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Greetings!

My name is Scott Schmucker, and I am a Science Olympiad alumni (Ohio) now studying at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Here at UIUC we have spent the last several months finalizing plans for the upcoming national tournament. To those of you who will be joining us, congratulations! We are looking forward to hosting a wonderful tournament, and hope that you enjoy it as much as we will!

I am very interested in finding ways to connect with other students, alumni, coaches, and volunteers interested in SONT 2010. This includes disseminating information about SONT 2010 (leading up to the event, during the competition, and after the tournament is complete), answering your questions, and ultimately making the tournament as fun and successful as possible! The Science Olympiad Student Center is clearly one excellent way of interacting with many student participants, and I'm hoping that many of you can help me as we count down the next month.

Some of the more obvious ideas are a Facebook group where information about the tournament can be posted. I've even created such a group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=110617482309941
One suggestion was a Twitter feed, for use during the tournament. This may prove useful, but more importantly, I'm very interested in what the actual Science Olympiad participants think. What can we do here to make the Science Olympiad National Tournament better for you?

Thank you,
Scott

One thing that was a problem last year was that the swap meet was indoors, and it was crowded. It would work better if it was outdoors.

SidT wrote:One thing that was a problem last year was that the swap meet was indoors, and it was crowded. It would work better if it was outdoors.

^He's referring to the overcrowding incident. As long as the hall is big enough to host every person, I think we'll be fine. Though fire marshals are always interesting...

We really need good food. Last year the food was not very good. I think that a good atmosphere for the competitors is always the best idea. So complementary food and water is at the top of my list.


But SidT is right: the swap meet needs to be outdoors.

Because, you know, food is the most important thing.

IS that a joke?
Seriously, it makes a difference in performance.

That was a bit of a joke. I don't think complimentary food is necessary. Water's good. It's nice to have good food, but you're there to compete, not eat. Sorry, I think I'm carrying something over from another thread or someting.

Complimentary gift bags and massages would also be a good idea. Sadly, they are limited by how much they can spend. Like they always told me in Elementary school, you can only bring snacks if you have enough for everyone. With 120 teams attending it is pretty expensive to try to give food to everyone.

Complimentary massages.......... we would have much more incentive to study if they had that.
I never meant that we were there to eat. I simply meant that the needs and luxuries of the competitors should be placed high on the to-do list. I don't do well on bad food. I subsisted last year on corn and mashed potatoes (i admit it- i am a picky eater. But the prior year the food was amazing). I was miserable and hungry, because I was reluctant to eat food that tasted like garbage. My score didn't suffer, but it's the memories of the competition that last much longer in your head than the placing.
That's my opinion, anyway.

PS: By complementary food, I don't mean putting out free lobster on the street corners. In DC they had one room that had a huge bowl of rice treats. That was a fun year.

First of all, thanks alot for posting here. I think this is the first time this has happened.

jazzy009 wrote:

SidT wrote:One thing that was a problem last year was that the swap meet was indoors, and it was crowded. It would work better if it was outdoors.

^He's referring to the overcrowding incident. As long as the hall is big enough to host every person, I think we'll be fine. Though fire marshals are always interesting...

I have been to Nationals four times and I have to say that last year was not the first time that this has happened. I think it was 2003 at Juniata when our team had to leave because one of our coaches got heat stroke, which was caused by overcrowding. I'm not sure, but I think everyone else had to leave also. I do remember that I was able to grab a free ice cream (half melted) on the way out so I was happy again.

So yeah, Swap meet + outside = good idea.
And free ice cream = very good idea