moumantai wrote:The room for Invasive Species (regionals) at HCC was amazing. In the testing room itself, there were several (maybe 4-5) tanks of several axolotls each. I guess my only complaint would be that they (and the gigantic bird-of-prey taxidermy on a ceiling perch) distracted me out of being fascinating (and really cute). After we were done with our test, we were allowed into another classroom, which had tanks featuring other animals, like many snakes, more axolotls, turtles, and some pretty weird fish. Oh, right, and more taxidermy...
Oh my gosh yes!! I was in there volunteering as the event supervisor for Bio-Process Lab and periodically I would just walk around the room pretending to make sure teams weren't cheating but actually I was just looking at the tanks
2013~Designer Genes~Disease Detectives~Forensics~Remote Sensing 2014~Anatomy~Experimental Design~Mission Possible 2015~Anatomy~Cell Biology~Experimental Design~Mission Possible 2016~Air Trajectory~Anatomy~Cell Biology~Experimental Design~Protein Modeling~Robot Arm~Wright Stuff Interlake High School GO SAINTS!
WIDI at UGA on Saturday: the same coach from Fulton Science Academy (current WIDI B national champion) who's run WIDI many times over the years. The model was structurally sound so it could be moved around after the builders made it without damaging it, and was built so it would be a great first model for someone just learning the event; it didn't have any complicated connections or anything, but it would still probably challenge many teams. 10/10 awesome
At the disease detectives test at nats last year my partner and I brought an info sheet that was 2 pages in a clear sheet cover. It was supposed to be 1 front and back sheet, and while what we had was essentially the same, it was technically against the rules.
We showed the SO volunteers that the backs of each sheet were blank and promised that we would keep the sheets in the sheet protector the entire time. They hemmed and hawed until someone asked the event director (I think), who allowed it. That was very nice of them to do that, and we ended up doing respectably (better than we expected at least).
In the future we will be sure to bring the info sheet in the correct manner.
Hovercraft was run spectacularly well; the setup and track were flawless and the proctors were very knowledgeable about the event. Additionally, they were also really helpful about resolving schedule conflicts. My partner and I had a problem where we used the same battery in our robot arm and normally, we would schedule hovercraft to be before Robot Arm so we could just take the battery and device out of the room. However, that wasn't the possible at Ut, but the proctor personally took the battery up to Robot Arm in order to let us compete in both events. All in all, it was a really great experience, and I hope they know how much we appreciated it.
Secondly, WIDI at UT has always been run by the same person, and year after year they prove to be challenging structures that are a pleasure to build (or this time, write!) for me. A lot of other tournaments don't use stickers a lot (and that's not a bad thing either), but I just wanted to point out an instance of when they're used in a really cool way. Every time I've been to UT, the structures have always been good.
Definitely Astronomy Nats last year. While our placing wasn't spectacular (low 20s), I loved the test. It was so long and rather tricky, which made it a nice challenge. The thing I loved the most though, was that they gave out free Stellar Evolution posters, (my theory is consolation for the length of the test ). I still have it hanging front and center in my room.
I did not expect them to have real specimens at every station! Not only were they real specimens, but they were the kind you see at museums- really cool specimens with different mineral associations and such. The questions were also really engaging, asking about specific localities, methods of formation, and the relation between minerals and the rocks they make up.
Ladue Science Olympiad (2014ish-2017)
A wild goose flies over a pond, leaving behind a voice in the wind.
A man passes through this world, leaving behind a name.
). I still have it hanging front and center in my room.
