Pennsylvania 2014

Locked
chalker
Member
Member
Posts: 2107
Joined: January 9th, 2009, 7:30 pm
Division: Grad
State: OH
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 56 times

Re: Pennsylvania 2014

Post by chalker »

DQ's are usually reserved for cheating or similar incidents... were you looking at other people's tests?

Student Alumni
National Event Supervisor
National Physical Sciences Rules Committee Chair
User avatar
JCicc
Member
Member
Posts: 33
Joined: July 2nd, 2005, 4:18 pm
Division: C
State: PA
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Pennsylvania 2014

Post by JCicc »

"Any idea how you could get DQ'd in Astronomy? We have no idea how that happened...hopefully they will let us (Quaker Valley) know for future reference. Very baffled at that one..."


I am the supervisor for C division astronomy at the PA state finals. The DQ has been addressed in a private message. I will not publicly discuss it.
AlphaTauri
Staff Emeritus
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 829
Joined: September 11th, 2009, 1:41 pm
Division: Grad
State: PA
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 1 time
Contact:

Re: Pennsylvania 2014

Post by AlphaTauri »

StogaSciOly wrote:Anyone else very skeptical of the Experimental Design Scores-- considering Harriton, Rustin, and Stoga all scored over 25th? Why are the bungee results wrong? What happened to Scrambler? Very upset with the lack of clarity and mistakes in event scoring this year. It makes all of us lose faith in the spirit of Science Olympiad.
They are fixing it... mistakes happen. My guess is that most likely something went wrong while entering things into the spreadsheet, and things will probably change when they put the final, corrected scoresheet up.

Edit: As for ExpDes, I heard from our ExpDes people that the proctor apparently got fed up with teams doing pendulums (after telling them to make a physics experiment involving gravity...) and banned pendulums about ten minutes into their block, so that might be part of the reason.
Hershey Science Olympiad 2009 - 2014
Volunteer for Michigan SO 2015 - 2018

]\/[ Go Blue!
User avatar
computergeek3
Member
Member
Posts: 163
Joined: November 10th, 2009, 12:49 pm
Division: Grad
State: PA
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Pennsylvania 2014

Post by computergeek3 »

AlphaTauri wrote:
StogaSciOly wrote:Anyone else very skeptical of the Experimental Design Scores-- considering Harriton, Rustin, and Stoga all scored over 25th? Why are the bungee results wrong? What happened to Scrambler? Very upset with the lack of clarity and mistakes in event scoring this year. It makes all of us lose faith in the spirit of Science Olympiad.
They are fixing it... mistakes happen. My guess is that most likely something went wrong while entering things into the spreadsheet, and things will probably change when they put the final, corrected scoresheet up.

Edit: As for ExpDes, I heard from our ExpDes people that the proctor apparently got fed up with teams doing pendulums (after telling them to make a physics experiment involving gravity...) and banned pendulums about ten minutes into their block, so that might be part of the reason.
Did he announce to all teams after that block that pendulums were banned? That just seems odd that a proctor would outright ban doing a type of experiment.
If you can't explain it simply, you don't know it well enough. -Albert Einstein

Bayard Rustin Science Olympiad 2010-2014
Pittsburgh Allderdice Assistant Coach
Canadianmadman
Member
Member
Posts: 4
Joined: May 5th, 2014, 5:58 pm
Division: C
State: PA
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Pennsylvania 2014

Post by Canadianmadman »

I have removed my current post here.
Last edited by Canadianmadman on May 5th, 2014, 7:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Canadianmadman
Member
Member
Posts: 4
Joined: May 5th, 2014, 5:58 pm
Division: C
State: PA
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Pennsylvania 2014

Post by Canadianmadman »

.
Last edited by Canadianmadman on May 5th, 2014, 7:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
ichaelm
Member
Member
Posts: 440
Joined: October 23rd, 2008, 3:10 pm
Division: Grad
State: PA
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0
Contact:

Re: Pennsylvania 2014

Post by ichaelm »

Canadianmadman wrote:I would like to hope there was a miscalculation. But what has happened is pretty big. From what I hear, many of the schools who were in the Top 5/6 at states for the C Division are very disappointed in what is going on. Many coaches have been trying to contact the State admins trying to get clarification on what is going on. There is supposed to be a hotline or something that is open 24hrs a day or something after the results are released and that hotline has had no responses for many teams. I know Bayard Rustin is very confused and disappointed in how this is being handled, and I am sure that Conestoga, Harriton, and Strath Haven all have a problem with it. Not necessarily because they might move up a place, but because there have been problems like this before in PA SciOly and nothing ever gets fixed and teams and coaches must suffer.

As mean as this is to say, the controversy always seems to surround Penncrest. Why? I'm not really sure, but it seems to me from what I head from multiple participants is that there consistently have been problems with how Penncrest is involved with the state competition. Many teams just want the honest truth. If you win fair and square, good for you. Every team can accept defeat when it is fair; the team recognizes that they were out-done. However, where there are multiple problems, many of which surrounding Penncrest influenced events (I say influenced because it seems like Penncrest sort of took over some of the events that they volunteered to help other schools with, again from what I have been hearing), along with the fact that Penncrest suddenly moved up to 1st in the rankings just seems sketchy.

People have already gotten their medals and their places, yet on the results sheet, these are all changed and therefore Penncrest is moved up? Something is going on in PA SciOly and it seems to get worse every couple of years. In my opinion, something needs to happen sometime because teams are getting fed-up with the constant problems year-after-year with nothing changing and teams consistently having to put in tons of effort for no change, just because they want the truth.

I myself can't even tell if my event scores are correct. I accepted them when they came out, but with all this controversy, who is to say I can even trust my place and scores? The tests were not even collected by the State Supervisor in case there was a problem like this. It just seems all too fishy. Hopefully the truth will come out and the drama will subside until next year.
Penncrest is involved so much in running states because they volunteer to run events that would otherwise not be run. Their coaches have always put in far more than their fair share. Every team at states relies on Penncrest to pick up the slack, and we are all thankful for their massive volunteer help. It is no surprise that their are glitches, since the entire thing is run by volunteers. Things would run a whole lot smoother if there were more teams like Penncrest, or Rustin, or the few other teams that go out of their way to help as much as possible.
Atomicbob11
Member
Member
Posts: 20
Joined: January 21st, 2014, 6:26 pm
Division: Grad
State: PA
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Pennsylvania 2014

Post by Atomicbob11 »

I can definitely agree with that. Penncrest, just like Harriton, has been involved in Science Olympiad for a long time. They have a well-oiled machine that allows them to consistently compete at a national level. Their volunteering is largely noticed. However, I think because of this, there is more support that allows them to volunteer. Smaller teams may not have as many people in Science Olympiad that allow them to volunteer their services. Nonetheless, it is volunteer work and definitely very much appreciated, coming from a competitor myself.
Last edited by Atomicbob11 on May 5th, 2014, 7:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Hard Work may pay off in the long run, but Laziness pays off now.
Therefore, Studying for SciOly is the best type of Procrastination.
Jdogg
Member
Member
Posts: 169
Joined: May 19th, 2011, 6:00 pm
Division: Grad
State: PA
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Pennsylvania 2014

Post by Jdogg »

I have the utmost respect for Penncrest. Whenever teams switch places due to scoring errors, it raises serious questions. I don't know if Penncrest got first or second, or what events they helped out with. But after being involved with running an event at states this year, things constantly are brought to question. Supervisors are placed in situations were they have to be fair to all teams, stick to the rules and draw a line on ambiguously phrased rules.

At every tournament across the nation, especially nationals, scoring mistakes occur (sometimes corrected, sometimes not).

The controversy for competitions usually revolves around the teams that makes nationals. Since the 2nd place team is usually very close to the third, every year coaches etc try to appeal events in the attempt to change the results. It's a consequence of how many teams make nationals. If three teams made nationals every year. I beat the third place team would be in the controversial spot.

I remember last year (or two years ago) Harriton was asked not to supervise Forensics since several teams thought that it was rigged. Due to the fact that Harriton wins the event almost every year. Yet when a different coach wrote the test, Harriton once again received first place at the state tournament in forensics and has done very well at the national tournament as well.

All I have to say is that coaches and supervisors want what is best and fair for their students. I doubt that any judge or supervisor unfairly grades the results just to gain a edge in a event. The coaches and supervisors that judge these events try to be as fair as possible. I know for scrambler, the main supervisor wouldn't time or judge his own team. He wanted to make sure that they were treated fairly and equally, making sure that they weren't at all given special treatment.

Congrats to Everyone that competed in the Scrambler event. I saw some crazy awesome vehicles that really blew me away. I know how much time every single team put into their device, I know that PA will be represented very well by Penncrest and Harriton at Nationals. I wish both teams best of luck.
Canadianmadman wrote:I would like to hope there was a miscalculation. But what has happened is pretty big. From what I hear, many of the schools who were in the Top 5/6 at states for the C Division are very disappointed in what is going on. Many coaches have been trying to contact the State admins trying to get clarification on what is going on. There is supposed to be a hotline or something that is open 24hrs a day or something after the results are released and that hotline has had no responses for many teams. I know Bayard Rustin is very confused and disappointed in how this is being handled, and I am sure that Conestoga, Harriton, and Strath Haven all have a problem with it. Not necessarily because they might move up a place, but because there have been problems like this before in PA SciOly and nothing ever gets fixed and teams and coaches must suffer.

As mean as this is to say, the controversy always seems to surround Penncrest. Why? I'm not really sure, but it seems to me from what I head from multiple participants is that there consistently have been problems with how Penncrest is involved with the state competition. Many teams just want the honest truth. If you win fair and square, good for you. Every team can accept defeat when it is fair; the team recognizes that they were out-done. However, where there are multiple problems, many of which surrounding Penncrest influenced events (I say influenced because it seems like Penncrest sort of took over some of the events that they volunteered to help other schools with, again from what I have been hearing), along with the fact that Penncrest suddenly moved up to 1st in the rankings just seems sketchy.

People have already gotten their medals and their places, yet on the results sheet, these are all changed and therefore Penncrest is moved up? Something is going on in PA SciOly and it seems to get worse every couple of years. In my opinion, something needs to happen sometime because teams are getting fed-up with the constant problems year-after-year with nothing changing and teams consistently having to put in tons of effort for no change, just because they want the truth.

I myself can't even tell if my event scores are correct. I accepted them when they came out, but with all this controversy, who is to say I can even trust my place and scores? The tests were not even collected by the State Supervisor in case there was a problem like this. It just seems all too fishy. Hopefully the truth will come out and the drama will subside until next year.
Last edited by Jdogg on May 5th, 2014, 6:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Harriton Class of 2013
Vice-Deputy of Avionics and Control for Lunar Lion
Assistant Coach of State College High School
StogaSciOly
Member
Member
Posts: 10
Joined: June 24th, 2013, 7:18 am
Division: C
State: PA
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Pennsylvania 2014

Post by StogaSciOly »

Hey, do you happen to know why Scrambler wasn't included in the results? We're all super confused. Thanks!!
Locked

Return to “2014 Invitationals, Regionals, and States”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests