Pennsylvania 2019

[dxu46]

East, when will you be releasing prediction contest results? I'd like to see how badly everyone did.

[Molybon]

I know it's a bit late, but I'd like to throw my hat into the ring. Please don't take my opinions as anything holding any weight.

Experiment: The event supervisors really took full use of the extra ten minutes to help get everyone situated and to explain how obtaining materials was going to work. The topic itself I thought was very interesting as it required students to really think about how they would decide on the levels of the independent variable and how they would keep these levels consistent. The event supervisors were very helpful!

Dynamic: I do think that the test was a little bit short, but all the questions were fair and on topic. I liked the fact that they used a lot of graph interpretation because it demonstrates that you can apply the information you have been studying! The pictures were very clear in my opinion, and I liked that they removed the use of process of elimination by putting extra terms. However, I do think there was some missed potential to ask about a lot of interesting topics because the test had so few questions.

Geo: The test was pretty all encompassing, and I thought it really demonstrated what a good Geo test should be. I do wish that they included a stereonet, but that's really a minor thing. Also shout out to the ES for having some really relaxing music (maybe swing?) as his alarm to stop testing and leaving it on. I really appreciated it haha.

Widi: The Write it, Do it was very good. There were not too many pieces that you couldn't finish writing and not too few pieces that any mistake you made was amplified. Everything on the build was visible to us. I have to thank my partner for her work in keeping the build balanced! From my end, where the keys are glued in place, it was very hard to imagine the build not falling over. Thank you so much to the ES for being so kind to my partner and I afterwards! We really appreciate the work you do!

Thank you to all the Event Supervisors for all of your time and energy to make this competition possible.

[EastStroudsburg13]

East, when will you be releasing prediction contest results? I'd like to see how badly everyone did.

Probably on a day people stop asking for them.

[21Cabbage]

Wow, that is a very questionable move on there part instead of dropping the event, but okay. Also, the rankings for the event are completely incorrect, right?

"Questionable" sure but put yourself in the position of the arbitration committee. You receive multiple appeals about the same thing for the same event. The VTP stated is wrong. With things as wrong as they are you have to do something. You can't just change all team's distance score by 39.9cm for multiple reasons. You could throw out the event, which was my initial recommendation, but that would be so disappointing for the students. Thankfully the committee came up with what I feel was the best solution of just using Cup and Time. This way no team was affected by the VTP being incorrect whether their device curved or not. Yes it would cause a slight issue with time but this still seems far better of a decision for the committee to make so that teams could still be rewarded for what they did.

teams can measure the tracks themselves iirc.... even if its that bad technically you could have accounted for it by measuring it yourself

We were one of the last people to go for mousetrap vehicle and the event supervisors just got another complaint about the distance. They were really mad at all these complaints and remeasured the distances multiple times. We asked to see the ruler as they were measuring it and we could see that it was in fact 37 cm and they seemed really pigeon off. We used 3.7 as the distance and it worked like it was supposed to. Maybe they changed something after we went, but I don't know.

[Pettywap]

Opinions:

Dynamic Planet (7th): Test was way too short. My partner and I had time check it over together and even left a couple minutes earlier. Very disappointed that the supervisors were not the ones that wrote the test. There was a section that alchzh mentioned that was really confusing as to how many letters we could put as my partner and I thought some letters applied to more than one. (3/10)

Geo Map (3rd): Test was an okay length. My partner and I were able to check over all of the questions. Overall probably my favorite geo map test I took because it was very straightforward and reminded me of plate tectonics and had easy topo questions. I wish more geo map tests were like this one although probably not since there were no 3 point problems and no stereonet problems. I also question the need to bring a geologic compass when no tournament I've been to has made us use it. (10/10)

Wright Stuff (11th): The event was run well and they had someone to manage the doors. Just wasn't our day with this one. (10/10)

Experimental Design (2nd) : Topic was good and I think the proctors did a great job of telling people where the materials were since there were a few placed in different places. Kinda stressed us a little bit when they said we had 5 minutes left but really had 15 minutes. (10/10)

[SonicSpeed]

I honestly didn't know where to put this, and this has nothing to do with states. A lot of people were posting in this area, so I decided why not put in here.

So, I have decided I might not be going to be active anymore (or for a while) for various reasons, and if you think you know what happened, you really don't. Trust me. I know, I know, I sound like a little second grader after a fight with his best friend, and I understand why you would say that. I am not sensitive, and I have the right to make my decisions. I know all of you are like, "Aww he is adorable (that means you SOnerd)." and "This is so cringey." So go ahead and think that, because I am thinking of all the reasons you would laugh at this, but I don't have the time and courage to type them here.

Please don't ask me questions, laugh at me all you want, don't think about me after this post (nobody ever really did anyway).

Bye.

[SOnerd]

I honestly didn't know where to put this, and this has nothing to do with states. A lot of people were posting in this area, so I decided why not put in here.

So, I have decided I might not be going to be active anymore (or for a while) for various reasons, and if you think you know what happened, you really don't. Trust me. I know, I know, I sound like a little second grader after a fight with his best friend, and I understand why you would say that. I am not sensitive, and I have the right to make my decisions. I know all of you are like, "Aww he is adorable (that means you SOnerd)." and "This is so cringey." So go ahead and think that, because I am thinking of all the reasons you would laugh at this, but I don't have the time and courage to type them here.

Please don't ask me questions, laugh at me all you want, don't think about me after this post (nobody ever really did anyway).

Bye.

I apologize if I have upset you, and best of luck with SO in the future! Congrats on doing better than I would have at state if I'd done SO my 6th grade year

[SonicSpeed]

I honestly didn't know where to put this, and this has nothing to do with states. A lot of people were posting in this area, so I decided why not put in here.

So, I have decided I might not be going to be active anymore (or for a while) for various reasons, and if you think you know what happened, you really don't. Trust me. I know, I know, I sound like a little second grader after a fight with his best friend, and I understand why you would say that. I am not sensitive, and I have the right to make my decisions. I know all of you are like, "Aww he is adorable (that means you SOnerd)." and "This is so cringey." So go ahead and think that, because I am thinking of all the reasons you would laugh at this, but I don't have the time and courage to type them here.

Please don't ask me questions, laugh at me all you want, don't think about me after this post (nobody ever really did anyway).

Bye.

I apologize if I have upset you, and best of luck with SO in the future! Congrats on doing better than I would have at state if I'd done SO my 6th grade year

Sorry if you thought that you upsetted me. You are older than me, so it is weird I am saying this. Nobody did anything to me, this was made for an absolute different reason. I put that is as a joke kind of, but the post itself is not a joke.

Sorry again. Thanks for the luck with SO in the future!

[SOnerd]

I honestly didn't know where to put this, and this has nothing to do with states. A lot of people were posting in this area, so I decided why not put in here.

So, I have decided I might not be going to be active anymore (or for a while) for various reasons, and if you think you know what happened, you really don't. Trust me. I know, I know, I sound like a little second grader after a fight with his best friend, and I understand why you would say that. I am not sensitive, and I have the right to make my decisions. I know all of you are like, "Aww he is adorable (that means you SOnerd)." and "This is so cringey." So go ahead and think that, because I am thinking of all the reasons you would laugh at this, but I don't have the time and courage to type them here.

Please don't ask me questions, laugh at me all you want, don't think about me after this post (nobody ever really did anyway).

Bye.

I apologize if I have upset you, and best of luck with SO in the future! Congrats on doing better than I would have at state if I'd done SO my 6th grade year

Sorry if you thought that you upsetted me. You are older than me, so it is weird I am saying this. Nobody did anything to me, this was made for an absolute different reason. I put that is as a joke kind of, but the post itself is not a joke.

Sorry again. Thanks for the luck with SO in the future!

You're fine - I'll make sure to watch for that in the future. Now go choose your events for next year

[sciolyrules107]

Opinions:

Fossils (6th): Well-run event and fair test overall. In my opinion, it was one of the harder tests that I have taken. There were a lot of geology questions that my partner and I weren’t familiar with. The proctor had a lot of really cool specimens, which was awesome. My only critique is that on the answer sheet, there were about 120 questions that were shoved on there. I guess it’s easier to grade that way, but we had to write pretty small when answering the questions. (9.5/10)

Herpetology (7th): Herp was run fairly okay. The style of the test gave easy points to anyone who had the rules whether or not they were good at herp or not. Every ID station had taxonomy (a majority of the points) and four or so questions. The proctor gave us exactly 3 minutes and 16 seconds, which in my opinion, was way too much time for just taxonomy and a few questions. However, this broad and easy test saved my partner and I (we are actually garbage at herp and don’t deserve top ten). It was a fair test with some hard questions and was run pretty well. (9/10)

Wright Stuff (11th): The proctors were very organized, flights were quick, had assigned people guarding the doors all day, and was a fairly run event. Like my partner Pettywap said, we just had some bad luck with planes that day. (10/10)