New York 2014

[quizbowl]

It was a little weird to give out medals to the top 10 teams, but (correct me if I'm wrong) I believe that *almost* every single team walked away with one.

[caseyotis]

It was a little weird to give out medals to the top 10 teams, but (correct me if I'm wrong) I believe that every single team walked away with one.

While it's nice to medal, I feel like doing that downplays the value of getting a medal.

[gneissisnice]

It was a little weird to give out medals to the top 10 teams, but (correct me if I'm wrong) I believe that *almost* every single team walked away with one.

They gave out medals to the top 10 teams? That's weird, they've never done that before.

I mean, I guess it's nice that more people get medals, but that seems really time consuming to me.

[caseyotis]

It was a little weird to give out medals to the top 10 teams, but (correct me if I'm wrong) I believe that *almost* every single team walked away with one.

They gave out medals to the top 10 teams? That's weird, they've never done that before.

I mean, I guess it's nice that more people get medals, but that seems really time consuming to me.

It definitely was time-consuming. And the PowerPoints...

[Stromatolite1]

My usual logins not working. The comments were way inappropriate. Even if they do have a preference they should certainly not say anything. Did the mic pick up Millers comments to Prout? I thought same thing about that.

[NYC Regional]

Regarding the 10 medals for each event: the board voted to award 10 medals for regions that have 40+ teams registered by Dec. 15th. The cutoff date exists because the medals are ordered on Dec. 16. NYC ended up with a total of 51 registered teams (over 40 by the cutoff) and is currently the largest region in the state (now that Nassau had be divided into two regions). When I first heard of the new policy awarding 10 medals for such regions, I too initially thought it reduced the "value" of receiving a medal. However, and I will use the NYC region as an example, let's look at it this way: it would be perfectly reasonable to award a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place medal to a field of 15 teams. Those top 3 positions represent the top 20% of the teams competing in a particular event. With 51 teams, the top 20% equals 10 teams. The State Competition also had 51 teams so it reasons to extend the policy to that event as well.

Also consider that the top team in NYS tends to finish in the top 10 overall at Nationals (including winning it all a few years back); our #2 team tends to place in the top 15 or 20 out of 60 total teams. Thus, when one competes in the NYS Competition, I believe you are really competing amongst some of the nation's best. While some get to go twice or even three times, for many students this is the only time they will ever compete in the NYS Science Olympiad Competition. I believe awarding the top 20% in each event with medals is appropriate.

[Stromatolite1]

Never saw so much focus on cut-offs until this week. Are these changes posted anywhere? Would teams have known that 10 would be awarded going into this weekends competition?

[caseyotis]

Never saw so much focus on cut-offs until this week. Are these changes posted anywhere? Would teams have known that 10 would be awarded going into this weekends competition?

I'm sure the members of the regions (region? was it only NYC?) that had over 40 members competing knew that they would receive top ten medals.

I have to agree with NYC regional on this, though. Our region of 15 teams awarded medals to the top 4. Although 4th place isn't necessarily amazing, it would still be worthy of a medal. So yeah. I don't feel very strongly on either side of the argument.

[Stromatolite1]

Im all for it too.

[darkdeserthighway]

Will the complete grid be posted anytime soon?
EDIT: Never mind, found it.