NCSO Debrief – February/March 2023

How much time should the students expect to have for the portion of Animal Adaptations that involves designing an animal to fit a specific environment?

This is a two part event – half stations, half design an animal.  Students will have approximately 25 minutes to create their animal, as long as it takes the other half of the teams to rotate through the stations.  Then they switch to complete the opposite part. 

For animal adaptations, is it multiple choice or kids are expected to write or describe an answer?

As for all our events that have a test component, kids should expect various kinds of questions.

In Super Sleuths, Do students need to identify powdered and crystalized sugar? If not, which one? Also, is it possible that powders that are not covered on the rules be listed in the packet?

Only powders listed in the rules are fair game. 

Is the text of the Q&A sessions available? 

Yes, in the description below we will be linking transcripts of the Q&As and they will be updated monthly!

Super Sleuths – What type of powdered milk will be used, fortified or dry powdered milk? 

Words printed on index cards, which are held by the event leader.

Do the kids physically move into different positions around the table to switch from sketcher to guesser?

We use whole milk powder.

Trajeggtory – Can you provide more information about how the toss will work? 

All the details on Trajeggtory can be found in the event rules.  This year, students are tossing their devices up and over a 3 meter high barrier.  They will stand in 2 m x 2 m launch area (again, see the diagram in the rules) and the target area will placed somewhere on the other side at a distance between 2 – 5 m.  They should be able to see the target (the barrier won’t be solid, more like an elevated bar to toss over).

I was wondering how the stations will work for the data crunchers group.   Will they rotate at their own speed and they will have to manage their own time?   Or will there be a fixed amount of time at each station?

This really can be applied to any station event – students will be given a certain amount of time at each station (time per station varies based on the event, number of stations, etc) – the event leader will keep time and instruct students on how to move, allowing adequate time for transition between stations.  Elementary kids get easily confused, so we often try to put down arrows on the tables to help them.