User:John Richardsim

Hello, my name is John Richardsim. I am in 10th grade at Grand Haven High School. From 6th to 9th grade, I participated in Division B for Lakeshore Middle School. As you will see below, I mainly participate in study events.

Division B

6th Grade (2012)

I only participated in two events in 6th grade; Towers and Reach for the Stars. I didn't make the traveling team, making my Science Olympiad season only three months long (January-March).

Towers-I participated in Towers, but I didn't exactly do very well. This is mainly because I only managed to finish one tower in about two months. The one tower I did finish was poor relative to the towers being built by people who did end up making the team.

Reach for the Stars-I also participated in Reach for the Stars, and did decent in it, but still not as well as others who ended up making the team.

7th Grade (2013)

This year, I ramped things up a bit, participating in six events. I did end up making the traveling team, but I was an alternate and did not compete (seeing what circumstances the district reconfiguration put me under, I'm okay with having been an alternate).

Forestry-I participated in forestry, and absolutely hated it. It didn't interest me, and therefore I didn't bother studying for it in my free time (or at all for that matter).

Metric Mastery-I participated in Metrics and did pretty well...at estimation of lengths. As for estimation of mass, I just can't.

Meteorology (Everyday Weather)-I also participated in Meteorology. I did well in it and I enjoyed it.

Water Quality-I participated in Water Quality. I only did it because it was right after the Meteorology practice, and the coach for Water Quality, who was also the coach for Meteorology, said that I should stay for Water Quality. Since we started with macroinvertebrate identification, and I sucked at it, Water Quality became low priority for me.

Reach for the Stars-I participated in Reach for the Stars again, this year doing even better (I guess it's pretty hard not to).

Rocks and Minerals-I participated in Rocks and Minerals, and although it started off as rather low priority, it definitely gained priority.

Pentathlon-I competed in Pentathlon which was a trial event at Regionals. My partners and I ended up getting 2nd. When I said I participated in 6 events, I didn't count this seeing as how I didn't practice for it.

8th Grade (2014)

This year I kicked it up a notch again, participating in 10 events. I did compete this year, in 4 events; Meteorology, Water Quality, Rocks and Minerals, and Metric Mastery.

Can't Judge a Powder-I participated in Can't Judge a Powder for a little while, but ended up dropping it. Although it did teach me the valuable lesson of observation over inference, I'm just not good enough at fast, coordinated movements, and it just doesn't interest me all that much.

Science Crime-Although I did see Science Crime through, It was similar to Can't Judge a Powder in the fact that I'm not good at moving quickly and coordinated.

Solar System-I participated in Solar System, but it was pretty low priority for me. Something about extraterrestrial water just doesn't interest me that much.

Disease Detectives-I participated in Disease and actually did pretty decent, but didn't compete in it (although I was close).

Water Quality-I decided to do Water Quality again this year, and luckily for me, there weren't macroinvertebrates. For some reason I was good at coral reef indicator organism identification, and I put quite a bit of effort into learning the other stuff. Water Quality went well for my partner and I, and we placed 1st at Regionals, 9th at States (I blame the recently killed Gorgonia), and 8th at Nationals.

Rocks and Minerals-Continuing the trend of last year, Rocks and Minerals was one of my higher priority events this year. I'm surprisingly good at rock and mineral identification, which is strange when you consider how much Forestry and macroinvertebrates just didn't interest me. My partner and I placed 3rd at Regionals, 2nd at States, and 16th at Nationals.

Meteorology (Severe Storms)-I participated in Meteorology again this year, this time competing in it. I started off the season with it as a low priority and I didn't look into stuff about severe storms, but when I was put in for regionals, I started to look into severe storms, and I found out that I really enjoyed it. My partner and I placed 1st at Regionals, 1st at States, and 23rd at Nationals.

Heredity-I participated in heredity and put in a lot of effort, and did quite well.

Metric Mastery-I competed in Metrics this year, but it was pretty similar to last year. I'm very good at estimating lengths, but when it comes to estimating the mass of objects, I just can't. My partner(s) and I placed 4th at Regionals, 2nd at States (despite feeling horribly about it), and 35th at Nationals (despite feeling really great about it).

Boomilever-After one of my teammates recommended that I do at least one building event last year, this year I decided to do Boomilever. After all, I had done Towers. How much different could they be? Well, as it turns out, Boomilever is much more difficult (in my opinion).

Event	Regional	State	Nationals
Water Quality	1st	9th	8th
Rocks and Minerals	3rd	2nd	16th
Meteorology	1st	1st	23rd
Metric Mastery	4th	2nd	35th

FantaSO 2014 Results:

Division B: 5th

Overall: 11th

9th Grade (2015)

This season I practiced for 10 events, all of which were study events (well, I guess Bio-Process Lab is technically a lab event...and also the build portion of Simple Machines...). Throughout Regionals, States, and Nationals, I ended up competing in a total of 8 different events.

Fossils-Ah Fossils. I managed to get identification down pretty well (except for dinosaur ID), but I was still missing the key aspect of binder building. I think what really kept me from sitting down and making documents useful for me to have in a binder was different sources having different information (granted, usually when this happens it is information that is similar and from sources of equal credibility, but this still managed to deter me from getting what I needed. Perhaps I was just impatient, but whenever I tried making binder documents I felt as if I was not making nearly enough progress as I should have). Because of that, Fossils started to receive less of my attention closer to Regionals (and sadly I wasn't able to attend the last month of practices for it due to random other things popping up on Mondays).

Simple Machines-I first became interested in doing this event last year around the time of States when a teammate of mine described it as "mainly a lot of math". With this in mind, I decided to give it a go this year. I did well with the study part of it, and I did eventually find my way with the building portion (....eventually...). Building the lever was my introduction to power tools (a lesson administered in a pole barn during the middle of January with air temperatures well below freezing). Once I had the base of the lever done, it only took me three tries to get the beam "perfect" (when I say that, I actually mean I screwed up twice and finally made something I could work with on my third try). Getting a suitable counterbalance was also a nightmare for me, and after well over 3 hours of searching for materials and other trial and error, I ended up with a counterbalance made of a few rocks taped to the end of the beam (and even at that, I accidentally put them upside-down, resulting in me having a beam with markings that were upside-down...yeah). As States approached, my partner and I decided to take the beam from his lever and attached it to the base of mine (no more upside-down markings!). After a few more minor modifications, we finally had our lever. In conclusion, whereas the study portion of this event came easy for me, the building portion ended up having more twists and turns than Lombard Street. My partner(s) and I got 3rd at Regionals (once again, I would like to apologize for my embarrassing mistake), 9th at States, and 19th at Nationals.

Crave the Wave-Oh Crave the Wave...at first I was very opposed to competing in Crave the Wave because it conflicted with Green Gen. Yes, I will admit that I am more interested in environmental science than waves. However, I am also more interested in helping the team than environmental science, and if I am a better fit for the team in Crave the Wave than in Green Gen, so be it. And hey, I did indeed learn a few valuable lessons while doing Crave the Wave, while also having some interesting times (e.g., crashing two different computers while working on Crave the Wave...). My partner and I got 3rd at Regionals (a really "interesting" setup on that test), 7th at States, and 27th at Nationals.

Anatomy and Physiology-I wanted to do Anatomy in 7th grade, but I decided not to in order to keep my number of events down a bit. The same thing happened in 8th grade. This year, I finally decided to go for it (only after another body system and physiology was added to Division B...). I put a lot of focus into this event early on in the season, but as Blue and Gold started to approach, I had to draw back my focus in order to hit a few other events more. I continued going to practices for it in case of the rare occurrence that I would need to compete in it for whatever reason (and the practice for it was also still very convenient to go to), and that day did come. The Tuesday after the Michigan State Competition (my first day back at practices), my coach alerted me that from the looks of it, I needed to compete in A&P at nationals (one of the A&P competitors now had a conflict with Picture This), as opposed to doing Dynamic Planet as previously planned. At first, the idea of trying to catch up with A&P in less than two weeks horrified/terrified/etc. me, but I could see that it was the best course of action from the standpoint of the team. So, I had the lovely (and unexpected) opportunity of competing in A&P at Nationals, where my partner and I got 32nd (I must say, it was a very "interesting" test for my first time competing in A&P; if you are wondering what it was like, ask anyone who took it and they will love to tell you...).

Bio-Process Lab-I suppose this event fit in well for me. I have very in-depth experience with the metric system from Metric Mastery, a good knowledge of genetics from Heredity, etc. In addition, I was also taking Bio in school, so that also helped a bit. With all of this taken into account, I still did learn many valuable things in this event that I would not have gotten from other events (well, other events that I would be interested in doing). My partner and I got 1st at Regionals, 16th at States (the test was much more like "Bio-Process" than "Bio-Process Lab"...very little "lab" in it, in my opinion), and 20th at Nationals.

Dynamic Planet (Oceanography)-Whereas the idea of doing Dynamic Planet had crossed my mind, I never did Glaciers (there were practice conflicts with it for both years, if I recall correctly). However, after last year, I did latch on to Oceanography pretty early on (mainly for the small parts of the event that were covered in Water Quality). This was fueled by an interest for the topic in general. I was able to compete in it at Regionals, in which my partner and I got 1st. However, I was unable to compete in it at States due to a conflict with Disease Detectives (Disease could have either conflicted with Meteorology or Dynamic, and the skill sets of the potential competitors in both Meteorology and Dynamic were pretty similar, so it was more of just picking one of the two events to take a break from), and then I was unable to compete in it at Nationals due to me being unexpectedly relocated to Anatomy & Physiology during that timeslot.

Meteorology (Climate)-Meteorology throughout the season was a bit more complicated due to practice conflicts with Disease Detectives (I went to practices for Disease, and therefore was unable to attend most practices for Meteorology). Thankfully I had done a great job getting an early start on it, so when I was put in this event for states, I wasn't far behind. My partner and I got 1st at States and 14th at Nationals (a truly disappointing test in the opinions of myself and my partner).

Ah, I'm going to miss Meteorology. Whereas I will openly admit to loving Severe Storms more than Everyday Weather and Climate, all three have found their places in my heart. The other day my friend (who also happened to be my partner in Meteorology this year) asked me what I will do now that I'm going to a place with no Meteorology (otherwise known as Division C). I simply responded, "I will look to the sky". I mean, just because my days of cramming my Meteorology notes into tiny font on a single sheet of paper are over, doesn't mean I've kissed meteorology goodbye. I'm sure I will run back into it somewhere down the line...

Disease Detectives-I don't think anyone truly gets a good grasp on epidemiology the first time they do it. Thankfully for me, this was my second time doing it! I expanded on my knowledge and understanding of all epidemiological concepts from the basic to the...less basic (I still have three more years of Disease Detectives in Division C, I'm sure I still haven't hit the peak of complexity just yet). As an additional note to Disease Detectives, while making my cheat sheet, I did learn all about text boxes and their uses and dangers, so I do plan to (possibly?) put this knowledge to work in upcoming years. My partner and I got 1st at Regionals, 7th at States, and 11th at Nationals.

Green Generation-As I described in my paragraph about Crave the Wave, I originally hoped to compete in Green Generation over Crave the Wave (mainly due to having competed in Water Quality last year and therefore having a background with the topic of aquatic ecosystems), but the needs of the team sadly can't always align with the wishes of each individual, so I just did my best no matter where I was placed.

Solar System-Although at the end of last season I didn't really feel all that interested in extraterrestrial water, I think this year I started to find that interest. One thing that held me back in this event was a strange sensation of not really "getting the event", kind of like studying the wrong stuff, or not heading in the right direction (even though I knew that I was studying the right stuff and heading in the right direction). This strange feeling thankfully started to fade as States approached. At states, my partner and I got 1st place (I loved that test (if I recall correctly, there was not a single question about missions <3)), and we went on to get 27th at Nationals.

After the first week of practices, I made the heartbreaking decision to drop Picture This, due to the practice being held at a very inconvenient location (I'd rather not have to race between schools every hour for practices...).

Event	Regional	State	Nationals
Anatomy & Physiology	N/A	N/A	32nd
Bio-Process Lab	1st	16th	20th
Crave the Wave	3rd	7th	27th
Disease Detectives	1st	7th	11th
Dynamic Planet	1st	N/A	N/A
Meteorology	N/A	1st	14th
Simple Machines	3rd	9th	19th
Solar System	N/A	1st	27th

Nationals Prediction Contest 2015:

Division B:

Event Predictions: 2nd

Top Ten Predictions: 1st

Overall: 1st

Division C:

Event Predictions: 17th

Top Ten Predictions: T-7th

Overall: 8th

Blue and Gold Results

Blue and Gold is Grand Haven's intramural competition. In Division B, competitors compete individually, ribbons are awarded to the top 3 competitors in each grade level in each event, along with a medal for the overall champion of each event. Unless otherwise noted, each of the placements are within the respective grade level.

Blue and Gold Results

Event	6th Grade	7th Grade	8th Grade	9th Grade
Anatomy & Physiology	N/A	N/A	N/A	2nd2
Bio-Process Lab	N/A	N/A	N/A	1st1
Boomilever	N/A	N/A	2nd	N/A
Crave the Wave	N/A	N/A	N/A	1st1
Crime Busters	N/A	N/A	Didn't Place	N/A
Disease Detectives	N/A	N/A	3rd	1st1
Dynamic Planet	N/A	N/A	N/A	2nd
Forestry	N/A	Didn't Place	N/A	N/A
Fossils	N/A	N/A	N/A	2nd
Green Generation	N/A	N/A	N/A	1st1
Heredity	N/A	N/A	1st	N/A
Meteorology	N/A	2nd	2nd	2nd
Metric Mastery	N/A	1st	1st	N/A
Reach for the Stars	1st	2nd	N/A	N/A
Rocks and Minerals	N/A	1st	2nd	N/A
Simple Machines	N/A	N/A	N/A	1st1
Solar System	N/A	N/A	2nd	3rd
Towers	2nd	N/A	N/A	N/A
Water Quality	N/A	1st	1st1	N/A

1: Achieved 1st place in both grade level and overall.

2: This test was harder than the National test for this event that year.

Division C

10th Grade (2016)

I competed in Anatomy and Physiology, Disease Detectives, and Invasive Species.

In addition, I also practiced the following events:

Green Generation

Dynamic Planet

Event	Regional	State
Anatomy & Physiology	2nd	4th
Disease Detectives	N/A	2nd
Invasive Species	4th	1st

Pennsylvania States Prediction Contest 2016:

Division B: 3rd

Division C: 6th

Overall: 1st

Blue and Gold Results

Second number denotes number of people in the event.

Blue and Gold Results

Event	10th Grade
Anatomy & Physiology	1st/4
Disease Detectives	3rd/5
Dynamic Planet	4th/8
Green Generation	3rd/7
Invasive Species	1st/10

Other Interests

As crazy as it may sound, I do a few things outside of Science Olympiad...a few...

Television/Movies

Some of my favorite TV shows/channels include:

• Jeopardy
• Malcolm in the Middle
• The Weather Channel
• Mysteries at the Museum
• The Twilight Zone (1959)

In addition, my favorite movies are Norbit and Click.

Video Games

Video games constitute some of my earliest memories. However, today I rarely play any new games. Some of my favorites include:

• The Sims 1, 2, and 3
• DDR
• SimCity (2013) and SimCity 4
• The Sims Bustin' Out (GBA), The Urbz: Sims in the City (GBA), The Sims 2 (GBA)
• Modern Warfare 2
• Need for Speed Hot Pursuit (2010), Hot Pursuit 2, and Carbon
• Monday Night Combat

If you would like to play one of these games with me sometime, send me a private message on the forums or hunt me down on IRC.

Music

Many of the songs I listen to are from Bemani games. I also listen to some other hipp traxz, but...most of those I have found due to some other related song appearing in a Bemani game...

<spoiler text="Favorite Songs"> A list of some of my favorite songs:

ΕΛΠΙΣ

perditus✝paradisus

Flash Back 90's

Cosmic Hurricane

Starlight Fantasia (Endorphins Mix)

PARADISE LOST

Plan 8

Gradius 2012

THANK YOU FOR PLAYING

Confiserie

Magnetic

Last Dance -extended vocal ver.-

She is my wife

True Blue

Decade

ABSOLUTE 2007

One More Lovely -after hours-

One More Lovely -P*Light Remix-

5.8.8.

FLOWERS for ALBION

pandora

Against All Odds (Dance Version)

Attitude

e-motion 2003 -romantic extended-

Scars of FAUNA

AI

Don't Stop! -kors k mix-

Take A Step Forward

Alstroemeria

Do It Right

New Lights

Programmed Sun

Leaving in the Rain

Spring Comes Around

SigSig

So Many Times

Go Beyond!!

Ordinary

RIZING YOU UP

in motion

Force of Wind

not eternity

New Beginnings

Castles in the Sky

Silent Waves

Mindscape

Reflection

Simple Pleasures

Holiday on Mars

Castamara

Last Day

Now and Forever [StripE Collection Version]

Synaesthesia

Anahera

Greece 2000

Ligaya (Airbase Remix)

Sobre Saliente

Starfighter (Jonas Steur Remix)

F

Blue Rain

Freeway Shuffle

.59

</spoiler>

My favorite artists are dj TAKA, TAG, Sota Fujimori, kors k, Ryu☆, Dirty Androids, Jonas Steur, and Deja Vu feat. Tasmin.

Studymixes

Studymixes are megamixes that I have put together for the purpose of studying. I currently have two:

studymix: The idea first came to me while listening to some psytrance, and though I initially intended it to be more geared towards hardcore, it also came to include many general fast-paced songs.

Length: 2 hours

<spoiler text="Song List">

1. New Beginnings
2. Go For The Top
3. Elemental Creation
4. FIRE FIRE
5. Plan 8
6. PARADISE LOST
7. London EVOLVED (Ver C)
8. Confiserie
9. Sakura Storm
10. Sakura Reflection
11. Sakura Sunrise
12. Time to Air
13. NNRT
14. Seijin no tou
15. Castle on the Moon
16. Magnetic
17. Flash Back 90's
18. Get 'em up to R.A.V.E.
19. invoker
20. SOLID STATE SQUAD
21. CONCEPTUAL
22. FLOWER
23. GLITTER
24. THE BLACK KNIGHT
25. SCHWARZSCHILD FIELD
26. spiral galaxy -L.E.D. STYLE SPREADING PARTICLE BEAM MIX-
27. HYPERION
28. AETHER
29. PRANA
30. STERLING SILVER
31. IN THE ZONE
32. IX
33. Take My Life
34. Fighting for Freedom
35. Monkey Business
36. RISE
37. Programmed World
38. Programmed Life
39. CHRONO DIVER -NORNIR-
40. New Lights
41. One More Lovely -P*Light Remix-

</spoiler>

studymix 2: after finishing the first studymix and listening to it all the way through a number of times, I began to consider making a longer one. This one is largely composed of trance, though it does have some house near the beginning.

Length: 5 hours

<spoiler text="Song List">

1. rainbow flyer
2. rainbow flyer -In The Dream Mix-
3. Miami Sunset Drive
4. See the Future
5. Paradise Drive
6. Dolphin Surfing
7. Everglades
8. Miami Night Drive
9. Remember
10. Lost City (Electro House Remix)
11. Yurikamome
12. Into The Wild
13. Twilight Zone (Pk Hard Trance Remix)
14. Silent Waves
15. Second Turn
16. Sonrisa
17. Flow
18. Rise and Shine
19. Mindscape
20. Reflection
21. Above
22. Simple Pleasures
23. Tales From The South (Jonas Steurs Revision Flow)
24. Hot Monday
25. Holiday on Mars
26. Seni seviyorum
27. Drifting Sand
28. Castamara
29. Last Day
30. I Know
31. Tenshi
32. Gouryella
33. Walhalla
34. Ligaya (Airbase Remix)
35. Synaesthesia
36. Red Shores
37. Sobre Saliente
38. Palma Solane
39. Distant Heartache
40. Waterfall
41. Cressida (Kyau & Albert Remix)
42. Starfighter (Jonas Steur Remix)
43. New Lights

</spoiler>

My Test Gallery

• Metric Unit Conversion practice test
  • Test
  • Key
• 2015 SSSS Meteorology practice test
  • Test
  • Key
• 2016 SSSS Bio-Process Lab practice test
  • Test
  • Key

Editing Guide

See User:John Richardsim/Editing Guide.

Invasives Gallery

See User:John Richardsim/Invasives Gallery.