will the event supervisors be supplying those, or will I have to bring them in the event?
definitely bring your own. Half of the competitors at my regionals got booted before the test even began because they didn't have them.
Without motivation, what is success?
2012:
Regionals, States
Compute This: 14, 9
Disease Detectives: 3, 10
Team: 1, 7

2013:
Regionals, States
Crime Busters: 2, ?
Disease Detectives: 5, 5
Forestry: 2, ?
Helicopters: 9, ?
Team: 5, 3
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caseyotis
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Re: Crime Busters B

Post by caseyotis »

theriddler wrote:On the wiki, it says the aluminum has a delayed reaction with HCl. However, when I tried this at school, I didn't seem to find any reaction whatsoever. I'm wondering if our HCl was just weak, or if nobody else saw a reaction with aluminum in HCl either.
I didn't see a reaction either, and I kept them together for five minutes, stirring all the way. >.> Hopefully I see a reaction at states.
Magnesium smelled so bad with HCl! :lol:

Yeah, I'm going to bring an apron. :P
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