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Umm.. I would suggest looking through previous posts if you haven't already. Also, be sure you know how to make an experiment I guess...

Don't be nervous, just let your partner do all the work.

Seriously, just read through the previous posts and the [wiki][/wiki], and come back here if you have any questions after that.

kayyy wrote:Hi. How have you been preparing yourselves for this event? I am so nervous, due to the fact that is completely on the spot. Any tips?

If it's at all avoidable, don't be nervous. A little nerves are always good, but when you stress yourself out too much you preform less than your capable of.

Don't be afraid to spend 5-10 minutes at the beginning of the Event planning. Better to use a little time planning than not plan well, and have your experiment fall apart... (which has happened to me... NOT FUN and uber-stressful ) You always want to be a few steps ahead of yourself, if that makes any sense.

When writing things up, don't use flowery language. Make sure you answer everything on the ruberick per section, and that it's grammatically correct, but it can be short, simple, and sweet.

Perhaps most importantly: TRUST YOUR TEAM-MATES!!!!! There's no way one person can do every section of the report. That's why it's a three person event. However you decide to divide up the written and practical portians of the Event, focus on your alotted sections. You need to trust that your team-mates can handle theirs. If you have time at the end, by all means, check over each other's work, but I wouldn't make it a priority...

And lastly- GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!! YOU'LL DO GREAT!!!!!!!

Helix_Nebula_Freak wrote:Don't be afraid to spend 5-10 minutes at the beginning of the Event planning. Better to use a little time planning than not plan well, and have your experiment fall apart... (which has happened to me... NOT FUN and uber-stressful ) You always want to be a few steps ahead of yourself, if that makes any sense.

Ideally, you'd be toward the five minutes end of that; the best way to get faster at coming up with experiments is PRACTICE. Make sure your variable lends itself to an obvious "control" level; make sure it's something you can measure quantitatively; make sure, particularly if it's a chemistry-related experiment, that you have sufficient materials (or else be prepared to write your entire report about limiting reactants!). You want to get started fairly quickly, though, so practice, practice, practice until you can consistently come up with a viable idea in under five minutes.

It might be good to come up with something you'll do ahead of time if certain materials are there. I know it's supposed to be done on the spot but if you have an idea of what you might want to do ahead of time it'll save time debating what to do with your experiment. I've seen teams take nearly 30 minutes deciding what experiment to do. If you take that long, you've pretty much automatically out of the running.

zyzzyva98 wrote:It might be good to come up with something you'll do ahead of time if certain materials are there. I know it's supposed to be done on the spot but if you have an idea of what you might want to do ahead of time it'll save time debating what to do with your experiment. I've seen teams take nearly 30 minutes deciding what experiment to do. If you take that long, you've pretty much automatically out of the running.

Well, there are certain sets of materials that are pretty common (some form of ball and ramp setup, for example), and it could definitely be a good idea to at least have a vague plan of what you'd do that you can just tailor to the specific things they give you.

I think that as the levels get harder, (Regionals to State to Nats) they tend to go away from materials like ramps and more into stuff like chemicals. At our regionals, we had a bunch of chemicals and water and that was it. (All safe)

My group always seems to have trouble creating real life applications of the experiment. For example, anything that involves dropping and time we seem to always go to sky diving.

If you make it sound good, it apparently works, looking at our last competition grade.

zyzzyva98 wrote:If you make it sound good, it apparently works, looking at our last competition grade.

I agree. While everything needs to be there, if you put it into technical scientific terms, making yourself sound smart, (or smarter than you actually are in my case) then your more likely to get a good score.