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Recently at our unnamed Regional, the was a parent from an unnamed national powerhouse that sat quietly 20 feet or so to the side of the stage, with his small digital camera positioned at his side, with the optical zoom lens fully extended. After each competitor got their boom mounted, he would discretely reach over and push the shutter button, then at the end of each test, he would write down what it held. If that's what it takes to get to Nationals, I guess I'm happy just going to State competition, and leave the National Competition to those teams that have ... well... never mind...

ckssv07 wrote:I went from a ~650-~1400 just by taking some extra time and perfecting my building techniques. That is what separates a lot of the scores(i think)

yeah someone i know just changed the direction of the grains on his loading block, and it went from a really low score to a 1200

dholdgreve wrote:Recently at our unnamed Regional, the was a parent from an unnamed national powerhouse that sat quietly 20 feet or so to the side of the stage, with his small digital camera positioned at his side, with the optical zoom lens fully extended. After each competitor got their boom mounted, he would discretely reach over and push the shutter button, then at the end of each test, he would write down what it held. If that's what it takes to get to Nationals, I guess I'm happy just going to State competition, and leave the National Competition to those teams that have ... well... never mind...

If this parent had asked politely, I wouldn't have had much of a problem with this. However, if they were just sitting there all day and taking pictures without permission, I would have been upset with them. While you can't exactly stop people from taking pictures, I do find it somewhat sneaky to just take pictures 'discreetly' and not discuss it with the students/coaches of that team.

However, as has been stated before, it's mostly about building techniques, etc. However, winning isn't everything in Science Olympiad. It's about having fun, working as a team, and doing your best. I personally don't think it's too much of a big deal.

Also, I'm assuming that not all 'powerhouse' teams do things such as this to do well. Mostly, I feel that those people work very hard at what they do, and 'rude' or 'sneaky' practices are the exception, not the norm.

silverheart7 wrote:

dholdgreve wrote:Recently at our unnamed Regional, the was a parent from an unnamed national powerhouse that sat quietly 20 feet or so to the side of the stage, with his small digital camera positioned at his side, with the optical zoom lens fully extended. After each competitor got their boom mounted, he would discretely reach over and push the shutter button, then at the end of each test, he would write down what it held. If that's what it takes to get to Nationals, I guess I'm happy just going to State competition, and leave the National Competition to those teams that have ... well... never mind...

If this parent had asked politely, I wouldn't have had much of a problem with this. However, if they were just sitting there all day and taking pictures without permission, I would have been upset with them. While you can't exactly stop people from taking pictures, I do find it somewhat sneaky to just take pictures 'discreetly' and not discuss it with the students/coaches of that team.

However, as has been stated before, it's mostly about building techniques, etc. However, winning isn't everything in Science Olympiad. It's about having fun, working as a team, and doing your best. I personally don't think it's too much of a big deal.

Also, I'm assuming that not all 'powerhouse' teams do things such as this to do well. Mostly, I feel that those people work very hard at what they do, and 'rude' or 'sneaky' practices are the exception, not the norm.

I agree....but at some competitions you are not even allowed to take pics, or you have to get permission from the tester.

dholdgreve wrote:
I don't really care what the National policy is regarding pictures of competitors structures. It is rude and distracting for them to be taking pictures of them when they are testing... If they want pictures of it, ask the competitors prior to testing. If they say no... no means no!

Well...

at So. Cal. state scioly, the scale for the boomi was only to .1gram
12.1g
~8.5kg
12th place
my tension member broke; used 3/32"x1/16"

Socal scores were quite competitive. Scores above 850 scored in the top 10. Rumors were that Troy had a 7/8 boomi with 14 kg. They got 4th.

flyingwatermelon wrote:Socal scores were quite competitive. Scores above 850 scored in the top 10. Rumors were that Troy had a 7/8 boomi with 14 kg. They got 4th.

Wow! A 7.8 boomilever that held 14 kg only got 4th? That seems very hard to believe. That's about 1800 efficiency.

Anyway, what do people think the predicted Nats medaling range will be? The only thing that has been discussed has been the top score. I'm thinking: >1700 for div. b, and >1600 for div. c.

Their boom certainly looked like around 8 grams
it looked like, 2/3 of the container was emptied
but, that 1/3 left was the conical part + a bit of the vertical section
If all the sand = 16kg, I would guess 11-13kg

5th place, Canyon Crest Academy's boom looked really light; about 6-7gram range. I think it held 8-9kg

We've talked about nat scores multiple times, just search back for them

looking at around 2000 for C div...