<p>I'm in the Robotics contest at my school. We are having the science fair on Friday and my robots are almost ready. My team will go against two other teams for the championship. Then we start building for Nationals in the summer. Last year the team came in fifth place overall for the nation in Robotics.</p>
<p>Yeah I know of Fayetteville Manlius, they're pretty good. Our coaches are friends and we might be meeting them later in the season to compete against each other before nationals.</p>
<p>But at nationals I felt that some of their team members had very poor demeanor. It really made me lose respect for their team overall. This is even more true for Troy, even though I already disliked them partly because they've won nationals over my team before.</p>
<p>Xavier you should make an SO team and do the robot event for it. I bet that event would be really easy for people who are specialized in robotics.</p>
<p>i'm doing write it do it, chem lab, and disease detectives</p>
<p>and nationals are just down the street for me this year...</p>
<p>Hmm, yeah, F-M-- I can't say I'm a fan. I'm from the same regional area (in fact, our competition is Saturday) and I've got to say, most of the team's sportsmanship is a bit lacking. We were in the same room at regionals last year (in fact, right next to each other) and I think I met maybe two or three nice, polite kids. You know, out of the entire team. As a whole, it seemed like they were very arrogant-- yes, very confident and enthusiastic, as they should be, but also proud (overly so). At the states awards assembly, while the second place team was still on stage being recognized and having their pictures taken, the kids and families started to descend down the stairs without even waiting for their team to be announced. I mean, yes, they were first and everyone knew that, but it seemed so rude to be so presumptuous and cut the other team's time short. I wasn't impressed.</p>
<p>Anyway, I'm doing practical problem solving, circuit lab, astronomy, and health science. I have no clue how our team is going to do this year... so many kids are such slackers. If we get to states again, I'll frankly be amazed.</p>
<p>Yeah one of my personal experiences with them was in compute this at nationals. Everyone was printing out their stuff after the event ended to hand in. And we were all waiting around the printer, but the Fayman kids pushed (literally) through all of us to grab theirs.</p>
<p>kelsi, how does your team place at states? Is NY really competitive?</p>
<p>Well, to preface my answer, keep in mind my school has 300 kids in it total, is very poor (I think our teachers are the lowest paid I've ever heard of, which is actually saying something, given my mother is a teacher herself in the district over), and is in the middle of absolutely no where. All of the members of the science department (yes, all four, including approximately zero physics teachers) donate their time, and most of the team members are balancing Sci Olymp with continually state-ranked soccer, basketball, music, student government, jobs, farmwork, etc. Sooo, going to states is not always a given. In the past 5 years, though, I believe we've gone 3 times, maybe two-- my memory is a little foggy. Last year, which was my first year on the team, we came in either sixth or seventh in regionals (I think FM and maybe Cicero North Syracuse each had two teams ranked above us) and fourteenth in states, or there about, out of somewhere around 45. The time before that, we ranked as best small school in New York; last year, a Manhatten private boy's school took that title, I believe. Take that as you will, I suppose, but yes, in a word, New York is a very competitive state, or at least in my region it is, and certainly the same can be said for down in the city. There are some 600 teams state-wide, I think? The atmosphere at states is just the most remarkable thing. They're held at West Point in March, so everything takes place in this snowy castle of sorts on the Hudson... It's insane. And so geeky. I love it.</p>
<p>I won the Robotics Championship in my science fair today! Such a close finish. In the championship round I had to defeat the other team two times in a row before he beat me. In the final game for the championship my robot scored a good amount of the points I wanted it to score but the other robot still had to shoot by the time by robot was finished on the board. I waited for his robot to start and I thought it might have not started properly. Then after a long wait it started up and I was a bit nervous. All he had to do was dunk two of the balls into the rim and he would win the contest. His robot sucesfully dunked the first ball and I went into a depression. I thought I had definetley lost beacause during the test runs every time his robot scored the first ball it easily scored the second ball. His robot rolled up to the ball and clamped it into his claw. I basically thought there was no hope beacuse all that had to happen was for him to raise the arm on the robot and dunk the ball. My teacher screamed on the microphone "If he picks up this ball it looks like he will have the championship!" I was very depressed at this point. Then one of the greatest moments of my high school career occured. The second before he was about to dunk the ball for the win I heard a crack and my teacher yelled "It looks like there is a problem. The gear on his claw broke right before he was going to dunk the ball. The ball rolled off his claw, his robot stumbled up to the basket and failed to make the shot. That was it and the Championship belonged to my team! Well now everyone in the class gets to be teammates as we prepare for regionals and nationals.</p>
<p>Congratulations! Sounds like a wonderful moment.
And reporting from midstate NY, I was "frankly amazed"-- we slipped by, and are returning to states again. FM1 and FM2 both were within the top five, of course, but all through the awards ceremony, I'm amused to say that pretty much no one was clapping for them as they got medal after medal after medal. Everytime anyone else won first, there was a deafening roar.
Anyway, just wanted to also report something of a developing controversy here... Apparently the head coach of FM attends literally every coach meeting on the national and state levels all across the country, which is something of a puzzle to me. Often old tests are given out at these meetings, but typically new event tests are compiled from old ones... So, as witnessed by one of my school's coaches today, when resources are allowed, they compile all of these tests and, come their event, just look the question up from their samples and transcribe it onto the answer sheet. What a terrible way to win, I think personally; it seems really against the spirit of the Olympiad.</p>
<p>Good job on making states, kelsiface. That's ridiculous what FM did. What events did they do that for? Did they have a laptop and then search for the question on it?</p>
<p>Thank you! It was a pleasant surprise.
I think my coach witnessed it himself for Dynamic Planet, or if not, one of the other Earth Science events. I guess it isn't just for that event that it happens, though, according to him, anyway...
They used the allowed binder, just instead of being filled with the resources and summarized info that it's probably supposed to contain, it was filled with tests and answers to the tests. In astronomy, though, where a laptop is allowed, that really wouldn't surprise me at all if they made some database or whatever and indeed searched through there. I don't know, though; they weren't in my rotation personally this year, so I didn't see it firsthand.</p>
<p>Health Science, Designer Genes, and Write It Do It</p>
<p>Woo people in SciOly....we are too cool.</p>
<p>Clearly that is EXACTLY what we are. Mhmm. Oh yeah.</p>
<p>lol, yes very cool</p>
<p>Is anyone on here on a top 10 (or so) nationals team? If you are PM me please.</p>
<p>I'm writing the astronomy test for my region and then grading them, does that count? :)
No, I can't tell you what the answers are as I haven't written it yet. ;)</p>
<p>How does that work, if you don't mind me asking? Am I right in presuming you must not be a student, then?</p>
<p>I'm a college student, actually, but I dunno if that's what you had in mind. I'm an officer of my university's Physics and Astronomy Club, you see, and as a public outreach thing we write, administer, and grade the regional exams every year for astronomy. Kinda fun, even if it takes a huge chunk of your time way too early in the weekend mornings!</p>
<p>Ahh, okay. I suppose I wasn't very specific, was I-- I had meant to ask if you were a high school student (which wouldn't have made a whole lot of sense), but this rather does. It's very good of you to give up your time to do this, and though I am certainly not from your region, I'm assuming (we have, after all, already had our regional competition), thank you very much for volunteering to do this. As stressful and occasionally miserable as Sci Olymp sometimes is, the competition itself is quite a bit of fun and a great opportunity to learn and grow as students. If it weren't for people like yourself, it wouldn't happen, and I think that loss really would be a very sad one. If it's any consolation, it takes a huge chunk of the high school students' time away, too?</p>
<p>There's a school in our region, a private boarding school that's amazing at everything. Needless to say they always get first place and have terrible sportsmanship. Overall I wanted to know, how do you prepare for fermi questions? What do you have to definitely know, and what don't you have to know?</p>
<p>Compute this and write it do it</p>
<p>Need serious help on compute this. any advice?</p>
<p>I competed in compute this. It's a very easy event, try to be familar with excel and I suggest you use ask.com for the webquest part. By the way can anyone help me with fermi questions?</p>