Indiana Science Olympiad

[i5Cent]

I know that my school, Munster, was one of the schools that complained about trajectory. I'm not entirely sure about what happened, but it centered around Griffith, because they didn't get their graphs back. Then the coordinator told them they shouldn't appeal because they did well anyway. I guess that statement made one kid on my team really angry. It's kinda funny tho, because if it was counted, we would've tied with valpo for 3rd.

I thought a lot of things were badly run. My first event, forensics, was actually done really well though. Aside from the really long test, they made it interesting by making the crime about mario and princess peach. My next event, astronomy, was not at all what we expected. There was only a relatively small section on variable stars, and that too, only about cepheids, which was kinda disappointing. I felt the focus was not on what it should have been. My last event, enviro chem, was just terrible for us. I guess that's probably how the event is supposed to be, but our regional was completely different. My favorite part of the event was the ph and npk tests, where I had to match the shades of the color.

overall, our team did surprisingly well. I'm really looking forward to having state at IU next year, where all the people know what they're doing.

[dickyjones]

Enviro chem was almost exactly the same test as regionals (and the one on the national website) with different samples and modified questions. And I still managed to get 10th, though to be fair, there's not much you can do to prepare for a test like that where nearly anyone can come in and get pretty close to a perfect score. I definitely needed some calculations and actual chemistry, though, somewhere to do well.

It's nice to see Munster doing well. It makes me hopeful that Northwest Indiana won't completely fade away to the Central schools (Bloomingtons/Carmel). I don't know how our school will do next year. We have a couple freshman/sophomores that have the ability to be REALLY good as well as some good juniors, but I'm not sure whether they can cover all of the events that well next year. We'll see...

I'm quite happy it'll be at IU next year. Hopefully I'll be able help out somewhere on the other side of SO.

[Doggalina]

Here's what went down with Trajectory:
The judges weren't following a few of the rules, and when it was brought to their attention, they started following them. This was in the middle of the event, and at least 1/3 of the teams had already gone. They said that they'd just score them in two separate groups and somehow put them together, calling for reshoots if possible. Obviously, this isn't fair and numerous appeals were filed.

And I agree on Enviro Chem. At regionals, we used ACTUAL chemistry. We had to be able to read organic chem molecules and do stoichiometry problems, and the experiment we did was real chemistry. We had three samples, all with different Cl- concentrations. We had to rank them in order of increasing concentration by adding silver nitrate and weighing the precipitates. Really, they could've taken it farther and had us FIND the concentrations, but it was just regionals. Chemistry's my favorite subject, so I was disappointed that state didn't have any rigorous chemistry. I guess I'll just do Chem Lab next year.

[swimmergurl43091]

okay well in the rules it says that teams should have "copies of their graphs" which implies they may not get them back and should still have the original graphs so that really isn't a reason to take the event out. I can understand though about the tiers being messed up. But like really almost half of the events were messed up. My health science test had stuff about the endocrine system and lymphatic system, when its supposed to be cardiovascular and skeletal. The tie-breaker was labeling the heart, which is what the test should be. Really if we took out all the events that were messed up there would only be about half left.

Yeah lucky for you guys that it will be at IU I wish they'd had it there this year. Congrats to Munster too for bringing some variety to the podium. I don't think you guys at Valpo will be going anywhere soon just as those of us from Bloomington won't be either.

Also for any Riley team members: we were wondering if you knew what your raw score was for trajectory and if you hit your targets.

To Doggalina: How were they not following the rules?

[Doggalina]

To Doggalina: How were they not following the rules?

I wasn't in the event, but I was there during the discussion with the judges. The big thing that I could recall is that they didn't mark off the 1 meter by 1.5 meter box the device had to be in. You just had to be behind the line. This is in direct contradiction to the rules, which state:

When instructed by the event supervisor(s), the students will place their device anywhere in a rectangular launch area 1 meter wide (perpendicular to the launch direction) and 1.5 meters long. The launch area will be designated by tape on the floor.

Because the device simply had to be behind the line, participants could adjust their trajectories simply by moving it back far enough so that they'd hit the target.

I also remember my teammate saying that a team hit the target because the ball bounced off the wall, and the judges counted it.

[swimmergurl43091]

I see

So did they mark off the box then during the competition or something? If so, do you know when that was?

Thanks to all of you for your help.

[Doggalina]

I see

So did they mark off the box then during the competition or something? If so, do you know when that was?

Thanks to all of you for your help.

They did after some teams had already gone, sans box. THAT is what the problem was. Everybody didn't compete under identical conditions.

[kmeister87]

But like really almost half of the events were messed up. My health science test had stuff about the endocrine system and lymphatic system, when its supposed to be cardiovascular and skeletal. The tie-breaker was labeling the heart, which is what the test should be. Really if we took out all the events that were messed up there would only be about half left.

Bleck, the health science test was very short, didn't test over much of the broad range of topics listed in the rules, and there was practically nothing on disorders. Technically, the question on which blood cell's hormone was secreted from the liver could be classified under hematopoiesis, which is in the rules, as is the lymphatic system (with circulatory.) The skull, however, wasn't supposed to come in until nationals. Oh well. The reason the heart question was used as a tie-breaker was that a bunch of teams in the evens block asked questions about what the diagram was asking for, as it was unclear whether it was pointing to the chordae tendonae or the ventricles. The event coordinators just got fed up and made it a tiebreaker.

You're right that a lot of events could have been run better... which, again, made this a really strange competition.

[eak227]

This is all very interesting to hear how much seemed to have been wrong with this state competition compared to the typically flawless ones at IU. Maybe it's just because we've all been spoiled (well actually lately they haven't been at IU), so we expect perfection and are disappointed when people make mistakes. But still.

If I recall correctly, IUPUI was actually given state this year because they're trying to bid for the national competition. In order to get nationals, you have to prove to the committee that you can successfully run a rather large state competition. Doesn't sound like they're off to a very hot start if they messed up badly enough that the winner comes down to arbitration and a completely botched event. Not to mention events not up to par with the typical Indiana state quality.

[i5Cent]

If I recall correctly, IUPUI was actually given state this year because they're trying to bid for the national competition. In order to get nationals, you have to prove to the committee that you can successfully run a rather large state competition. Doesn't sound like they're off to a very hot start if they messed up badly enough that the winner comes down to arbitration and a completely botched event. Not to mention events not up to par with the typical Indiana state quality.

I can't believe they think they can run a national competition when they didn't even have an area large enough for our awards ceremony. I definitely can't see them getting to host nationals ever.