FAQ – Wake-Heritage Elementary Tournament

A:

Hunter GT/AIG Magnet Elementary Varsity

Hunter GT/AIG Magnet Elementary JV1

Harris Creek Elementary Varsity

Harris Creek Elementary JV1

Conn Magnet School of Entrepreneurial Design Varsity

Powell Center for Play and Ingenuity Magnet Varsity

Brassfield Elementary School Varsity

Brassfield Elementary School JV1

Wakefield Elementary Varsity

Brentwood Magnet Elementary Varsity

Brentwood Magnet Elementary JV1

Woods Charter Varsity

Woods Charter JV1

Willow Oak Charter Varsity

Willow Oak Charter JV1

 

 

A: Nothing is needed for this. There will be no limit to the number of teams that are allowed to participate in these 3 events during a single period. So you can plan for your teams to participate in the period that works best with your schedules. If Avogadro won’t let you schedule during the period you need, reach out to me.

A: No worries. We’d like as many of you to keep to your scheduled time slot as possible so that we have the number of teams distributed evenly across the periods, but if you have a reason you need to change periods, just email me to let me know.

A: Yes. They are only separated for scheduling. Blue and Green teams will compete against all other Blue and Green teams (within their varsity/JV level).

Volunteers

Q:  Do you feed the volunteers?

A:    Yes! There will be breakfast and lunch goodies provided for volunteers. If your volunteers have any dietary restrictions, please reach out and let me know!

Ramp & Roll

Q:  What floor surface will be used for Ramp & Roll? 

A:  R&R will be on a gym floor.

Q:  What needs to be on the bottom of the ramps to protect the floors? 

A:  As long as you’ve made the effort to cover any rough spots and keep anything that could scratch the floor up and away from the floor, then you should be fine. Felt circles, a cloth covered bottom, styrofoam, etc should all work. If you’ve tried, and we think there’s a chance your ramp will scratch the floor, we’ll ask you to cover the spot we’re worried about with cardboard or something similar. I haven’t seen this be a problem on any of the ramps I’ve seen at other tournaments though.

Q:  Once the kids are done building their cars, they’re allowed to test their cars on their ramps if time remains during the 30 minute build time. How much allotted space will the team have ? Will it be long enough for the kids to check how their car can go up to 4 or 6 m?

A: The gym is quite large; so I’m sure your team can find room to try their car out to 4-6m. Their building space might not have that much space; so they might need to move their ramp and car to a different area to try it out, but that should be fine. If other teams want to do the same, they’ll need to take turns with the available space.

Note that we might run this event as we did last year’s, where each team will have space with its own course set up with which to test.  Then, when a team is ready, their official run would be at the same spot as their testing spot.  (If you have feedback about this, positive or negative, please let me know.  From what I saw, it seemed to work well, but it also requires a bit more set up for the event leader.)

Science Headbands

Q:  Can multiple words be guessed after a “yes” or no” response? Or, do you need to have a “yes” or no” response, guess just one word, then ask another “yes” or no” question? For example, if the student asks if it is an animal, can the guesser then guess multiple animals?  

A:  I’m not sure if you’re asking if the questioner can guess more than 1 word in 1 question, or if they’re allowed multiple guesses. Either way, I’ll give an example (given the word is mammal):

Q1: Is the word an animal?
A1: Yes
Q2: Is the word reptile, amphibian, or mammal?
A2: Yes
Q3: Is it amphibian?
A3: No
Q4: Mammal?
A4: Yes (Event leader would indicate correct term here.)

This exchange is fine, with or without Q2/A2. Note though, that the team would not get the point until Q4/A4.

The only limitation to the questions is that they must be answered with a “yes” or “no” only. Multiple guesses for one term are fine, as is asking if the word is any of a list of words.

 

Tournament Director

Q:  Tournament Director, who are you? And what should I call you?
A:  My name is Amber Garcowski. My last name is pronounced just like it looks: gar (like the fish) + cow (like the mooing animal) + ski (like the downhill snow sport). You can just call me Amber. And so can your students 🙂 I’m from Ohio; so Ms Amber sounds funny to me, but that is fine as well if your students prefer.

I have 2 elementary-aged daughters (9 and 11), neither of whom participate in Science Olympiad (although I have hopes that they will!)  My husband, Jason, was volun-told for my past NSCO tournaments, and he’ll be back again this year . We have an ornery dog named Luna and a bearded dragon named Melody.

Aside from being a mom to 2 WCPSS kids, I have no affiliation with the schools.

I work at SAS as a software developer, and I’ve been there about 12 years. I have a passion for STEM education, and love that Science Olympiad fosters scientific thinking. I like to take pictures, play strategy games, do puzzles and crosswords, read, and build Legos/metalworks/wood models.

Why am I telling you all this? Because I want you to feel comfortable reaching out to me with comments/questions/advice!