Crave the Wave!!

[Mr. Cool]

Talk about Crave the Wave here. I like this event! How about you?

[marylandscioly550]

i really like this event too!
the thing is that at states, the competition was like a lab instead of the usual handwritten test... so we didn't do that well in the event

[Mr. Cool]

i really like this event too!
the thing is that at states, the competition was like a lab instead of the usual handwritten test... so we didn't do that well in the event

That's what my test was like too! We didn't do very well. We got 8th.

[Pleiades]

My regional was a written test which can be found here and my state was a lab which had 3 stations. Many teams were scared of this event after regionals and didnt even bother entering. After regionals my coach told me that I shouldnt waste my time studying for this event and I should spend my time working on my other 4 events so I had little knowledge of waves going into states but I found the lab to be VERY easy. One station I knew the answers to everything and the other two stations was on stuff that I would have put in the binder had I made one. We ended up getting 8th place.

[Uncle Fester]

My only objections to Crave:

My radio background goes way back to elementary school. I used to DX (pick up distant stations) AM Radio in SW Michigan, and knew every little trick in the book to get results. Like KJNP, suburban Fairbanks AK, and splitting KFI (Los ANgeles) from CMQ (Havana, Cuba) from each other. I took the big test and got my FCC Commercial First Class license at 17, allowing me to maintain all parts of a radio and TV station, plus the Microwave and the Radar endorsements (add-ons to the big test). When I worked for Motorola in the Los Angeles area in the 80's, I was one of the techs for the 84 Olympids (security radios), and also handled 2-way radio setup, programming and calibration (and three recalls!) of over 1500 units for the huge state-wide disaster radio program.

So what happened?

Nobody (management) anywhere was interested in the slightest in what I had available for tests, study guides and the like for the RADIO WAVE portion of the event. I even went to great lengths to refute the "MS kids don;t have enough math" claims by making the problems algebra-free. I don't believe that anyone ever intended to cover radio in the first place. What a shame. Also, what very little that was covered at the big Coaches Clinic and the State meeting was patently wrong. Sorry, AM & FM radio don't travel different distances because they're AM and FM, it's because the frequencies AM & FM broadcast are so different (0.54 to 1.7MHz vs 88 to 108MHz) they have different propagation abilities. And, if radio waves traveled via electron exchane, going outside would really, really hurt.

My kids compete in a regional where the host University goes all out to incorporate the very latest development in every event. As an example, an announcement was made one MONDAY about some amphibian discovered that had a full set of lungs. It appeared in the test THAT SATURDAY. So, with the looming changeover from NTSC to ATSC television come February, I was told by my boss coach to make sure my cravers (and the two backups) knew everything that could possibly be asked about BOTH, plus AM & FM broadcast, radio wave theory and types of transmission, safety & health, and history

How much radio was on the test, regionals AND states? Zippo. I think there was one radio question in Pennsylvania.

Sad, isn't it? We're supposed to be making Science fun for kids and we can't even get ADULTS IN THE PROGRAM to bother with it.

Looking back, it was all just a re-enactment of my elementary school Science days. Every September, I'd get a new Science book and look it over. magnets, electricity, motion; all were in the book. But every year we'd sort leaves instead.

[Mr. Cool]

My only objections to Crave:

My radio background goes way back to elementary school. I used to DX (pick up distant stations) AM Radio in SW Michigan, and knew every little trick in the book to get results. Like KJNP, suburban Fairbanks AK, and splitting KFI (Los ANgeles) from CMQ (Havana, Cuba) from each other. I took the big test and got my FCC Commercial First Class license at 17, allowing me to maintain all parts of a radio and TV station, plus the Microwave and the Radar endorsements (add-ons to the big test). When I worked for Motorola in the Los Angeles area in the 80's, I was one of the techs for the 84 Olympids (security radios), and also handled 2-way radio setup, programming and calibration (and three recalls!) of over 1500 units for the huge state-wide disaster radio program.

So what happened?

Nobody (management) anywhere was interested in the slightest in what I had available for tests, study guides and the like for the RADIO WAVE portion of the event. I even went to great lengths to refute the "MS kids don;t have enough math" claims by making the problems algebra-free. I don't believe that anyone ever intended to cover radio in the first place. What a shame. Also, what very little that was covered at the big Coaches Clinic and the State meeting was patently wrong. Sorry, AM & FM radio don't travel different distances because they're AM and FM, it's because the frequencies AM & FM broadcast are so different (0.54 to 1.7MHz vs 88 to 108MHz) they have different propagation abilities. And, if radio waves traveled via electron exchane, going outside would really, really hurt.

My kids compete in a regional where the host University goes all out to incorporate the very latest development in every event. As an example, an announcement was made one MONDAY about some amphibian discovered that had a full set of lungs. It appeared in the test THAT SATURDAY. So, with the looming changeover from NTSC to ATSC television come February, I was told by my boss coach to make sure my cravers (and the two backups) knew everything that could possibly be asked about BOTH, plus AM & FM broadcast, radio wave theory and types of transmission, safety & health, and history

How much radio was on the test, regionals AND states? Zippo. I think there was one radio question in Pennsylvania.

Sad, isn't it? We're supposed to be making Science fun for kids and we can't even get ADULTS IN THE PROGRAM to bother with it.

Looking back, it was all just a re-enactment of my elementary school Science days. Every September, I'd get a new Science book and look it over. magnets, electricity, motion; all were in the book. But every year we'd sort leaves instead.

Wow! I wish you were my coach! (lol, just joking)

[EileenofSD]

Being from a small state/town, it's fairly easy to place highly, but me and my friends were shocked at our results.
At locals, there were only two participants. My binder was exactly 6 pages thick. The guy I was going against had his binder FULL.
I was shocked that - legasp - I won. Maybe it was the fact that he didn't actually understand any of his material. He just printed it off without reading it. I practically memorized my six pages and more. *shrug* I dunno how it ended up happening, anyway. When I saw my test, I had gotten about 62% on it just by knowing the parts of the electromagnetic spectrum and listening in my sixth grade science class during the physics unit.
Studying for state, that guy handed over his binder to me and my new partner. We memorized that, but it didn't proove to be enough for the state test. It ended up being mostly on sound waves and measuring waves. We had TONS on the electromagnetic spectrum, seismic waves, and other stuff that only turned up in one or two of the fifty question test. x_x
But, I guess our stuff prooved to be good enough, 'cause we came in first.
Nationals, I couldn't tell ya. I got into a fight and got kicked off the team. Wish I could have been there. Hopefully, next year, someone won't try and rip my head off so I can get on the team again and stay on there. ^-^

[dudeincolorado]

i love this event in a love hate way k so at state it was a 50 question test + an earthquake mapping task we got 48 out of 50 on the test but on the earthquake task our points wernt matching and or epicenter endied up being te state of Iowa so we just made the dot REEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAALLLLLLLYYYYYYY big we got like 10 points out of 50 for thatpart and got ninth over all so does anyone know how to do that?

[Mr. Cool]

you probably did some of the math wrong. I was so mad after state, cause I was so good at doing the epicenter, but there was nothing about it on the test.

[Pleiades]

Same with my state. There was only 3 stations. They were on parts of the wave, wave types (transverse, standing,etc) and angle of reflection. Hopefully there will be some epicenter questions in Dynamic Planet but knowing my state there probably wont me