Science Olympiad Events 2019-2020

[NSCDS3RdCaptain]

Some supervisors try to have the test be broken up into impossibly long stations in order to make sure that the top few teams know the material cold.

[sciolyperson1]

I believe that the only events which should get binders are the ID events.
If the bio,earth,and chem events get cheatsheets, why do physics events get binders? They can always remove history from the events.
And road definitely shouldn't get a binder/box/whatever.

I'm not sure about this. I think Astronomy is does a great job of incorporating a binder into the event (and goes even further to let competitors use a computer) while keeping the event conceptually challenging and fulfilling. I completely agree with chalker's rationale for using binders - a lot of my courses in college are structured the same way - and I think that if the events' tests are written well, it can make it a pretty good experience for everyone. Not every event should have a binder, but I think physics events/Astronomy having them is the least of Science Olympiad's problems.

I agree, but is there that much of a difference between the difficulty of physics events and bio,earth and chem events(Note:I don't do physics)? By this reasoning, many of the other events should get binders too. Road Scholar, on the other hand, requires few pages in a binder(according to my teammates), which could definitely fit on a cheatsheet.

There shouldn't be a large need for road cheatsheets, all thats needed is really just the usgs topo map symbol sheet. imo, make it so that event supervisors have to provide it, and it'll be a lot easier.

[builderguy135]

I'm not sure about this. I think Astronomy is does a great job of incorporating a binder into the event (and goes even further to let competitors use a computer) while keeping the event conceptually challenging and fulfilling. I completely agree with chalker's rationale for using binders - a lot of my courses in college are structured the same way - and I think that if the events' tests are written well, it can make it a pretty good experience for everyone. Not every event should have a binder, but I think physics events/Astronomy having them is the least of Science Olympiad's problems.

I agree, but is there that much of a difference between the difficulty of physics events and bio,earth and chem events(Note:I don't do physics)? By this reasoning, many of the other events should get binders too. Road Scholar, on the other hand, requires few pages in a binder(according to my teammates), which could definitely fit on a cheatsheet.

There shouldn't be a large need for road cheatsheets, all thats needed is really just the usgs topo map symbol sheet. imo, make it so that event supervisors have to provide it, and it'll be a lot easier.

Road shouldn't get anything other than the usgs symbol sheet. (And tools obviously)

[Chiweenie]

Do you guys know which previous years have included marine and estuaries for water quality?

[dxu46]

I agree, but is there that much of a difference between the difficulty of physics events and bio,earth and chem events(Note:I don't do physics)? By this reasoning, many of the other events should get binders too. Road Scholar, on the other hand, requires few pages in a binder(according to my teammates), which could definitely fit on a cheatsheet.

There shouldn't be a large need for road cheatsheets, all thats needed is really just the usgs topo map symbol sheet. imo, make it so that event supervisors have to provide it, and it'll be a lot easier.

Road shouldn't get anything other than the usgs symbol sheet. (And tools obviously)

(unofficial opinion)
I actually think the Road rules are fine as they are; if you know your stuff you shouldn't need a binder and that should be easier to work with than navigating and using a binder. Starting out, the event is a bit hard to wrap your mind around, which is why having a binder would be useful. Of course, it's easy to know everything in a binder and use it well, so with experience binders aren't necessary. There's really no benefit to using a binder for experienced competitors and it's both a handicap and a big help to less experienced competitors, which is why (in my opinion) the rules don't need to change - having a binder doesn't give an unfair advantage to anyone. The coloring stuff really isn't necessary, though - do they really think a bunch of middle schoolers don't know how to read a key and fill in colors? It just takes up space, really unnecessary.

TL;DR i'm opinionated

[hmmm]

There shouldn't be a large need for road cheatsheets, all thats needed is really just the usgs topo map symbol sheet. imo, make it so that event supervisors have to provide it, and it'll be a lot easier.

Road shouldn't get anything other than the usgs symbol sheet. (And tools obviously)

(unofficial opinion)
I actually think the Road rules are fine as they are; if you know your stuff you shouldn't need a binder and that should be easier to work with than navigating and using a binder. Starting out, the event is a bit hard to wrap your mind around, which is why having a binder would be useful. Of course, it's easy to know everything in a binder and use it well, so with experience binders aren't necessary. There's really no benefit to using a binder for experienced competitors and it's both a handicap and a big help to less experienced competitors, which is why (in my opinion) the rules don't need to change - having a binder doesn't give an unfair advantage to anyone. The coloring stuff really isn't necessary, though - do they really think a bunch of middle schoolers don't know how to read a key and fill in colors? It just takes up space, really unnecessary.

TL;DR i'm opinionated

The difficulty curve for road should be about the same as codebusters(note:i dont do either event), but code gets nothing while road gets a binder

Do you guys know which previous years have included marine and estuaries for water quality?

2013(estuaries) and 2014(marine)

[Name]

The difficulty curve for road should be about the same as codebusters(note:i dont do either event), but code gets nothing while road gets a binder

They are completely different events. I can think of no reason whatsoever that a binder would even be remotely useful for code.

Also in general why would you complain about having a binder instead of a sheet? Less formatting work, no need for like size 2 fonts, better organization, and more information you have the ability to put in. And even with all that information, a binder doesn't really provide that much of a benefit because if you don't underestimate the information you're still not getting the questions right. Maybe you can dig through stuff and find something, but if you try and do that extensively you're just gonna run out of time.

[hmmm]

The difficulty curve for road should be about the same as codebusters(note:i dont do either event), but code gets nothing while road gets a binder

They are completely different events. I can think of no reason whatsoever that a binder would even be remotely useful for code.

Also in general why would you complain about having a binder instead of a sheet? Less formatting work, no need for like size 2 fonts, better organization, and more information you have the ability to put in. And even with all that information, a binder doesn't really provide that much of a benefit because if you don't underestimate the information you're still not getting the questions right. Maybe you can dig through stuff and find something, but if you try and do that extensively you're just gonna run out of time.

then give every event a binder

[UTF-8 U+6211 U+662F]

The difficulty curve for road should be about the same as codebusters(note:i dont do either event), but code gets nothing while road gets a binder

They are completely different events. I can think of no reason whatsoever that a binder would even be remotely useful for code.

Also in general why would you complain about having a binder instead of a sheet? Less formatting work, no need for like size 2 fonts, better organization, and more information you have the ability to put in. And even with all that information, a binder doesn't really provide that much of a benefit because if you don't underestimate the information you're still not getting the questions right. Maybe you can dig through stuff and find something, but if you try and do that extensively you're just gonna run out of time.

then give every event a binder

I wouldn't have anything against that for most events to be honest, but again it's kind of unimportant anyway

[hmmm]

They are completely different events. I can think of no reason whatsoever that a binder would even be remotely useful for code.

Also in general why would you complain about having a binder instead of a sheet? Less formatting work, no need for like size 2 fonts, better organization, and more information you have the ability to put in. And even with all that information, a binder doesn't really provide that much of a benefit because if you don't underestimate the information you're still not getting the questions right. Maybe you can dig through stuff and find something, but if you try and do that extensively you're just gonna run out of time.

then give every event a binder

I wouldn't have anything against that for most events to be honest, but again it's kind of unimportant anyway

*flashbacks to deleting random stuff from my waqua cheatsheet b/c it was 2.5 pages*