User:Willpan99
Willpan99 was a Science Olympiad competitor that competed for Ladue High School, Missouri in 2018 - 2021 and for Ladue Middle School in Division B in 2015-2018. The contents of this page essentially act as a journal.
| Years Competed | 6 |
| Event Experience | 14 |
| Total Medals + Ribbons | 44 |
| Invitational Medals | 10 |
| Regional Medals + Ribbons | 19 |
| State Medals + Ribbons | 14 |
| National Medals | 1 |
| Tests Written / Co-Written | 15 |
Events
| Key: | |
|---|---|
| Trying out for (before season) | |
| Competed (during season) | |
| Competed less than all times | |
| Did not make the event | |
| Did not compete in the event | |
| Event is not available | |
| Events | 2016 (B) | 2017 (B) | 2018 (B) | 2019 (C) | 2020 (C) | 2021 (C) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air Trajectory | ||||||
| Anatomy and Physiology | ||||||
| Codebusters | ||||||
| Designer Genes | ||||||
| Disease Detectives | ||||||
| Fast Facts | ||||||
| GeoLogic Mapping | ||||||
| Microbe Mission | ||||||
| Optics | ||||||
| Protein Modeling | ||||||
| Road Scholar | ||||||
| Sounds of Music | ||||||
| Wright Stuff | ||||||
| Write It Do It |
Event Placings
All regional competitions took place in the St. Louis Region 6 Tournament at Lindenwood University (Main Campus), St. Charles. All state competitions took place in the Missouri State Tournament at Westminster College, Fulton.
2016 - 7th grade, Division B
| Events | Regionals | State Comp. | Nationals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air Trajectory | 5th | 5th | 8th |
| Road Scholar | 1st | 1st | 13th |
| The Team | 1st | 1st (72) | 14th (431) |
Somehow, the only reason I made the main team was because of my exceptional performance in Road Scholar. I took on Air Trajectory (while sacrificing many Saturdays to test the machine), which also had only one 7th grader competing. Despite our poorer performance in regionals (didn't even hit the target) and state (better, but... not close), we used many, many hours between State and Nationals to test the machine. At Nationals, this effort paid off; my only, extreme regret is that we could have medaled, but I was being so rushed and bossy that we forgot to put the ball into the machine for the last shot.
Air Trajectory Build: A bunch of PVC pipes on a wooden base, with holes drilled at the weight drop for adjustable height. A plastic soda bottle was screwed into a flexible tube connected to the end of the shooting pipe. Golf balls(?) were shot out when the horseshoe weight hit the bottle. Experimentation: Only consistency was extensively measured out and fixed; everything else somehow turned out fine.
2017 - 8th grade, Division B
| Events | Regionals | State Comp. | Nationals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Road Scholar | 1st | 1st | 1st |
| Write It Do It | 1st | 9th | 36th |
| Anatomy and Physiology | – | 1st | – |
| Wright Stuff | – | 3rd | – |
| The Team | 1st | 1st (65) | 14th (438) |
My 13th place Road Scholar at 2016's national competition had motivated me to do better; my old partner and I had managed to finish the test (as our coach had doubted that we would), but we probably should have done better without the stupid mistakes that had brought me down from my competition career in 3rd grade. Therefore (as my partner described), we went into "overdrive"; this effort paid off.
I was also happy to be competing in Anatomy and Wright Stuff for state. The other person competing for the second spot in Anatomy, however, merely had a conflict at the state competition with another event, and again ousted me out of the national competition spot. My partner for Wright Stuff also had two planes that consistently flew longer than my own plane, so he got to choose a partner for Nationals. And Write It Do It? I was happy to make the event, but I was definitely not happy that my performance was... terrible.
Wright Stuff Build: A plane that flew for 2 minutes at one point two weeks before the state competition but dwindled down to a point that it couldn't fly; I gave up.
2018 - 9th grade, Division B
| Events | Regionals | State Comp. |
|---|---|---|
| Anatomy and Physiology | 1st | 1st |
| Road Scholar | 1st | 1st |
| Write It Do It | 2nd | 18th |
| Optics | 2nd | – |
| The Team | 1st (39) | 2nd (70) |
Since I was a 9th grader this year, I knew I would have a large influence on the team. So, I competed for spots in 7 events (none of them conflicted!) and got a top 5 ranking in all of them. However, my abilities were still outmatched in most of them; I continued the events I had always dedicated myself to. My performance in Anatomy and Road Scholar were good, as usual, but I completely messed up the laser shoot in Optics and lost the tiebreaker in Write It Do It. I then withdrew myself, but that extra time wasn't enough to improve my ever-deteriorating performance in WIDI. At state, we lost the (not first, but now only) spot for Nationals by one point. This was devastating to the team, but I just told myself that I wouldn't do Write It Do It for the high school ever again, and that a loss was probably inevitable; everyone gets what they want at some point in time, even if it's the enemy.
After that devastating loss for both the middle and high school teams, next year for Ladue Science Olympiad would be: the year of the grind.
Wright Stuff Build: A lesser plane restricted by the rules that flew for 1:50 but still couldn't beat other planes; it too eventually dwindled to a useless contraption after two weeks before regionals.
2019 - 10th grade, Division C
| Events | UChicago | Regionals | State Comp. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anatomy and Physiology | 1st | 1st | 1st |
| Codebusters | 1st | 1st | 1st |
| Sounds of Music | 5th | 2nd | 3rd |
| Write It Do It | 1st | 8th | 1st |
| Protein Modeling | 2nd | 1st | -- |
| The Team | 1st (116) | 1st (41) | 2nd (94) |
Alas, even though I tried even more as a younger member of the high school, we still couldn't overcome the injustice of Missouri's one-bid situation. I began the year extremely unconfident in my ability to make the main high school team. However, my presence and somehow good performance (despite having competitions the day before tryouts and extreme procrastination: anybody else start studying the morning before a test?) in my numerous events landed me in a good spot, even competing in more events than I did in middle school. I also somehow joined into a four-person group for Protein Modeling due to invitational conflicts, despite having scored 20% on the event's tests in tryouts...
At least I found courage to pick up WIDI again! The performance wasn't as disappointing this time, because I just had to focus more on getting things right instead of the dang tiebreaker. Next year, though, will still be: the year of the extreme fiery eyed grind. Hopefully, I don't procrastinate and just not study Anatomy.
Sounds of Music Build: A simple glockenspiel.
2020 - 11th grade, Division C
| Events (Pending) | UChicago | Regionals |
|---|---|---|
| Codebusters | 6th | 1st |
| Protein Modeling | 2nd | 1st |
| Sounds of Music | 12th | 3rd |
| Wright Stuff | 13th | -- |
| Write It Do It | 12th | 1st |
| The Team | 4th (168) | 1st (32) |
2021 - 12th grade, Division C
| Events | SO Practice 1 | SO Practice 2 | SO Practice 3 | Regionals | States | Nationals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Codebusters | 12th | >11th | 10th | 2nd | 1st | 25th |
| Protein Modeling | 9th | 2nd | 10th | 1st | 1st | 23rd |
| Sounds of Music | 2nd | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st | 30th |
| The Team | 6th | 5th | 1st | 1st (28) | 1st (28) | 22nd |
Event Supervising and Tests
| Year | Invitational | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 2019-2020 | Pseudonats (Unofficial) | Codebusters B/C |
| Road Scholar B | ||
| Write It Do It B/C | ||
| 2020-2021 | Rickards Invitational | Road Scholar B |
| BirdSO | Road Scholar B | |
| Lexington Invitational | Road Scholar B | |
| 2021-2022 | BirdSO (Mini + Satellite) | Road Scholar B |
| Camas Invitational | Road Scholar B | |
| Sierra Vista Invitational | Road Scholar B | |
| Lexington Invitational | Road Scholar B |
Codebusters:
Pseudonats Enigmanauts
Road Scholar:
BirdSO Invitational
- 2021 - Expedition to the Mythical Bird: Test, Key, and Maps
- 2022 Mini - Memories of Philip Pigeon: Test, Key, and Maps
- 2022 Satellite - The Pigeon and the Corn Fields: Test, Key, and Maps
Camas Invitational
- 2022 - A Snowflake's Journey: Test, Key, and Maps
Lexington Invitational
- 2021: Test, Key, and Maps
- 2022 - The Sandwich Chase: Test, Key, and Maps
Sierra Vista Invitational
- 2022: Test, Key, and Maps
Rickards Invitational
- 2021 - Carson's Road Trip Vacation: Test, Key, and Maps
Adventures of Louis and Bark:
- "The Louis and Bark Expedition" Test
- "The Louis and Bark Expedition" Topographic and Highway Maps (PDF in .ZIP Archive via Google Drive)
Adventures of Francis and Carson:
- "Between Two Seasons" Test and Key
- "Between Two Seasons" Topographic Maps (PDF in .ZIP Archive via Google Drive) (NOTE: Highway map not included)
- "The Last Season" Sequel Test and Key (NOTE: Test has not been revised, key is incomplete, and some questions are unanswerable without the full Bryce Canyon NPS Map.)
- "The Last Season" Topographic and NPS Maps (PDF in .ZIP Archive via Google Drive) (NOTE: Highway map not included)
Pseudonats What's Wrong With My GPS?:
- Test
- Answer Sheet
- Answer Key
- What's Wrong With My GPS Maps (PDFs or JPGs in Google Drive)
Write It Do It:
- Pseudonats Bop It, Twist It, Do It (B) Model, Materials, and Rubric
- Pseudonats Bop It, Twist It, Do It (C) Model, Materials, and Rubric