Describe It, Build It
Division: A- Elementary
NC Essential Standards Alignment: Science as Inquiry, Writing Standards from ELA Common Core
Event Rules: See 2024 Division A Rule Manual
Description:
Technical writing skills are an important part of an engineer or scientist’s ability to communicate precisely and clearly. This event will test a team’s ability to communicate effectively by having one team member write a description of how to build a device and having his or her partner construct the device from raw materials using their partner’s description.
Materials:
Teams must bring a writing instrument. No other resources are allowed.
Scoring:
The team that builds the object most like the original object wins.
Recommendations:
Remember that finishing the writing early does not help your score, so use every second of your time to add in extra tips and descriptions.
Give an overview at the end or the beginning of the directions about what the overall structure looks like, it helps to orient your partner and give them a frame of reference to build from.
Finishing the build early is used as a tiebreaker, so if you are sure that you are done, raise your hand for the event leader to write down your finish time.
Event Resources:
Fun English Games – Games to practice writing instructions
Can you talk your partner through the maze?
Improv Games for Science Communication
The Importance of Detailed Procedures in Science