Picture This C

[walkingstyx]

While those results are good for showing a spread, you should not use them as a meter stick for your team's progress, as results vary highly with the list. 1st place at nationals last year was only 16 words and my team and I have gotten 5 and 18 words on the same night with different lists. Something this list shows really well is the prominence of ties, and thus the importance of tie breakers. The top scores at Nats last year were
1: 16 words
2: 14 words
3: 13 words
4: 13 words
5: 12 words
6: 12 words
and everyone got at least one word, which shows how ridiculously clumped the scores are in this event. Remember that if there are over 25 teams, there has to be at least one tie, and chances are you will get them at every competition. An unwise pass can cost your entire team a placing in a close competition.

[gsheni]

Anyone here going to states for Westpoint, New York. I was wondering how many words do people usually get at states and are the words really hard? I really need some help as i want to do really good.

[ChrisYim]

i was wondering is picture this on random words or is there a list of words that we can study? ?????

[EastStroudsburg13]

The only constraint supervisors of this event have when picking words is that they have to be science-related. So they are somewhat random in that there isn't a set list that you can focus on. However, you can look at several sample lists of words to get a fell for what the words may be and practice with your partner so you have a system. The Picture This Words Wiki and the Science Olympiad Website have a few lists that can get you started.

[andrewbji]

Yea. They don't have any constraints other than it has to be science, which is thousands of words. I seriously think some of these supervisors just close there eyes and pick words until they have enough. Out of curiosity though, does anyone know any other websites that provide a good deal of potential pic this words other than the ones listed above and the soinc.org ones? I have tried to look at a glossary, but that was a real pain.

[hscmom]

Hi there,

I'm a mom coaching three PT kids and having a blast at it (are moms even allowed on this forum?). At first I must admit I was sort of frustrated by the lack a big word list to learn, but now I realize that the lack of a list is part of the beauty of this event. The possibilities are endless. My husband used to say, "focus on the simple words" which is probably true but we need to NOT forget the weird words. I showed him some of the sample lists online and he now agrees that we should practice a few zinger words too! Islets of Langerhans, anyone?

To help us study, we're maintaining a huge science word list on Excel. The word is in the first column followed by the category in the second column (such as measurement, astronomy, lab equipment).

As the mom/coach, I pick words off this Excel list (as well as words they missed the last time they got together) and create lists of 25 words in about 14 point font and print out the list twice. One list is for our notebook and the other is cut up and folded and put into a paper cup for a practice session (dumb point -- it's easier to fold once and then cut the words than it is to cut the words and fold them up). We fold them just to prevent accidentally seeing the word as we draw a word. No, this is not like the real competition but it provides good practice.

Then, we set the timer and use a white board (I got tired of buying paper every week) and we cycle through the words. When the timer dings, we see how many points we got (lately it's been between 5 and 20 -- depends on the list) and we go over what we were slow at, what we passed and try to come up with a quick way to draw the passed words. Then, just to get the experience, we draw the rest of the words in the cup, discussing strategy all the while. We get 2-4 lists done in an hour.

Finally, when we're done with the words in the cups, we go to the uncut sheet of words and make notes (easy, hard, impossible, passed after a few seconds, etc.) to help us study them -- these sheets go in a notebook. All the little cut-up words go into a big box and sometimes, just for fun, they'll pick words out of that box. Sometimes when we have a big study session at the house (anyone from either B or C, two trays of brownies, etc.) as the kids are winding down, they often like to come over and draw words from the box and draw it on the white board. Sometimes six kids will be goofing off drawing endoplasmic reticulum on the board.

We date the notebook sheets of the word lists and it's exciting to see improvement. Words they were stumped by four weeks ago are now quick, after just a few practices.

It is a pain to go through book indices and glossaries, but it can be done. Sometimes you have to pick and choose -- as a science text can have a thousand terms in it -- and that's just for marine biology! What my daughter decided was a good idea was to ask the other kids on the team (12 on C and 12 on B) to email us ten words from each SO event. So the astronomy folks might send in solar flare, eclipse, asteroid, comet, galaxy, red shift, etc. The anatomy team might send in patella, vein, cerebellum, white blood cell, etc. Of course those words spark the imaginations of the PT team and soon the 10 anatomy words turn in to 30 more words ("Oh, if we have white blood cell, shouldn't we also have plasma?")

Also, discuss passing strategies. For us, if the judge shows the drawer a word and it's something she doesn't know and cannot even pronounce it's an automatic pass. If it's something she's unfamiliar with but can pronounce and break into parts (anticline would be an ant, an eye and an inclined plane with a few minus signs if needed), then she gives it a few seconds to see if the answerers are on the right track. (I'm working with an all-girl Picture This team so that's why all the "she"s).

The team members should be aware of tiebreakers and know that you shouldn't pass too quickly. When they first got together to work on this (in January when regional schedule came out and we found out who was available at the same time), they were passing well over half the words. Now, they pass maybe 1/4 or less of the words.

Good luck and thanks for the hint,
HSC Mom

[smarticle13]

Is picture this like write it, do it? except harder

[hscmom]

Yes, I think Picture This is a lot like Science Word but harder. They both require that kids know science terms and what they mean. But sometimes it is harder to draw a concept. I mean how do you draw "domain" for example? Some things are easier with Picture This (we just did regional and the first PT word was moon, and that is probably easier to do in PT than it is in SW). But most things seem to be easier with Science Word, which might explain why SW is B div and PT is C div.

Oh, and with our Regional the girls got gold (yippee) in PT. They completed 17 words and almost had word 18 when the timer beeped. They passed on 6. Some words were incredibly easy and some were incredibly hard with most right in the middle.

[mad_artist12]

yea at reginals i got 1st in picture this

[hscmom]

Wow, mad_artist, did Florida do PT as a B event? You're a B division guy, right?