Indiana 2011

[peoneill]

There are WUT!? Only THREE seniors?

Do you realize how FEW that is for a state championship team? Ouch Ouch Ouch... You're going to be deadly next year, too.

I see you were in Microbe. What was the issue with Microbe? I've heard tons of complaints but my students were never very specific. They get a week off so I have to wait until NEXT Monday to interrogate them further and would love to hear your memory of the test.

[Starapollo1]

There are WUT!? Only THREE seniors?

Do you realize how FEW that is for a state championship team? Ouch Ouch Ouch... You're going to be deadly next year, too.

I see you were in Microbe. What was the issue with Microbe? I've heard tons of complaints but my students were never very specific. They get a week off so I have to wait until NEXT Monday to interrogate them further and would love to hear your memory of the test.

Lol I guess 3 isn't a lot but one of them, the guy is a freaking genius!! He helps with like all the build events, (he got first in robot, mousetrap, etc) and his dedication is insane. The two girl seniors are insanely insync do you remember their perfect at Manchester? They got a perfect in Ohio at West Liberty Salem too... They also got two other perfects but I can't remember where...

Oh and the microbe test.... I think you guys did well (i believe you got first in it...) but I would expect nothing less of you guys, (you always have a strong standing academically!) But they had a whole section on diseases... which wouldn't normally be bad... except the rules clearly state that all questions over diseases should be restricted to the disease list on the S.O. website.... on the test we had to match the specific bacterial agent to the following diseases abortion, scarlet fever, the black plague... yeah none of those are on the disease list we needed to know... and furthermore some of the things we had to identify were (i thought) bogus. I worked really hard in microbe and felt very prepared and was very dissapointed by the test... Oh well though, I'll get one more chance

p.s. if it isn't too bold... what happened to you in Wind Power?!?!?!?

[AngryBird]

I don't know what happened to battery buggy at states. It didn't have the speed it needed to make the turn. When I was practising it was going about twice the speed and the time at states was about 5 seconds to go 7 meters. At practice I was going about 3-4 seconds for 8 meters at practice. And I was geting as close as 2 cm off. To bad the distance was accually 5 meters and I thought it was 6... oops. So when i found out that i got 12th in b.b. I was mad because 2 weeks before states I rebuilt it because the gear box broke so we had to get a new one. And when I was calabrating I was getting a max of 30 cm off... so when they said that it was over 1 meter off I wanted to "burn" it because out of all of the problems it gave me and it failed at states i was mad... the one I used at regionals was terrible and i got 3rd. And I made a new one and the gear box was sooooooo powerful that I had to put a weight to keep it from bouncing because the buggy couldn't take off fast enough. So I put a 50g weight on and it still bounced. Thats how powerful that thing was. And we get to states and it losted the speed to make the turn so it went strait. I was so mad at that thing that I'm kind of glad that there is no battery buggy next year so I won't have the problems like I did this year. And when I get to high school I want to do e.v. because I have a perfect idea . It will not fail !!!!!!!

[Starapollo1]

Oh I guess for those from other states who want to see, this was how saturday went, i can't remember the scores for 4th and 5th...

1. Northridge (123)-Advancing to Nationals
2. Bloomington South (144)-Advancing to Nationals
3. Whiting! (152)
4. Bloomington North (?)
5. Valporaiso (?)

[Azukeri]

Congrats! To everyone who made it to state and didn't.


Whiting was BEAST Just saying.

It was really spread out this year, medals everywhere!

[Starapollo1]

Congrats! To everyone who made it to state and didn't.


Whiting was BEAST Just saying.

It was really spread out this year, medals everywhere!

What school are you from??

[heejungkim12]

Did anybody else notice how this State competition did not seem to follow the manual?

-Our helicopter was amazing, but apparently the ceiling of the room in which Helicopters was held didn't allow for them to fly very long.

-Also, for Disease Detectives, the test was not at all what the manual indicated. There were many questions about mutualism/parasitism/commensalism, but none about odds ratio and relative risk or foodborne illnesses, which was what the focus should have been. My partner and I didn't use our note sheet at all, but somehow we still managed to pull off 2nd place. The tiebreaker question was also ridiculous. It was 'Choose a number between 1 and 100.' I was under the impression that tiebreakers were supposed to be really hard questions that only students who were well-prepared could answer, not some lottery.

I have to congratulate the teams that are moving on to State though. Good job!

[Starapollo1]

Did anybody else notice how this State competition did not seem to follow the manual?

-Our helicopter was amazing, but apparently the ceiling of the room in which Helicopters was held didn't allow for them to fly very long.

-Also, for Disease Detectives, the test was not at all what the manual indicated. There were many questions about mutualism/parasitism/commensalism, but none about odds ratio and relative risk or foodborne illnesses, which was what the focus should have been. My partner and I didn't use our note sheet at all, but somehow we still managed to pull off 2nd place. The tiebreaker question was also ridiculous. It was 'Choose a number between 1 and 100.' I was under the impression that tiebreakers were supposed to be really hard questions that only students who were well-prepared could answer, not some lottery.

I have to congratulate the teams that are moving on to State though. Good job!

You mean the teams moving onto nationals? lol
Like I said earlier on this forum, there were some major janky events. I competed in Disease and our coach actually tried to arbitrate the event when we told him about it. What school are you from heejungkin12?

[peoneill]

@heejungkim12: I believe there is a strong consensus that Disease Detectives was the worst run event at state. We had the returning national champion in disease detectives on our team and she was thrilled with 3rd because the test was "stupid and there was NO epidemiology."

@Starapollo1: Microbe our kids felt was run very poorly. They did complain that they asked about diseases not on the list... maybe that was the big complaint? It wouldn't be unlike them to make kind of a big deal out of it even if only one part was truly problematic. I TRIED to tell them that those diseases weren't on anybody's list and Claire (our returning national disease detectives champion) has kind of a broad education on that stuff so it seemed likely that she would be guessing it well, but until awards they were convinced we were in trouble in that one.

Wind Power is the one event I'm not satisfied with. Our other ranks may have been slightly affected by tournament quality (like easy tests, disease being off-topic), but really only slightly. I CAN NOT believe Lea belongs in 22nd place as she is more obsessive with that event than any other and among those amazing seniors you described (no need to pity her: she got 1st in Astro, 1st in Microbe, and 5th in Ex-Des for her other events, so her hardware collection was just fine). I guess they got zero voltage on the high speed? I can't imagine how that's possible or why it happened. Lea and Moonju were sad about it so I didn't want to pester for details, I'm not the coach for physics events and so Ms. Kvale heard the details in case appeal was needed. The exam was absurdly trivial - essentially a few basic algebra problems with formulas provided, so it was definitely all down to blades.

Of course, it happens to everyone. I mean, for Bloomington North I KNOW that Forensics rank is complete garbage (20th) - I had their team captain, Kaela, at summer camp and she is the returning state champ AND a national medalist in Forensics. I think North got 2nd-tiered for bringing candles: but the rules clearly say "flame-test equipment" in the to-bring list and even if the coordinator wants to take away the candles or whatever I don't think she has the right to as candles can obviously be considered flame-test equipment! Anyhow, it's DEFINITELY NOT OKAY to have 2nd-tiered them for it.

I'm quite certain something like that happened to almost everyone - that's what my years of SO experience tell me (I competed from 1997-2002; was an event coordinator from 2003-2010; and am now coaching). I mean, should we truly have scored nine points on you in microbe? I can easily imagine Lea and Claire deserve the gold medal. Your 10th place however... It seems unlikely given your enthusiasm for SO and the complaints that the event was run at a mediocre quality, if not a very poor quality.

So while I don't contest the results overall as I know everyone has to roll with the punches, I do strongly feel that Bloomington South's Wind Power rank itself is NOT correct.

[Starapollo1]

@heejungkim12: I believe there is a strong consensus that Disease Detectives was the worst run event at state. We had the returning national champion in disease detectives on our team and she was thrilled with 3rd because the test was "stupid and there was NO epidemiology."

@Starapollo1: Microbe our kids felt was run very poorly. They did complain that they asked about diseases not on the list... maybe that was the big complaint? It wouldn't be unlike them to make kind of a big deal out of it even if only one part was truly problematic. I TRIED to tell them that those diseases weren't on anybody's list and Claire (our returning national disease detectives champion) has kind of a broad education on that stuff so it seemed likely that she would be guessing it well, but until awards they were convinced we were in trouble in that one.

Wind Power is the one event I'm not satisfied with. Our other ranks may have been slightly affected by tournament quality (like easy tests, disease being off-topic), but really only slightly. I CAN NOT believe Lea belongs in 22nd place as she is more obsessive with that event than any other and among those amazing seniors you described (no need to pity her: she got 1st in Astro, 1st in Microbe, and 5th in Ex-Des for her other events, so her hardware collection was just fine). I guess they got zero voltage on the high speed? I can't imagine how that's possible or why it happened. Lea and Moonju were sad about it so I didn't want to pester for details, I'm not the coach for physics events and so Ms. Kvale heard the details in case appeal was needed. The exam was absurdly trivial - essentially a few basic algebra problems with formulas provided, so it was definitely all down to blades.

Of course, it happens to everyone. I mean, for Bloomington North I KNOW that Forensics rank is complete garbage (20th) - I had their team captain, Kaela, at summer camp and she is the returning state champ AND a national medalist in Forensics. I think North got 2nd-tiered for bringing candles: but the rules clearly say "flame-test equipment" in the to-bring list and even if the coordinator wants to take away the candles or whatever I don't think she has the right to as candles can obviously be considered flame-test equipment! Anyhow, it's DEFINITELY NOT OKAY to have 2nd-tiered them for it.

I'm quite certain something like that happened to almost everyone - that's what my years of SO experience tell me (I competed from 1997-2002; was an event coordinator from 2003-2010; and am now coaching). I mean, should we truly have scored nine points on you in microbe? I can easily imagine Lea and Claire deserve the gold medal. Your 10th place however... It seems unlikely given your enthusiasm for SO and the complaints that the event was run at a mediocre quality, if not a very poor quality.

So while I don't contest the results overall as I know everyone has to roll with the punches, I do strongly feel that Bloomington South's Wind Power rank itself is NOT correct.

That's a bit more understandable, I was completely and utterly shocked by that placing as I knew you guys deserved better. It definitely happens to everyone though, our helicopter kids were getting incredible times at practices all this week, they had a poor first run, (which doesn't mean anything) but then their second better helicopter, broke before they could test it, they managed to pull a fourth but were still disappointed after working so hard on it. We had a few other events like that as well but like you said every team there had those problems.
I wish your team the best of luck at nationals and let's cheer for an overall good finish for the Indiana teams!! Let's give it our all and can't wait to see you all there!