Pennsylvania 2019

[Anomaly]

I found it interesting how our ES's came 15 minutes late and only gave us 45 minutes... -_-
They didn't even explain any rules or anything... they just... came late. And when they called time, I asked for another 5 minutes because we're suppose to have 50, but they said no because they didn't want us to be late to our next events, but we already were late... sooo... And I'm pretty sure all of the other time slots had 50 minutes...
(salty salty salty salty salty ahhh)

Which event was this?

Code, but she's in missouri lol

[IHateClouds]

Event Reviews!

Meteorology (2): The test was very similar to the regs test in format, and the content was a little disappointing. We were given 45 sec to do each multiple choice question so my partner and I just sat around waiting for the next question. Most of the stuff included in the rules was not tested, while one or two was oddly specific (Entire sections were missed while a question asked about specific type of a specific weather instrument) Most of the test was focused on parts of meteorology that are not useful in the actual field such as the layers of the atmosphere when something such as reading weather maps/charts could have been included. I appreciate that people took time out of their day, but the test was clearly written by someone who did not fully understand meteorology themselves. (2/10)

Dynamic Planet (3): The test was pretty good and my partner and I finished with time left. The questions tested a broad range on information, though more questions could have been included. The ES did not pay much attention when my partner tried to ask a question, but later she allowed me to go to the bathroom when my nose randomly started bleeding.....Overall, it was a pretty good test. (9/10)

Roller Coaster (8): The ESs were very nice (shout to the two really nice Shipley ESs!!). There were multiple timers and people to check measurements. Everything went smoothly. They let us go earlier in our timeslot (normally there's a set order) since we arrived before the other teams. Even with the lack of room, they made space for us to put the extra items we brought. (10/10)

Thanks to everyone involved in PA Scioly!!

[Paypog]

Event reviews :O

Anatomy (1): Same ES as last year, so I knew the test was gonna be really long (it was super long last year and we didn't finish), so me and my partner decided to split it. He did all the multiple choice, so I don't even know how that part of the test was. I did short answer and diagrams etc. For the sections I did, everything was pretty conventional and I really didn't have any problems. We ended up finishing (which I know some teams did not), so we scored really high. (9/10)

Experimental Design (1): This was slightly out of the norm for me because the topic included an experiment that everyone had to do. Therefore we didn't have to waste much time, and were able to get right to it. Other than that slight difference, nothing really caught my eye during this event. (7/10)

Circuit Lab (3): The test was all multiple choice which seemed different, but was nice because you knew you were screwing up if your answer wasn't an option lol. The questions were all of a fair level so nothing really surprised me and my partner. Seeing as this was my second time doing circuit lab ever, I don't have much experience with the lab section, but it seemed pretty normal and we finished it without any problems. Overall, it wasn't too difficult and we finished the whole test with time to check. (9/10)

Pretty well run overall I'd say

[nicky2times01]

Event Reviews:

Overall I'm satisfied.

Mission (2nd): We ran into issues when setting up but were able to work through them. 2 touches, 2 failed tasks, but a good run other than those factors. We learned that many teams incurred similar issues, but congrats to everyone on their builds. Thank you to the event supervisors too on providing a well-run event. (9/10)

Mouse (1st): Honestly, I don't even know what to say about how this event went. My partner and I, from before any runs were done at all, looked how they set up the track and could tell that the rewind distance was close to 3m, not 4 like we were all told. I'm glad I trusted my data. After going 50cm further back than we should have on our first run, I thought that maybe I miscounted what I needed to for our break, so on our 2nd run I took the extra time to be perfect in counting. As it turned out, our car went back the same extra amount as our first run, which means I hadn't miscounted the first time. I've run that car maybe 1000 times and never had something like that happened before, and we practiced the day prior and the car was fine then, which meant something horrbily was wrong with the car, or something was wrong with the track. Went with my gut and said track. I went back and looked at the track from the side and could just visibly tell that the VTP was not 3.7m back as we were told, it was obviously much closer to 3m (3.3). Decided to go at the end of time block 5 and ask to measure the track but we were told we weren't allowed. Luckily we eventually were able to measure it and learned it was indeed 3.3m. Crazy to think something like that would happen at a states competition, but what can go wrong will go wrong I guess. (2/10)

Wright Stuff (1st): As my partner said above in the thread, very big congratulations and thank you to those who ran the event. Everything went smoothly and we couldn't be happier with how Dr. Drummer ran things. (10/10)

[biz11]

@nicky2times01, how were you able to score as low as you did if you targeted a different distance then what they actually had?? Also, congrats on winning.

[nicky2times01]

@nicky2times01, how were you able to score as low as you did if you targeted a different distance then what they actually had?? Also, congrats on winning.

I can't confirm it, but I'm guessing they removed Vehicle Distance entirely, and only counted time and Cup Distance. If they didn't do this: ???

[biz11]

Wow, that is a very questionable move on there part instead of dropping the event, but okay. Also, the rankings for the event are completely incorrect, right?

[GoldenKnight1]

Wow, that is a very questionable move on there part instead of dropping the event, but okay. Also, the rankings for the event are completely incorrect, right?

"Questionable" sure but put yourself in the position of the arbitration committee. You receive multiple appeals about the same thing for the same event. The VTP stated is wrong. With things as wrong as they are you have to do something. You can't just change all team's distance score by 39.9cm for multiple reasons. You could throw out the event, which was my initial recommendation, but that would be so disappointing for the students. Thankfully the committee came up with what I feel was the best solution of just using Cup and Time. This way no team was affected by the VTP being incorrect whether their device curved or not. Yes it would cause a slight issue with time but this still seems far better of a decision for the committee to make so that teams could still be rewarded for what they did.

[rabbitman]

Wow, that is a very questionable move on there part instead of dropping the event, but okay. Also, the rankings for the event are completely incorrect, right?

"Questionable" sure but put yourself in the position of the arbitration committee. You receive multiple appeals about the same thing for the same event. The VTP stated is wrong. With things as wrong as they are you have to do something. You can't just change all team's distance score by 39.9cm for multiple reasons. You could throw out the event, which was my initial recommendation, but that would be so disappointing for the students. Thankfully the committee came up with what I feel was the best solution of just using Cup and Time. This way no team was affected by the VTP being incorrect whether their device curved or not. Yes it would cause a slight issue with time but this still seems far better of a decision for the committee to make so that teams could still be rewarded for what they did.

teams can measure the tracks themselves iirc.... even if its that bad technically you could have accounted for it by measuring it yourself

[lavarball]

Wow, that is a very questionable move on there part instead of dropping the event, but okay. Also, the rankings for the event are completely incorrect, right?

"Questionable" sure but put yourself in the position of the arbitration committee. You receive multiple appeals about the same thing for the same event. The VTP stated is wrong. With things as wrong as they are you have to do something. You can't just change all team's distance score by 39.9cm for multiple reasons. You could throw out the event, which was my initial recommendation, but that would be so disappointing for the students. Thankfully the committee came up with what I feel was the best solution of just using Cup and Time. This way no team was affected by the VTP being incorrect whether their device curved or not. Yes it would cause a slight issue with time but this still seems far better of a decision for the committee to make so that teams could still be rewarded for what they did.

teams can measure the tracks themselves iirc.... even if its that bad technically you could have accounted for it by measuring it yourself

That’s how I felt. The problems with that are that if you have a well calibrated car, you would mostly likely think that you set your brake wrong, rather than the track being wrong. Also, not everyone has a measuring tape. However, we measured out the distance and ran our car to that which made our vehicle distance fine. Our vehicle distance was the strongest part of the car, so the scores really messed us up but I feel like this was one of the only things they could do about it.