Epidemiologist wrote:I'm all for the intergalactic competition. That would really run nice. And if we figure how to bend the space time fabric, not only would we be able to compete with other galaxies, we could compete with past humans and past intergalactic beings. And if we manage to reproduce and project our imaginations, we could play against the crew of Star Trek, or the students of Hogwarts. Or perhaps we could find a way into a parallax of your universe, in a squared dimension (4 or 9), in which we could compete with our alter egos in a semi-altered universal theme-box.
Epidemiologist wrote:I'm all for the intergalactic competition. That would really run nice. And if we figure how to bend the space time fabric, not only would we be able to compete with other galaxies, we could compete with past humans and past intergalactic beings. And if we manage to reproduce and project our imaginations, we could play against the crew of Star Trek, or the students of Hogwarts. Or perhaps we could find a way into a parallax of your universe, in a squared dimension (4 or 9), in which we could compete with our alter egos in a semi-altered universal theme-box.
Or we could just do internationals...
WIN
Then we can really find out if there's life in the universe!
I don't know about you, foreverphysics, but I personally would love to compete against teams from Japan, even if they kick my team's butt. Personally, I'm hoping that they might compete at Regionals and State here as well as Nats, and hopefully they'll come on over to California! I see nothing wrong or unfair about them competing with us. It's like what a lot of people before me said: You can't just tell a team they can't compete because they're better than you. It's like kicking everyone off a sports league because you can't beat them. If you don't think you can beat them, then you go and you study your butt off so that you CAN beat them. (By the way, if you're worried that they teach things over there that we don't teach over here, it's called a private tutor. Then, you can go take as many tests as you want and get graded and actually get "taught" all that stuff, but for me, I'm going to personally learn SO material by myself.)
Sorry if this question was answered earlier. But is it just the ambassadors coming, or is the actual teams? Also not every kid from Japan I'm sure knows English...
Proud ExCELHomeschooler for five awesome years! Nationals 2012: Meteorology 5th, R&M 19th, WQ 21st, DP 30th. Team 11th
I'd actually love to see a team from Japan take on Ohio's best. It wouldn't kill Solon and Centerville to have some competition outside of themselves, and it seems that everybody else is slacking on that challenge.
Japan is a challenge. Ohio is a challenge. California is a challenge. Fayetteville-Manlius is a challenge. Heck, if most of our team would stop goofing off for most of the practices, we'd be a challenge. But the thing is, I study all year long for scioly, so you really have no right to tell me to "start studying", because i already am. International competitions would be, no offense, a pain in the butt. Translations and such, and besides that, a whole lot of countries aren't exactly friendly with the US. A lot of countries' populations have been taught to dislike the US (again, I do know what I'm talking about.). You may be all excited to have Japan competing, but if they hate your guts, would you like them as much? I personally am not exact;y worried about Japan, just concerned about the high levels of complete unfairness. If you have a problem with this, that is your problem. My opinion won't change.
Physics is difficult for 99% of the world's population because they don't understand it. The other 1% know too much.
As a former member of one of those Ohio teams I would welcome the challenge; however, let's not overplay what that challenge would be.
The top teams in the nation (aka the Solons, Centervilles, Harritons, etc) are not made up of the students struggling in math and science. They aren't the one's who need motivation to study. The people on these teams go on to Harvard, Yale, MIT and the likes and in no way are outperformed. Thus while I think getting some additional diversity would be good for Science Olympiad, I don't think the challenge these teams would bring is any different than that of any of the other top teams in the nation. Those science and math tests that Asian students do so well on compare the average students in each country - the top teams in the country are in no way composed of average students.
Nobody who makes it to Nationals is average...unless you're talking about my teammate whose dad is the coach and therefore gets to go and compete, even though he's an idiot.
Physics is difficult for 99% of the world's population because they don't understand it. The other 1% know too much.
foreverphysics, if nobody at Nationals is average, then it shouldn't matter if participants from other countries come here, right? But regardless, I don't think you should be calling your coach an idiot. That's someone that deserves some respect from you.
foreverphysics wrote:Japan is a challenge. Ohio is a challenge. California is a challenge. Fayetteville-Manlius is a challenge. Heck, if most of our team would stop goofing off for most of the practices, we'd be a challenge. But the thing is, I study all year long for scioly, so you really have no right to tell me to "start studying", because i already am. International competitions would be, no offense, a pain in the butt. Translations and such, and besides that, a whole lot of countries aren't exactly friendly with the US. A lot of countries' populations have been taught to dislike the US (again, I do know what I'm talking about.). You may be all excited to have Japan competing, but if they hate your guts, would you like them as much? I personally am not exact;y worried about Japan, just concerned about the high levels of complete unfairness. If you have a problem with this, that is your problem. My opinion won't change.
I think that an international competition couldn't possibly hurt international relations, as counterintuitive that may seem. Science Olympiad competition is largely friendly, and it's not like losing in Disease Detectives would make Japan hate America. It's a friendly competition between students; an international Science Olympiad would reflect the fact that the scientific community truly is worldwide. Collaboration and friendly competition can only benefit both countries.
