Nationals Event Discussion

User avatar
bernard
Administrator
Administrator
Posts: 2498
Joined: January 5th, 2014, 3:12 pm
Division: Grad
State: WA
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Has thanked: 186 times
Been thanked: 789 times
Contact:

Re: Nationals Event Discussion

Post by bernard »

sciolyperson1 wrote:
builderguy135 wrote:
bernard wrote: Devices by a team should not be photographed by spectators who are not affiliated with the tournament or team competing without the team's permission. At nationals the photographers for the tournament wore the same red badge holders as supervisors, hosts, etc. You are always welcome to ask others not to photograph you, but I understand it may have been difficult as your were testing. As an Event Supervisor, if it is not clear whether a photographer is affiliated with the tournament or team competing, I ask to be sure.
....

this dad came up to sciolyperson1 and i during our roller coaster run and recorded the entire thing...
Couldn't say anything either, no outside communication is allowed when competing in a build event...
I wouldn't penalize a team for that but perhaps they could ask the Event Supervisor to provide the warning to the photographer.
"One of the ways that I believe people express their appreciation to the rest of humanity is to make something wonderful and put it out there." – Steve Jobs
User avatar
sciolyperson1
Exalted Member
Exalted Member
Posts: 1074
Joined: April 23rd, 2018, 7:13 pm
Division: C
State: NJ
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Has thanked: 529 times
Been thanked: 601 times
Contact:

Re: Nationals Event Discussion

Post by sciolyperson1 »

bernard wrote:
sciolyperson1 wrote:
builderguy135 wrote:
....

this dad came up to sciolyperson1 and i during our roller coaster run and recorded the entire thing...
Couldn't say anything either, no outside communication is allowed when competing in a build event...
I wouldn't penalize a team for that but perhaps they could ask the Event Supervisor to provide the warning to the photographer.
I decided that I wouldn't really care; last competition anyways.

Shout out to certain schools who *ahem* do the same at invies though :x still beat them at nats in buggy and roller, you know who you are :twisted:

Also side note, a lot of teams are discouraged for bringing their "best" roller, or "best" boomi design, for this exact reason. It would be great if stricter consequences would be placed on these teams....
SoCal Planning Team & BirdSO Tournament Director
WW-P HSN '22, Community MS '18
Sciolyperson1's Userpage
User avatar
windu34
Staff Emeritus
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 1383
Joined: April 19th, 2015, 6:37 pm
Division: Grad
State: FL
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 40 times

Re: Nationals Event Discussion

Post by windu34 »

sciolyperson1 wrote: Also side note, a lot of teams are discouraged for bringing their "best" roller, or "best" boomi design, for this exact reason. It would be great if stricter consequences would be placed on these teams....
This is a good point. When I ES builds at high profile tournaments (States, MIT), I put up signs everywhere stating I will DQ a team if ANYONE associated with them takes pictures. Havent had to do it yet, but Ive paused judging devices to yell at random parents/coaches on multiple occasions.
Boca Raton Community High School Alumni
University of Florida Science Olympiad Co-Founder
Florida Science Olympiad Board of Directors
[email protected] || windu34's Userpage
User avatar
builderguy135
Exalted Member
Exalted Member
Posts: 736
Joined: September 8th, 2018, 12:24 pm
Division: C
State: NJ
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Has thanked: 191 times
Been thanked: 143 times
Contact:

Re: Nationals Event Discussion

Post by builderguy135 »

windu34 wrote:
sciolyperson1 wrote: Also side note, a lot of teams are discouraged for bringing their "best" roller, or "best" boomi design, for this exact reason. It would be great if stricter consequences would be placed on these teams....
This is a good point. When I ES builds at high profile tournaments (States, MIT), I put up signs everywhere stating I will DQ a team if ANYONE associated with them takes pictures. Havent had to do it yet, but Ive paused judging devices to yell at random parents/coaches on multiple occasions.
Only once have i seen an ES do this (shoutout to mr ellis!!!). I wish others would do the same.
West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North '22
BirdSO Co-Director
My Userpage
TheCrazyChemist
Member
Member
Posts: 150
Joined: March 17th, 2019, 9:12 am
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Nationals Event Discussion

Post by TheCrazyChemist »

builderguy135 wrote:
windu34 wrote:
sciolyperson1 wrote: Also side note, a lot of teams are discouraged for bringing their "best" roller, or "best" boomi design, for this exact reason. It would be great if stricter consequences would be placed on these teams....
This is a good point. When I ES builds at high profile tournaments (States, MIT), I put up signs everywhere stating I will DQ a team if ANYONE associated with them takes pictures. Havent had to do it yet, but Ive paused judging devices to yell at random parents/coaches on multiple occasions.
Only once have i seen an ES do this (shoutout to mr ellis!!!). I wish others would do the same.
Yeah, Mr. Ellis completely destroyed that team ( they know who they are). Was that the team sciolyperson1 was referring to? I thought it was, but I wasn't entirely sure.
User avatar
sciolyperson1
Exalted Member
Exalted Member
Posts: 1074
Joined: April 23rd, 2018, 7:13 pm
Division: C
State: NJ
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Has thanked: 529 times
Been thanked: 601 times
Contact:

Re: Nationals Event Discussion

Post by sciolyperson1 »

TheCrazyChemist wrote:
builderguy135 wrote:
windu34 wrote: This is a good point. When I ES builds at high profile tournaments (States, MIT), I put up signs everywhere stating I will DQ a team if ANYONE associated with them takes pictures. Havent had to do it yet, but Ive paused judging devices to yell at random parents/coaches on multiple occasions.
Only once have i seen an ES do this (shoutout to mr ellis!!!). I wish others would do the same.
Yeah, Mr. Ellis completely destroyed that team ( they know who they are). Was that the team sciolyperson1 was referring to? I thought it was, but I wasn't entirely sure.
Personally, I thought I couldn't have been more obvious
SoCal Planning Team & BirdSO Tournament Director
WW-P HSN '22, Community MS '18
Sciolyperson1's Userpage
TheCrazyChemist
Member
Member
Posts: 150
Joined: March 17th, 2019, 9:12 am
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Nationals Event Discussion

Post by TheCrazyChemist »

sciolyperson1 wrote:
TheCrazyChemist wrote:
builderguy135 wrote:
Only once have i seen an ES do this (shoutout to mr ellis!!!). I wish others would do the same.
Yeah, Mr. Ellis completely destroyed that team ( they know who they are). Was that the team sciolyperson1 was referring to? I thought it was, but I wasn't entirely sure.
Personally, I thought I couldn't have been more obvious
I do believe we are talking about different incidents, because what I was thinking of had to do with a student and their lack of knowledge of a certain vehicle.
4Head
Member
Member
Posts: 237
Joined: November 14th, 2016, 11:29 am
Division: C
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Nationals Event Discussion

Post by 4Head »

mastersuperfan wrote:Anatomy and Physiology (1): Oh my God, this test was stressful. It was a ten-station test, five minutes each, with all multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank. My partner and I started off at the three easiest/shortest stations, got lulled into a false sense of security regarding how the rest of the test would be... and promptly started panicking when we realized how long the other stations were. There were a ton of quick judgment calls made on the spot and a lot of frantic writing at the next station still trying to answer questions from the previous station. One station was incredibly long and we didn't get to answer a good chunk of it... The test was fairly heavy on anatomy and histology, and there are many things I know we got wrong (and other things I'm not sure we got right), but we knew and guessed just enough to clutch the event out. My main complaint would be the difficulty/length imbalance between stations (this can mess with scores if some teams end at a hard station while others end on an easy one), but otherwise, it was one of the better A&P tests I've seen this season. It definitely feels like a huge accomplishment to have beaten a test like that, that's for sure. (8/10)

Chemistry Lab (2): Meh. The labs were decently interesting, I guess—one of them had you determine whether an unknown liquid was pure water, a weak acid, or a buffer solution, while the other lab had you calculate the density of a plastic by mixing water and ethanol. My partner did the labs, though, so I did the written test... which was all just basic introductory/AP-level chemistry questions. Stuff like naming, periodic trends, bonding, and a lot of stoichiometry... not as much physical properties or acids/bases focus as I would've liked (the acids/bases questions were all really simple). The "short answer" (non-MC) calculations (didn't require showing work) were worth disproportionately more than the multiple choice questions despite not being any more difficult. I imagine that the labs were probably the biggest differentiator for the top teams. Not a bad test (nothing wrong with it, and there were some interesting questions), but not the most suitable one for Nationals... I'd have preferred the pure speed challenge of Jon Aros' tests. (6/10)

Designer Genes (1): It's hard for me not to give it a 10/10 because I loved this test. It was a long, challenging test that required a lot of interpretation, analysis, and thinking. We split up for the whole test and finished with only 2 minutes left, but I know a lot of teams didn't get to the end. My partner did all of the multiple choice (which was like SAT Reading) plus a few of the open response, while I did the bulk of the open response, which was nearly all heredity with some simple biotech mixed in. Heredity is by far my favorite and strongest part of Designer Genes, so I had a lot of fun; however, my complaint(-ish) with it is that the lopsided distribution of topics probably screwed many other teams over. I wasn't prepared for a lot of the molecular topics that I was expecting to show up, so if the test were different, we could have placed very differently. By the way, the event supervisor is really friendly and a really great person; she wrote MIT and helped out at our State tournament, too. I hope she supervises again next year. (9/10)

Forensics (3): I mean, I don't really know how to rate this because it's exactly what we expected... The Woz runs it the same way every year, and my partner and I had done it at Nats together last year, so we were prepared. I think the test was shorter than usual, since some of the questions were worth more points than they normally are. No real complaints, though. Shoutouts to pikachu4919 for helping out with the event and also for reminding us not to leave our beakers and test tubes behind even after we had already left the room. :P (7/10)

Sounds of Music (2): My partner was the one who tested the build, so I don't really know that was like, although I heard that the supervisor's frequency-measuring tool was way too lenient. It seems(?) like they got every team tested within the block (we were block 3), though I wasn't paying that much attention. If so, then that's good because normally the build testing gets progressively more and more backed up throughout the day. The only thing I can personally rate is the test, though, and honestly, I didn't really like it. It was mainly multiple-choice, with a few music theory/calculation short-answers. There were some AP Physics-level oscillation questions at the beginning, which threw me for a loop because why exactly are non-sound-related simple harmonic oscillators being tested in this event? We got them, but some teams might not have. A lot of the sound-based questions were concepts repeated over and over again; for instance, there were three questions in a row that were just v=sqrt(B/density). Same formula, spam three times... didn't really see the point. The free-response had a disproportionate number of points given to music theory (two scales, 8 points each? yikes), plus some chord theory... and the event description doesn't say anything about chords (again, we got them, but I'm sure not everyone did). What we didn't get, though, was the huge volume of random instrument trivia questions. The event description says, "The design, function, and construction of the instrument types"... which I don't think should include the specific differences between particular string instruments or the properties of an obscure Russian instrument we've never heard of, but maybe that's just me. We didn't know much of this at all and just guessed. There are lots of worse Sounds tests out there, but for Nationals, I wasn't particularly impressed. (Test: 5/10)

Overall: I sort of agree with the vibe that it felt kind of like an invitational. I didn't see many other students outside when I was walking around campus on Friday or Saturday, and the awards ceremony felt very makeshift and rushed (i.e. flat track with ugly ceiling, red foldable chairs, low stage, not taking pictures on stage). I understand that the latter was probably not the organizers' fault if they couldn't get a better venue, but still, it felt disappointing compared to previous years. We stayed in Mary Donlon, and the dorm building was just so run-down on the inside. The lights in our room, plus some of the outlets, straight up didn't work, and the smell was far less than pleasant. Regardless, though, my actual events were run very well on the whole, and I had a great time competing and meeting everyone else across the country. I wouldn't have asked for any other conclusion to my career as a Science Olympiad competitor. Catch y'all from Division D next year!
9 points from 5 events... what even
2019 Sounds of Music National Champion
User avatar
pikachu4919
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 716
Joined: December 7th, 2012, 2:30 pm
Division: Grad
State: IN
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Has thanked: 89 times
Been thanked: 167 times

Re: Nationals Event Discussion

Post by pikachu4919 »

mastersuperfan wrote: Shoutouts to pikachu4919 for helping out with the event and also for reminding us not to leave our beakers and test tubes behind even after we had already left the room. :P
"Did you miss my memes"
"Yeah, but we don't miss your free response"

Piisgood164 and I already have a couple mean ideas in mind for any competitions either of us get asked to do next season :P
Carmel HS (IN) '16
Purdue BioE '21? reevaluating my life choices
Nationals 2016 ~ 4th place Forensics


"It is important to draw wisdom from different places. If you take it from only one place, it becomes rigid and stale." -Uncle Iroh

About me || Rate my tests!
Opinions expressed on this site are not official; the only place for official rules changes and FAQs is soinc.org.

MY CABBAGES!
mastersuperfan
Member
Member
Posts: 14
Joined: March 20th, 2017, 3:28 pm
Division: C
State: MA
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Nationals Event Discussion

Post by mastersuperfan »

pikachu4919 wrote:
mastersuperfan wrote: Shoutouts to pikachu4919 for helping out with the event and also for reminding us not to leave our beakers and test tubes behind even after we had already left the room. :P
"Did you miss my memes"
"Yeah, but we don't miss your free response"

Piisgood164 and I already have a couple mean ideas in mind for any competitions either of us get asked to do next season :P
Since you already did a "none of the above" culprit test, do these new ideas include an "all of the above" now
2020 MIT Sounds of Music Event Co-Supervisor
Acton-Boxborough Regional High School '19
2019 Nationals: 1st Anatomy and Physiology, 1st Designer Genes, 2nd Chemistry Lab, 2nd Sounds of Music, 3rd Forensics
2018 Nationals: 1st Chemistry Lab, 6th Forensics, 8th Herpetology, 9th Anatomy and Physiology
Post Reply

Return to “2019 Nationals”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest