Write It Do It B/C

[QuantumLeaper]

I wish I had done that with the gummy bear...
Also, there's a website that gives you the name of each K'Nex part: http://www.balmoralsoftware.com/knex/pieces/pieces.htm
But I usually just call the round connectors "snowflakes," and "half snowflakes," or "quarter snowflakes," etc. instead of connectors, which is what I call the orange connectors. They actually connect two things. Next year, though, I think I might try using North, East, South, West directions.

I used the snowflakes designation for a while, but it takes a really long time to write out "half-snowflake" repeatedly (of course, I could have just abbreviated it, but I never figured out an intuitive way to do that, so it took me almost as long to remember to use the abbreviation as it did to just write the word out). I eventually switched to just saying "8-slot" or "4-slot" or "2-slot", leaving "connector" or "snowflake" implied, and only specifying the color if it was ambiguous otherwise (e.g., "purple 4-slot" vs. "green 4-slot").

That's a really good strategy. Hopefully they'll put me in WIDI next year. What's funny is that my partner and I practiced with K'Nex pieces and they gave us a structure made up of completely random things. Oh well, it happens.

[Gemma W]

Yeah, it's important to practice with a bunch of different materials. For knex I usually refer to them as circles, even when they are only part circles, and then use N,S,E,W directions. Sometimes I just say "piece" but it is obvious that I mean the connectors when I am talking about slots.

[Sherry Berry]

The tryouts for the school team was random materials, and my partner got the whole thing right...except backwards. I forgot to tell her which way to put the materials, so she put everything flipped. We still got WIDI, though
But last year they used K'Nex, so we expected them to use K'Nex this year. We even spent an entire meeting discussing what we should call each part and how we should figure out where to put them. For some reason, the N/E/S/W thing never occured to either one of us.
And then they gave us a structure made of cups and gummy bears and pipecleaners and beads. Wonderful surprise.
Next year, I will DEFINITELY practice with all sorts of materials.

[personasaurus rex]

The tryouts for the school team was random materials, and my partner got the whole thing right...except backwards. I forgot to tell her which way to put the materials, so she put everything flipped. We still got WIDI, though
But last year they used K'Nex, so we expected them to use K'Nex this year. We even spent an entire meeting discussing what we should call each part and how we should figure out where to put them. For some reason, the N/E/S/W thing never occured to either one of us.
And then they gave us a structure made of cups and gummy bears and pipecleaners and beads. Wonderful surprise.
Next year, I will DEFINITELY practice with all sorts of materials.

The rules request that the proctors NOT use whatever they used in the previous competition. So New Yorkers, don't even practice with k'nex next year.

[Phenylethylamine]

The tryouts for the school team was random materials, and my partner got the whole thing right...except backwards. I forgot to tell her which way to put the materials, so she put everything flipped. We still got WIDI, though
But last year they used K'Nex, so we expected them to use K'Nex this year. We even spent an entire meeting discussing what we should call each part and how we should figure out where to put them. For some reason, the N/E/S/W thing never occured to either one of us.
And then they gave us a structure made of cups and gummy bears and pipecleaners and beads. Wonderful surprise.
Next year, I will DEFINITELY practice with all sorts of materials.

The rules request that the proctors NOT use whatever they used in the previous competition. So New Yorkers, don't even practice with k'nex next year.

...Except that despite that clause in the rules, proctors love to reuse materials, because it's easier for them.

So practice with everything, wherever you are.

[Cheesy Pie]

I want to do this event next year, and I (think that I'm) good at writing directions and building based on directions. But it depends on you and your partner. When I did this for a tryout, my partner drew non-typable images. So, do you know of any ways to train your partner for the event? (Or to practice in general)

Thanks!

[zyzzyva980]

The Write It Do It Wiki has some good ideas (and if it doesn't someone should seriously add them). And I'll bet it's been touched on before in the thread. And it sounds like you're good at both, so if your partner can't do writing well, have them be builder.

[geminicross]

I got put on this event in the last minute...
hated it

[Cheesy Pie]

The Write It Do It Wiki has some good ideas (and if it doesn't someone should seriously add them). And I'll bet it's been touched on before in the thread. And it sounds like you're good at both, so if your partner can't do writing well, have them be builder.

Thank you z. This will really come in handy when I'm finally on varsity next year!
(P.S. - I hope my partner won't suck! )

[FueL]

I want to do this event next year, and I (think that I'm) good at writing directions and building based on directions. But it depends on you and your partner. When I did this for a tryout, my partner drew non-typable images. So, do you know of any ways to train your partner for the event? (Or to practice in general)

Thanks!

It's in the wiki page, but I highly recommend doing a few oral widis. They helped my partner and me a ton.