Disease Detectives

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pjgscioisamazing
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Re: disease detective

Post by pjgscioisamazing »

Flavorflav wrote:
pjgscioisamazing wrote:I got stuck with disease this year (well I shouldn't say stuck, that makes it seem like I don't want it) and if you study, it's an easy event. It can be kinda intimidating, ie. Nat'l events tend to be if you ever practice with one. But there is always the trouble of bad events. Disease events always tend to be pretty darn good. But at this years regionals, I was totally prepares and got 7th (which isn't bad, but I would have liked to do better). The event had barely ANY reading comprehension (a must in any disease event), very convoluted (not clear) math, and random bad questions. It was weird cause normally my region has good disease events. The only "good" part was the matching with vocab at the end :lol: But if you study teh basics/concepts (the training handout is a GREAT way to start) it's pretty easy to apply it to any event. ANd also, look out for outbreaks and such going on around teh world. There was an outbreak of cholera in Zimbabwe and that was on my event this past weekend. Good Luck! :D
Can you give an example of a bad question or some convoluted math?
Well one question asked for the author of a case. But there were like 2 things it COULD be referring to and it didn't specify. But I thought that asking for the author was weird. As for the math, I can't remember anything specific. I think the biggest shocker was that there was no real, long-ish (a page or so) reading. That was the biggest surprise.
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herewegoagain365
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Re: disease detective

Post by herewegoagain365 »

Hmm... I guess it really depends on your region... we don't get page readings at regionals.
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Re: disease detective

Post by pjgscioisamazing »

herewegoagain365 wrote:Hmm... I guess it really depends on your region... we don't get page readings at regionals.
Yeah well any Nat'l/ States event I've done for practice I've seen longer readings than one paragraph. And in the past, my region has had those longer readings and bases questions off of it.
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Astronomy, Rocks & Minerals, MagLev, Dynamic Planet (E&V), Anatomy (Circulatory), Reach for the Stars, Meteorology (Climate), Remote Sensing, Disease Detectives, Metric Mastery, Pentathlon, Balloon Race, Tower Building
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Re: disease detective

Post by Flavorflav »

I'm not sure that long reading passages are really that central to the practice of epidemiology.

When you say the author of a case, I assume you mean the author of a study. It is more than a little wierd to ask the author of a study, unless it was John Snow. Was it about cholera in London?
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Re: disease detective

Post by pjgscioisamazing »

Flavorflav wrote:I'm not sure that long reading passages are really that central to the practice of epidemiology.

When you say the author of a case, I assume you mean the author of a study. It is more than a little wierd to ask the author of a study, unless it was John Snow. Was it about cholera in London?
It's not really central to epidemiology, it just surprised me since on almost all (or maybe all) practice events I have done/seen have a longer passage that they tie into epidemiology questions (ie. Math, the kinds of studies, case definitions, etc.)

Yeah I meant a study. It may have been Cholera in London. The problem was me and my partner split the event up (just by habits) and I got the back few pages with some good 2x2 table questions and matching, and my partner had the front, which had the author question. I did look over it, but not as in much detail as I should/could have. Now that I think it probably was John Snow- which is the first epidemiological study right? It would make sense now that I think to ask about John Snow, but even so the question wasn't right after the study, it was down on the page after more questions unrelated to Snow's specific study. Again this is all through remembering so I may have the specific details off- I'm trying my best, and I think I'm practically right on with my descriptions (hopefully :lol: )
2007-2012. Paul J Gelinas Jr High and Ward Melville High School

Astronomy, Rocks & Minerals, MagLev, Dynamic Planet (E&V), Anatomy (Circulatory), Reach for the Stars, Meteorology (Climate), Remote Sensing, Disease Detectives, Metric Mastery, Pentathlon, Balloon Race, Tower Building
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Re: Disease Detectives

Post by 9enigma6 »

Disease Detectives always seems to be different depending on who does it. At the invite we went to it was more based on the vocab and math skills using a set of data, but at our regionals the whole test was reading these four passages and answering questions based off of the reading. I was able to carry the event by myself without much studying at all and still get a fourth at regionals. But I do recommend looking over the math and example questions. :)
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Re: disease detective

Post by herewegoagain365 »

I think most state tournaments have readings, but our regionals, at least, are based more on basic knowledge - vocab, which pathogens cause which diseases, epi curves, etc - and common sense. And yeah, I know how you feel... I can never remember what happened at regionals either!
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Re: disease detective

Post by herewegoagain365 »

Also, just out of curiosity...
For study events, do you think it's easier for partners to split up the test, or to work together on it?
I usually go with the second option, just want to know what you guys think.
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Re: disease detective

Post by sk8lynne »

I think that it is much easier to split up the test . (by the way, I am pjgscioisamazing's partner on disease). If you split it up, you will finish the test much faster. Then you can check over the other person's work and help them with any questions they had. In my opinion, this is much easier. Also, sometimes the test can be really long. For example, at nationals last year the test was like 20 pages long and it was really hard. If me and my parter did not split the test up, we would have never finished.
Events this year:
Picture This
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I am extremely mad that Experimental is not at regionals!
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Re: Disease Detectives

Post by Flavorflav »

I think it comes down to whether or not the event writer knows anything about epidemiology. If they don't, they make it a reading comprehension event.
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