Road Scholar B

[silentsage]

We have just started this event. Looking at the topographical symbols for intermittent lakes and dry lakes. They look identical except the outline of the dry lake is a different color. Is that it? So if we see a lake with dots the same color as the outline, that's an intermittent lake, right? Thanks!

When drawing maps, I have represented dry lakes with a dashed outline and the word "dry" written in it. For intermittent lakes,I use a solid outline with diagonal lines drawn on the inside. These have been acceptable for me. Hope this helps.

[awesome90220]

What should we put in our binders? The experienced team has a binder thats about a inch thick and to the point where the cover is basically flat, but I can only manage to find enough info to stretch out 10 pages

[zyzzyva980]

Rule #1 about binders: Make sure you can find everything you put in. If nothing else, know with absolute certainty where the most important things are.

Now what should you put in for this event?

• The Road Scholar Wiki. All of it. It's useful.
• Topographic symbols sheet. Absolutely crucial to this event.
• Detailed info on UTM and topographic profiling. These are things you might be less likely to know about. Detailed info on everything else in the rules is important too, though, even if you know it. In a binder event, there's no reason to guess if you have the information. If you have the information, you're guaranteed to get the question right.
• If it's on a test, put it in.
• If it's mentioned on this thread, put it in.
• If you stumble upon something and you're not sure whether it really relates to Road Scholar or not... put it in.
• Other things. (Hey, it's your binder. Do what you need to do.)

[ToniJackson]

Does anyone know what maps we need for the 2014 lower hudson valley regional competition? I need to know so that i can get them from AAA.

[zyzzyva980]

I'm guessing the Lower Hudson Valley region doesn't even know what they're using yet. You don't need to get the maps yourself, they will be supplied for you at competition. If you want to get them to study, the better question to ask would be "which maps did the region use last year?" (Being from Kansas, I can't answer that)

You won't know which maps will actually be used until competition day. One of the main points of the event is being able to read a map regardless of the location it portrays. Memorizing everything on the map beforehand would defeat the purpose.

[ToniJackson]

Sorry its just that last year there had been an email that my team hadn't gotten that we would have to bring our OWN maps. Well needless to say, we did not bring the map and got points deducted. We also had to share a map with another team who didn't give us the map until the last 5 mins. And we did know which ones we were using last year.

[wallsm12]

How do you profile highway maps. What is profiling?

[zyzzyva980]

You profile topographic maps, not highway maps, since topographic maps deal more with elevation. It's just like a picture profile- instead of looking at the map from above, you're looking at it from the side, so you see all the contours rising and falling like hills and valleys (or whatever the technical terms are for those, it's been awhile.)

You'll be given a line between two points on the map. Imagine drawing that line on the map in your head, and sticking it to the ground. The line is going to go up and down a lot as it crosses the contour lines. A profile is basically just a plot of how it goes up and down. For a simple example, let's say that the line you need to profile is over an area of land that decreases at a constant rate. The profile would just be a line going down and to the right at that rate (think the graph of y = -x).

Or, let's say it went down at a constant rate, reached its lowest point in the middle, then went back up at a constant rate. Then the profile would form a V.

I know I didn't explain that very well. Perhaps someone could add on to it more if you don't quite understand it yet?

[wallsm12]

You profile topographic maps, not highway maps, since topographic maps deal more with elevation. It's just like a picture profile- instead of looking at the map from above, you're looking at it from the side, so you see all the contours rising and falling like hills and valleys (or whatever the technical terms are for those, it's been awhile.)

You'll be given a line between two points on the map. Imagine drawing that line on the map in your head, and sticking it to the ground. The line is going to go up and down a lot as it crosses the contour lines. A profile is basically just a plot of how it goes up and down. For a simple example, let's say that the line you need to profile is over an area of land that decreases at a constant rate. The profile would just be a line going down and to the right at that rate (think the graph of y = -x).

Or, let's say it went down at a constant rate, reached its lowest point in the middle, then went back up at a constant rate. Then the profile would form a V.

I know I didn't explain that very well. Perhaps someone could add on to it more if you don't quite understand it yet?

That was a very good explanation compared to what I've heard. Thank you.

[wallsm12]

If it's the same as it has been for years (I haven't seen this year's official rules), then this is one of the strangest layouts for a test you'll see. It's supposed to be laid out in story form, meaning you'll see the (un)creative side of your event sups. Basically, your goal is to answer all the questions, and thereby "solve" some mystery or something in the story. Why that's the layout I'm not sure, but it can be amusing.

Anyway, general strategy is to don't read the story. Usually the questions will be in bold in the story, so you just skim to the first question and answer it. If necessary read some of the context to make sure you understand exactly what is going on, but don't get caught up in the story. Save that as a reward for if you get done early. It's a way to unwind with your free time at the end and just laugh with your partner.

Here are some previous tests. You won't have the maps that go along with them of course, but if you really want to, you can order them. Otherwise, just read through some and you'll see what types of questions you'll get.

It is absolutely crucial that you go buy yourself a quadrangle or two or 5 and just go over them. Make sure you can do azimuths, bearings, gradients, stream gradients, distance conversion, elevation readings, and profile drawings super fast. You should not have to stop to look at your resources for any of that, it should be second nature to you.

Let me know if you have any questions. But before you ask, check these two sets of resources for answers: Soinc Road Scholar. Road Scholar Wiki