Water Quality B/C

[jimmy-bond]

In practice tests & invitational tests there seem to be a lot of questions about organisms that are not listed on the rules (specifically coral). Is this something that will carry over to the Regionals/States/Nationals, and if so, how in depth would someone need to get?

If it is asking for the traits/taxonomy exclusive to a specific coral (for example, "How do brain coral feed?"), I think it would be considered an illegal question by many test writers, so I do not think you'd see any questions like that for competitions at regionals and above. Coral as a collective is outlined in the rules as hard coral, but asking questions about a certain species wouldn't really be in the scope of the competition.

[T1657]

In practice tests & invitational tests there seem to be a lot of questions about organisms that are not listed on the rules (specifically coral). Is this something that will carry over to the Regionals/States/Nationals, and if so, how in depth would someone need to get?

Hard coral and gorgonia are both listed in the rules, as are coral ecosystems in general. Asking about specific corals is allowed, but asking about overly obscure trivia is bad practice for any event.

Make sure you read the rules thoroughly; it's not just an organism list.

Regs/States/Nats tests tend to be wildcards, and of course would also vary according to the competition. Remember there's no standardization, and often a random parent/coach/college student/teacher who knows nothing about the event has to run it; it's not like SOINC is personally writing all of them.

Study as much as feasible; there's no certain level of studying where, once you pass it, you don't have to study anymore. Everything depends on your priorities and schedule.
I haven't seen too many organisms not explicitly stated in the rules, but I would know some of them. You tend to pick up random information while studying anyway.

[LittleMissNyan]

Asking for another human being since I have 0 Water Quality knowledge is there a good crash course to getting started with Water Quality besides just showing them the Wiki if hypothetically they've barely even started and competition is hypothetically in a week

[AstroClarinet]

Asking for another human being since I have 0 Water Quality knowledge is there a good crash course to getting started with Water Quality besides just showing them the Wiki if hypothetically they've barely even started and competition is hypothetically in a week

The handouts on soinc's Water Quality page are fairly good for the ecology and water quality factors topics.
There's no one good source covering all of the indicator species in one place, but there are quite a few quizlet sets for identifying them.
Two of the sources that go over the testing factors include the USGS and RAMP.

[twoplustwoisten]

Asking for another human being since I have 0 Water Quality knowledge is there a good crash course to getting started with Water Quality besides just showing them the Wiki if hypothetically they've barely even started and competition is hypothetically in a week

i learned the general ecology from the Crash Course Ecology videos on YouTube, that worked great for me!

[stenopushispidus]

Asking for another human being since I have 0 Water Quality knowledge is there a good crash course to getting started with Water Quality besides just showing them the Wiki if hypothetically they've barely even started and competition is hypothetically in a week

it’s a long textbook but marine biology by Castro and Huber covers a lot of if not all of what you need to know for water quality

[aakoala]

Does anyone have any in-depth links for learning about Water Quality organisms? Thanks!

[NadiaT]

Does anyone have any in-depth links for learning about Water Quality organisms? Thanks!

I don't have specific links bc different websites work well for different organisms, but for some of the more common ones wikipedia has some good info, and checking WWF can also be helpful, especially for species who are at risk of extinction. In general, I google specific aspects about a species rather than just the species itself (ie "parrotfish diet" instead of just "parrotfish"), and often end up going to multiple different sites to get the info I need.

Also, don't discount books! Check your local library to see if they have any field guides (or something similar) that you can use. These often have really in-depth info that you can't find online.

Hope this helps!

[SilverBreeze]

Does anyone have any in-depth links for learning about Water Quality organisms? Thanks!

Water Quality isn't a read-the-textbook type event; the rules are formatted like a list of topics, and I advise just googling every term they give you. Make sure to cover all three sections, and don't overlook somewhat strange sources like aquarium message boards.

[dvegadvol]

An actual question from a State Water Quality test:

"The word tundra is derived from what Finnish verb?

On a water quality test. Were they trying to determine if anyone was using the internet?

Nothing else makes any sense for that question to be there...