It's About Time C

[finagle29]

I really do think that the soundtrack for the testing should also contain warning beeps for the end as well. The event is to test the clock the students made, and the reaction time shouldn't play such a significant problem for the students. For the 10-300 sec one, I have to stand there concentrated for the whole time, with my eyes closed.

I know this was talked about by our state director, Mike McKee (also past national competition director and such) and he supported that idea as well. Not sure if it will change, but I would agree with you that there should be warning beeps.

Interesting thought. I have to profess that It's About Time is near and dear to my heart since I got a silver medal in the event at Nationals in 1992. And I guess I've been thinking all along that current competitors should continue to have to do it 'the way I did' back then. My biggest concern is whether it's going to cause more confusion amongst participants as to what constitutes the start and stop of the interval, since there are more beeps of different types to listen for. Anyone have any thoughts regarding that?

Northwestern Lehigh ran IAT at a couple of the invitationals I've been to and they did not use the national sound files. They had the same set of starting beeps used to signal the end of the time interval with the final beep higher in pitch than the preceding 2-3ish warning beeps. They explained it well beforehand and played the 10.0 s interval for us so we could hear it and I don't think that there was any confusion.

In my opinion, warning beeps before the interval ends certainly makes all trials easier, especially the last one. However, seeing as how all of the clocks perform very well without the warning beeps, I don't think that event supervisors should do anything to make breaking ties more difficult by making the device section easier for all teams.

[bernard]

Science Olympiad posted a video on It's About Time to their Youtube channel.

[GoldenKnight1]

Interesting thought. I have to profess that It's About Time is near and dear to my heart since I got a silver medal in the event at Nationals in 1992. And I guess I've been thinking all along that current competitors should continue to have to do it 'the way I did' back then. My biggest concern is whether it's going to cause more confusion amongst participants as to what constitutes the start and stop of the interval, since there are more beeps of different types to listen for. Anyone have any thoughts regarding that?

Teams mostly have seemed to learn that they don't start measuring time for the first of the three beeps so I can imagine if there were 3 beeps at the end they would know to wait for the last higher pitch one. If lots of beeps were a concern why have them at the beginning? And I think the reason there are three beeps at the beginning is just justification for why there should be the beeps at the end. I think if warning beeps are at the beginning it would be better for them to be at the end as well. When I ran this I used a PowerPoint that read "ready", "set", and "go" on each of the first beeps at which time the screen turned green. Then two seconds before the end the screen turned yellow (which the teams could see) played two beeps and then the screen turned red and read "stop" at the same time the last sound was played.

[bernard]

Interesting thought. I have to profess that It's About Time is near and dear to my heart since I got a silver medal in the t at Nationals in 1992. And I guess I've been thinking all along that current competitors should continue to have toit 'the way I did' back then. My biggest concern is whether it's going to cause more confusion amongst participants as to what constitutes the start and stop of the interval, since there are more beeps of different types to listen for. Anyone have any thoughts regarding that?

Teams mostly have seemed to learn that they don't start measuring time for the first of the three beeps so I can imagine if there were 3 beeps at the end they would know to wait for the last higher pitch one. If lots of beeps were a concern why have them at the beginning? And I think the reason there are three beeps at the beginning is just justification for why there should be the beeps at the end. I think if warning beeps are at the beginning it would be better for them to be at the end as well. When I ran this I used a PowerPoint that read "ready", "set", and "go" on each of the first beeps at which time the screen turned green. Then two seconds before the end the screen turned yellow (which the teams could see) played two beeps and then the screen turned red and read "stop" at the same time the last sound was played.

For people who have to count oscillations, having beeps at the end might mess up their counting (especially if the beeps are separated by some time) since the beeps likely won't be synced with every team's device's oscillations. Beeps at the beginning don't have this issue since you aren't counting until the final beep. I would imagine that by minimizing the time between beeps (beep-beep-beeep rather than beep-pause-beep-pause-beeep) would throw teams off less with counting. I suppose you could learn to count so you aren't thrown up by warning beeps at the end, but you could also learn to stop counting when you hear one final beep.

[GoldenKnight1]

For people who have to count oscillations, having beeps at the end might mess up their counting (especially if the beeps are separated by some time) since the beeps likely won't be synced with every team's device's oscillations. Beeps at the beginning don't have this issue since you aren't counting until the final beep. I would imagine that by minimizing the time between beeps (beep-beep-beeep rather than beep-pause-beep-pause-beeep) would throw teams off less with counting. I suppose you could learn to count so you aren't thrown up by warning beeps at the end, but you could also learn to stop counting when you hear one final beep.

I have heard the noise of other clocks and people counting (all of which are at a different rate then ours) and teams still are able to get the right time so I am not too worried about the distraction of the beeps. I have seen teams practice using one or more metronomes that are set to different beats and/or having other team members counting at other rates to challenge them to what it might be like to have those other clocks and counts happening next to them.

[bernard]

For people who have to count oscillations, having beeps at the end might mess up their counting (especially if the beeps are separated by some time) since the beeps likely won't be synced with every team's device's oscillations. Beeps at the beginning don't have this issue since you aren't counting until the final beep. I would imagine that by minimizing the time between beeps (beep-beep-beeep rather than beep-pause-beep-pause-beeep) would throw teams off less with counting. I suppose you could learn to count so you aren't thrown up by warning beeps at the end, but you could also learn to stop counting when you hear one final beep.

I have heard the noise of other clocks and people counting (all of which are at a different rate then ours) and teams still are able to get the right time so I am not too worried about the distraction of the beeps. I have seen teams practice using one or more metronomes that are set to different beats and/or having other team members counting at other rates to challenge them to what it might be like to have those other clocks and counts happening next to them.

That sounds like a great idea for training your students to count with distractions. I'll definitely have our team try that if we have time.

[JonB]

For people who have to count oscillations, having beeps at the end might mess up their counting (especially if the beeps are separated by some time) since the beeps likely won't be synced with every team's device's oscillations. Beeps at the beginning don't have this issue since you aren't counting until the final beep. I would imagine that by minimizing the time between beeps (beep-beep-beeep rather than beep-pause-beep-pause-beeep) would throw teams off less with counting. I suppose you could learn to count so you aren't thrown up by warning beeps at the end, but you could also learn to stop counting when you hear one final beep.

I have heard the noise of other clocks and people counting (all of which are at a different rate then ours) and teams still are able to get the right time so I am not too worried about the distraction of the beeps. I have seen teams practice using one or more metronomes that are set to different beats and/or having other team members counting at other rates to challenge them to what it might be like to have those other clocks and counts happening next to them.

That sounds like a great idea for training your students to count with distractions. I'll definitely have our team try that if we have time.

We sometimes actively attempt to distract our counter when working on this event. We look up annoying sounds and play them, attempt to talk to the person counting, say random numbers. We also sometimes mess with the initial start beep timing because you never know what you might encounter at some levels of competition (such as not using the "official" beeps). We do not do this often because it is very exhausting for the students but basically we try to prepare for worst case scenarios.

[Kingochicken]

Is the use of a kit to build a clock legal? The rules say "no commercial time pieces or their parts"

[chalker]

Is the use of a kit to build a clock legal? The rules say "no commercial time pieces or their parts"

I assume it's a clock kit? And you bought it? That pretty much fits the definition of 'commercial time pieces'. But as always this isn't the place for official comments or clarifications.

[Kingochicken]

I submitted a question to soinc.org a week ago, they have yet to respond and my regional is this coming week