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Luo wrote:Yeah, I don't think it was appropriate for a nationals test to be 1/3-1/2 straight-up identification like it was this year. Last year, identification was implicit instead of explicit, and I think that was a much better gauge of teams' in-depth knowledge and preparation than this year's trivia speed-fest. We actually filed an appeal about the supervisor including samples not on the official list without advance notice, because that is a direct violation of rule 3e. I'm not sure whether the appeal was accepted though.

Yeah, that's a pretty blatant violation.

Did you actually have to identify them, or did you just have to note the crystal structure/habit, hardness, density, etc.? Because if you don't have to identify them, it's fine, but if you're asked to ID something not on the list, that's complete bs.

gneissisnice wrote:

Luo wrote:Yeah, I don't think it was appropriate for a nationals test to be 1/3-1/2 straight-up identification like it was this year. Last year, identification was implicit instead of explicit, and I think that was a much better gauge of teams' in-depth knowledge and preparation than this year's trivia speed-fest. We actually filed an appeal about the supervisor including samples not on the official list without advance notice, because that is a direct violation of rule 3e. I'm not sure whether the appeal was accepted though.

Yeah, that's a pretty blatant violation.

Did you actually have to identify them, or did you just have to note the crystal structure/habit, hardness, density, etc.? Because if you don't have to identify them, it's fine, but if you're asked to ID something not on the list, that's complete bs.

We had to identify them and state what element they were ores of. The only one we successfully identified was cinnabar (ore of mercury).

yeah we only got cinnabar.

for stibnite, i think they hinted that it wasnt on the list. otherwise, if we couldnt identify it, we just assumed it was a more obscure variation of something that was on the list.

There was also kyanite which might have appeared multiple times. Once they asked for its chemical formula.

I really want to know what the scores were...

iYOA wrote:yeah we only got cinnabar.

for stibnite, i think they hinted that it wasnt on the list. otherwise, if we couldnt identify it, we just assumed it was a more obscure variation of something that was on the list.

There was also kyanite which might have appeared multiple times. Once they asked for its chemical formula.

Interesting. In hindsight the antimony one was probably stibnite. We didn't write kyanite as the answer to any question.

yeah when it finished, the supervisor mentioned that cinnabar and kyanite were two that were not on the list but on the test and stibnite looks like it was the antimony ore.

iYOA wrote:yeah when it finished, the supervisor mentioned that cinnabar and kyanite were two that were not on the list but on the test and stibnite looks like it was the antimony ore.

Someone told me that one of the samples was turquoise, not sure of the veracity of that rumor.

shoot... we put amazonite for that
although there was something off about that sample

iYOA wrote:shoot... we put amazonite for that
although there was something off about that sample

I think we put malachite... not sure if we're referring to the same thing, though

Yeah, turquoise is pretty distinct, but only if you actually have seen it before, you shouldn't be expected to know it at all.

Definitely not cool.

I'm seriously gonna see if I can write the Rocks and Minerals event for next year at Nationals (either division would be good), I've been hearing too many horror stories of bad events and I really really wanna go to Orlando next year, haha. Anyone have any idea how to go about that?

gneissisnice wrote: I'm seriously gonna see if I can write the Rocks and Minerals event for next year at Nationals (either division would be good), I've been hearing too many horror stories of bad events and I really really wanna go to Orlando next year, haha. Anyone have any idea how to go about that?

Seems like this is a good time to repeat the advice I regularly give out to graduating seniors who ask how they can get involved at the national level of SO:

The first thing to do is to contact your state SO director and volunteer to help out (http://soinc.org/state_directors_list). You can also volunteer to help at the national tournament each year by going to the national tournament website (it changes each year.. check soinc.org). Once you've helped out for a couple years you'll end up meeting various people on the committee and hopefully will be invited back to help out some more. At some point you just kind of get invited to the rules meetings. It's all about networking and continuing to volunteer and making your presence known.