Awesome Aquifers B

[mnstrviola]

It seems to me as if one could simply drop the egg by itself and get first of the second tier

[havenguy]

Maybe we should concentrate on this year, eh?

[hscmom]

Right now, it will not: http://soinc.org/sites/default/files/up ... 0-12_0.pdf

I believe this is only tentative, although last year almost all the events stayed the same. I'm not sure which one of the events is replacing it, maybe Shock Value?

Awesome Aquifers is replaced by Helicopter Egg Drop. Shock Value/Electricity and Magnetism replace Optics.

Seems like whenever our team gets really good at an event -- it disappears. The events that we aren't good at seem to last forever.

Oh, if you like the presentation aspects of Aquifer, you might like Sounds of Music where competitors have to explain their instruments to the judges.

[coachmom]

Hi... we're headed to State day after tomorrow. I'm coaching my homeschooled 6th grader who placed 3rd at Regionals. He doesn't have a partner in this event. He did awesome in the presentation and build part... but is still struggling with test 2. I've been giving him practice tests and having him study the USGS maps but he cannot seem to make the connection from the studying to the test....Any last minute tips or ideas? Thanks!

[havenguy]

I just studied as many diagrams as I could, although station two is the hardest for me as well. The best advice I can give is to know what things are on a diagram, know what they represent and understand how the whole system works.

EDIT: YES! At nationals, the prize for winning aquifer is a $1,000 scholarship to a college of your choice! I really want that prize...that is, if my team makes it to nats.

[Skink]

He doesn't have a partner in this event.

This is unwise, particularly for a presentation event such as this (unless your team as a whole is under 15 kids). Still, I suppose it's a little late to substitute someone in, huh?

Far as Station 2 goes, do some quick searches for some examples. Take some groundwater diagrams and ask him questions pertaining to the diagram itself as if it were his model. Start by simple IDing of parts of the aquifer, and then go into deeper thinking. Perhaps block labels out and ask for what goes in the blanks. Ask for remediation techniques that could be used in the system.
Take it a step further and find some graphs or charts. I'm guessing this is where he gets hit the hardest. Graph-reading skills are a must in Science Olympiad and in life, so try your best to foster those. Ask about relationships between the variables, predictions, extrapolations, inferences or conclusions based on the data shown, or what have you. Topographic maps of the water table are less likely to be seen, but I suppose it depends on the supervisor.
Scientific publications? Forget about it; you don't have that kind of time at this point.

The general idea is that you have to bridge his knowledge of the concepts and terms used in Station 1 and during the Station 4 presentation to pictures and data. It all connects together, but you have to help turn that light on.

[mnstrviola]

The Awesome Aquifers test at Norcal State was pretty good.
The first test was basic, 10 questions with nothing too hard.
The second test involved a lot of numbers, including finding vertical hydraulic gradient, finding direction of groundwater flow when given the head in 3 wells in a triangle, and calculating groundwater discharge.
There were 15 presentation concepts, we got through all of them. At the end the judge gave us some pointers on our model such as giving it some contour (slope) and that pollutants spread in the direction of groundwater flow.

[135scioly]

The test in Mo state was super easy! But hard at the same time. The proctor didn't know wht she was talking about! Station 1 was a ten multiple choice question/true false questions and they were so basic! Then station two, she gave us a handout with questions attached! The answers were all in the handout, you just had to read it! And then, there were around eight groups in the me room taking the test. And she thoguht that you were supposed to get 10 minutes overall for al eigth groups, and gave each group only 30 seconds to present! And we presented to everyone so the last group got to hear everyone else first, and they could use their ideas(they got first ). It was not a good experience!

[SirBobo]

The Awesome Aquifers test at Norcal State was pretty good.
The first test was basic, 10 questions with nothing too hard.
The second test involved a lot of numbers, including finding vertical hydraulic gradient, finding direction of groundwater flow when given the head in 3 wells in a triangle, and calculating groundwater discharge.
There were 15 presentation concepts, we got through all of them. At the end the judge gave us some pointers on our model such as giving it some contour (slope) and that pollutants spread in the direction of groundwater flow.

Seems a lot like the Sacremento Regionals test. I wonder if it was the same person who wrote it.

[10manwire]

In fact it was.