Alabama 2013

[astro124]

The Astronomy test consisted of 5 physics problems related to astronomy. No Deep Sky Objects, no Cepheids, no stellar evolution or anything else on the rules sheet for that matter...

Do you have a copy of the test to put on the test exchange?

[awesome90220]

Metric Mastery was not very well run. For one station there were some beans on a lid, and first we were told to measure it with the lid, then without the lid, then with the lid. There was also a station where they put the water at a point on the table where you couldn't see in it, and it was half full of water, but we couldn't move it to see the water until measuring. And, also, measuring everything in INCHES

A few things...
1. Metric Mastery is difficult to run even when NOT following the rules, so cut them a *little* slack (though there really is little excuse).
2. The beans were the measuring instrument, and, I assume, you were taking the area of the lid? That's fair.
3. You didn't raise your hand and say you could not see the water in order to estimate how much of it there was?
4. Inches? Ohhhh, so that's why you brought that up...why didn't you tell your coach and have him/her arbitrate? For a Regional competition, that does sound poorly run.

No we had to do the mass in grams of both the beans and the lid
We already had our estimation sheet taken up, so we couldn't
The inconvenience of having the forestry test immediately after and not knowing where our coach was

[illusionofconfusion]

University of Alabama at Birmingham Div C Regionals Results

1st: Auburn (74)
2nd: Bob Jones (91)
3rd: James Clemens (130)

[ISpacedOut]

The Astronomy test consisted of 5 physics problems related to astronomy. No Deep Sky Objects, no Cepheids, no stellar evolution or anything else on the rules sheet for that matter...

Do you have a copy of the test to put on the test exchange?

Sadly, no. They made us return all copies of the tests before we left the room, and the questions were so long I can't remember more than maybe half of each.

[foreverphysics]

Whoo, States is going to be interesting this year. A few thoughts on how this might play out:

Division B
As far as past results go, it's always been Our Lady of the Valley and Auburn Junior High vying for first. Usually AJHS comes out on top. However, last year showed that another team from Auburn, Drake Middle School, is a pretty darn good contender as well. This year, Drake has a pretty good A team--but so does the Junior High. At Regionals, the Junior High beat Drake (by how much, I'm not certain) and AMSSO swept their Regionals. OLV, however, also swept their Regionals. OLV has been stepping up their game--but AMSSO has been keeping theirs up too
State will almost certainly be a struggle between these three teams. I don't know what AL's registration numbers are this year, so I don't know if we're sending one or two teams to Nats this year. If just one...well, there's no room for error.

Division C
Usually Randolph has got this one in the bag. It's no problem for them to completely decimate everyone else. But last year, Auburn High came in for the first time in many, many years, blew everyone out of the water, and got second. Usually, the competition is less fierce in Division C than in B. But this year...that may change. AHS has had a year to get things in order, and they won Regionals with a fairly low score. Randolph might have a bit of competition this year to get to Nats.

Of course, I'm rooting for Auburn.

[awesome90220]

Whoo, States is going to be interesting this year. A few thoughts on how this might play out:

Division B
As far as past results go, it's always been Our Lady of the Valley and Auburn Junior High vying for first. Usually AJHS comes out on top. However, last year showed that another team from Auburn, Drake Middle School, is a pretty darn good contender as well. This year, Drake has a pretty good A team--but so does the Junior High. At Regionals, the Junior High beat Drake (by how much, I'm not certain) and AMSSO swept their Regionals. OLV, however, also swept their Regionals. OLV has been stepping up their game--but AMSSO has been keeping theirs up too
State will almost certainly be a struggle between these three teams. I don't know what AL's registration numbers are this year, so I don't know if we're sending one or two teams to Nats this year. If just one...well, there's no room for error.

Division C
Usually Randolph has got this one in the bag. It's no problem for them to completely decimate everyone else. But last year, Auburn High came in for the first time in many, many years, blew everyone out of the water, and got second. Usually, the competition is less fierce in Division C than in B. But this year...that may change. AHS has had a year to get things in order, and they won Regionals with a fairly low score. Randolph might have a bit of competition this year to get to Nats.

Of course, I'm rooting for Auburn.

GGGGGGGOOOOOOOOO DDDDDDDDDDRRRRRRAAAAAAKKKKKEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

[hoeth]

For the results of Springhill:
1. Trinity (54)
2. Saint James (76)
3. Catholic 1 (93)

(Catholic had 2 teams)

This was my first time doing science olympiad, but I have to say that I think TPS wasn't run well.
What we had to do was 2 experiments. In the first one, we were given a cup full of ice and a cup full of water. We had to measure the temperature of a cold ice bath with a big thermometer, and the small one with a small thermometer. They were specific about it, so I'm guessing it was sig figs. We had no other questions about it. We were then asked what was our favorite element and what was its symbol, who created the periodic table, and what PV=nRT is (idea gas law).

The second one was a tad bit more logical. It was a pressure experiment, and questions that were actually related to the lab.

We had nothing about harmonics, enzyme reactions, or anything that we were told that we would have, though, haha

[foreverphysics]

...
Wow.
Just wow.

States was...amazing? Hectic? So, so freaking close?

We used kennethfriedman's app for SO scoring, and...
Div B:
22 events in, and the score was tied.

Div C:
We lost by two points.

But it was amazing, and congratulations to Auburn JHS and Randolph HS!