The Society for the Discontinuation of the Pentathlon

[EastStroudsburg13]

but what i don't agree with is that it should be so serious that when they incorporate a little physical talent into it, people get angry and start a "society for the discontinuation of pentathlon." if you are so serious about science olympiad, you should probably stop complaining and start practicing the event- because it is an event, whether you like it or not.

Physical talent and science olympiad should not go together. Plain and simple. And we do realize it is an event, we just don't like it.

[Phenylethylamine]

It's not that NO SciO kids are athletic- in fact, a bunch of the kids on my team are, although the most athletic ones drop out usually because both SciO and sports take up basically 100% of free time- it's just that for science, there's SciO, and for physical activity, there's... other stuff (and in SciO, we get plenty of exercise just by running up and down the hallways and acting like spazzes).

[crazibanana_51]

That sounds just like my team. We are always busy with sports and SO and constantly acting like spazzes and eating.

[ichaelm]

Oh, I forgot to tell you. Obviously this kinda died at my school a long time ago (see Uncle Fester's post). No coach would ever actually boycott an event, unless they were either stupid or didn't care about winning. And I do personally think that Pentathlon introduces an unnecessary variable into the competition. But rules are rules, and boycotting an event would be against the spirit of Science Olympiad. Sorry if I sounded a bit too 'radical' in my OP. (I was.)

I suppose the real purpose of this topic is to get the people in charge of SO to see that Pentathlon is too controversial to be an event next year!

Also, at this point it's actually a bit of an honor at my team to be picked for Pentathlon, because it means that the coaches think you're good at problem-solving and have a good overall understanding of science.

[zorbak5044]

i think it sounbds fun

[ichaelm]

True, at least it's fun.

[croman74]

Does anybody else have the trial event "Paper Airplanes" at their regionals? We have that. I haven't read the rules, as I won't be doing the event, but just from the name I have a feeling that it might be another strange event. I think I'll get a copy of the rules just to see what it's about. Is S.O. running out of events?

[Phenylethylamine]

Well, trial events often get pretty weird, that's not really anything new. I think Pentathlon coming back is almost part of the 25th anniversary thing, because my coach says that SciO used to be more "game-show-like" and then steadily became more and more seriously science-y... so because it's the 25th anniversary of SciO, they brought back one of the lousy old events.

[Devari]

Does anybody else have the trial event "Paper Airplanes" at their regionals? We have that. I haven't read the rules, as I won't be doing the event, but just from the name I have a feeling that it might be another strange event. I think I'll get a copy of the rules just to see what it's about. Is S.O. running out of events?

A basic summary of what the event consists of would be nice if you get to see it.

previous post (Click to Show Hidden Text)

If you ever get your hands on one, share please.

[ichaelm]

No, I've never heard or it, but it sounds like it might be a mystery-engineering style event, with paper. It's not here: http://soinc.org/trial_events, which means the national organization doesn't recognize it as an official trial event.

And they'll never run out of events! They don't even really need to make new ones! Pentathlon was an event at the beginning. There have only been, like, 50-70 total events that have ever been officially run. They can just reuse the good ones, and occasionally make better ones like Environmental Chemistry.

BTW, don't violate SO copyrights (the rules cost money for the coaches to buy).