Scioly.org

Do the event supervisors provide the rubric or should I memorize it?

1st year in Experimental Design

MariaK wrote:Do the event supervisors provide the rubric or should I memorize it?

1st year in Experimental Design

It depends by what you mean by the rubric. They will most likely not give you the rubric in the way it's put on all the websites (sections with points per section listed, ext.), but the answer sheet is normally organized in a way that lists each section (for example there will be a header that says Hypothesis, and then space to write your hypothesis). I would recommend going ahead and memorizing the rubric and what they want for each section. It can be helpful to know in competition which parts are worth the most points so if you are running out of time you can skip sections that aren't as helpful point wise. Did this answer your question? Feel free to PM me if you have more questions.

Thanks Panda, that did answer my question.
On some of the practice tests I saw there were headers and space available (like the example you said) but on others, the page was completely empty.

No matter what, you should ensure that you always practice to the scoring rubric. If you need more detail, read that scoring explanation I linked earlier. Now, if done enough, you and your partners should have your sections of the scoring rubric memorized where it becomes second nature. If it helps, you could get into the habit of writing the rubric down when you begin on the test. Note that that does take time, though! That's only if you need the structure.

MariaK wrote:Do the event supervisors provide the rubric or should I memorize it?

1st year in Experimental Design

Proctors are required to give you at least the headings of each item on the rubric, but it's good practice to memorize it anyway.

For clarity's sake since there are two 'Experimental Design rubrics':
The rubic-slash-reporting form on the rules sheet is what event supervisors will provide with the topic at competition per 3.c. Section 3.c. is not specific about this, so supervisors could give the full scoring rubric. I've, just, never seen that.
The rubric for B/C on the National site event page is the fuller explanation of where the point values come from. You're unlikely to be provided with that and best have it somehow memorized (well, and how to put it to good use, of course!).

Okay, so I pretty much have the rubric down, but the thing is I only have 1 partner instead of 2.
Does that put me at a disadvantage?

MariaK wrote:Okay, so I pretty much have the rubric down, but the thing is I only have 1 partner instead of 2.
Does that put me at a disadvantage?

Slightly...? If you guys learn to work well together it shouldn't be a problem. Most of the 3-man teams usually have at most 1 or 2 strong members; there's always a kid that got thrown in there at the last minute just to fill up the gap. It's always helpful to have an extra set of hands, but you're not missing out on much.

Don't take my word as gospel - there's probably teams out there with 3 super geniuses in Experimental - but most teams would rather split up their smart kids among many events to improve their final placing.

MariaK wrote:Okay, so I pretty much have the rubric down, but the thing is I only have 1 partner instead of 2.
Does that put me at a disadvantage?

I actually feel like it might be easier with just 2 people sometimes. It's really up to how well you and your partner work together. I have seen many 2 person teams during competition do very well.

What are some of the more challenging experimental designs you guys have gotten in the past(i.e. ones that have involved scientific principles you were not too familiar with)? How have you handled them?