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ttboy99 wrote:My group and I did pretty well at regionals with this event (5th), but are not getting a lot of possible points because it runs too fast, only 7 or 8 seconds. Any ideas on how to slow it down before states?

use a rack and pinion. We have made ours adjustable so it can take up to 1 and a half minutes just for that task.

Orchdork wrote:

GoNerdHerd wrote:Would anyone consider a score in the range of 850-950 a good competitive score for regionals?

Yes that is a good score for regionals. What place did you get?

14th because to make a long story short our mousetraps went off early.

We got 380 . 10th place or worse.

EDIT: and yeah, we're going to states! but I might not do MP at states.

A question for the experienced supervisors out there: at regionals on Saturday, a student's TSL said that their lever for task C was supposed to pull a string, then as an separate unscored task had the string activate a mousetrap. During their run the mousetrap failed to activate, so I did not score the lever. The student argued that since the lever moved, it pulled the string and completed the task as described in the TSL. They won anyway so I did not need to revisit my judgment, but I am curious as to what you all think.

Also, I had two devices that were designed to use hydraulics because they thought only hazardous liquids were forbidden. They didn't fill their reservoir, took a touch and stayed in the first tier, but I think it would avoid confusion if the rule were reworded. Perhaps "Flames, liquids, hazardous materials and hazardous spills are not permitted?" BTW, what did you have in mind when you specified "hazardous spills?" Ball bearings on the floor?

Flavorflav wrote:A question for the experienced supervisors out there: at regionals on Saturday, a student's TSL said that their lever for task C was supposed to pull a string, then as an separate unscored task had the string activate a mousetrap. During their run the mousetrap failed to activate, so I did not score the lever. The student argued that since the lever moved, it pulled the string and completed the task as described in the TSL. They won anyway so I did not need to revisit my judgment, but I am curious as to what you all think.

Unofficially of course, I don't see how pulling a string requires an IMA greater than 1 for task c... so the conditions of task c weren't met.

Now that our season is done, I just want to say thank you to everyone who took the time to answer questions and helped clarified things on this board (especially both of the Chalkers). Your help and thoughtful exchanges are greatly appreciated.

Orchdork wrote:

ttboy99 wrote:My group and I did pretty well at regionals with this event (5th), but are not getting a lot of possible points because it runs too fast, only 7 or 8 seconds. Any ideas on how to slow it down before states?

use a rack and pinion. We have made ours adjustable so it can take up to 1 and a half minutes just for that task.

We already have that task in, but in needs to be fast to be effective. Thanks anyways!

GoNerdHerd wrote:

Orchdork wrote:

GoNerdHerd wrote:Would anyone consider a score in the range of 850-950 a good competitive score for regionals?

Yes that is a good score for regionals. What place did you get?

14th because to make a long story short our mousetraps went off early.

thats ok... we want to incorporate a mouse trap but we don't know where. Which task did you use a mouse trap for?

What score did you get for regionals? We got about 567

chalker wrote:

Flavorflav wrote:A question for the experienced supervisors out there: at regionals on Saturday, a student's TSL said that their lever for task C was supposed to pull a string, then as an separate unscored task had the string activate a mousetrap. During their run the mousetrap failed to activate, so I did not score the lever. The student argued that since the lever moved, it pulled the string and completed the task as described in the TSL. They won anyway so I did not need to revisit my judgment, but I am curious as to what you all think.

Unofficially of course, I don't see how pulling a string requires an IMA greater than 1 for task c... so the conditions of task c weren't met.

I should have noted that there were masses on the lever so that an IMA of greater than one was required for any movement. The question is really this: can a student define "the next action" simply as pulling a string, and then have "string activates mousetrap" as a separate unscored task? It seems clear that the TSL was constructed that way because they had some difficulty activating the trap directly and were trying to get the lever in anyway, which I thought was not in the spirit of the rules.