Parents – we’ve received several questions around the exact time for a specific student’s / team’s event. Please note that individual events are scheduled by your school’s Head Coach, and you should contact them to find out your child’s event time.
News and Updates
All event coaches, please review the Detailed Event Description and all other event materials on the WESO Events page as well as the blog posts for your event before you submit questions to weso.events@gmail.com. Many of your questions have already been answered.
The 22nd Annual Washtenaw Elementary Science Olympiad will be held on Saturday, April 20, 2024, at Ann Arbor’s Pioneer High School. During the Olympiad, we hold Open Events, open to all and featuring hands-on experimental stations aiming to teach simple concepts in different fields of math and science in a fun way. Open Events will be held in the Pioneer cafeteria from 8am till 8pm, with a training requirement on Friday (April 19th) at 7pm in the Pioneer cafeteria.
We are offering leadership opportunities to high school volunteers to help us run academic events and teach elementary school kids at Open Events. Please sign up for one or more shifts at the link below.
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040F4CA8AB2F4-48171043-hsvolunteers
Thanks for volunteering for WESO 2024!
Q: I was wondering if you can provide more information on how the timing of the competition flows. Are there a certain number of minutes allocated to parts A, B, and C, or is there just one block of time in which students proceed to the next portion when they are done with the prior one? As a related question, are you able to let us know how much time pressure students usually experience in this event?
A: Thank you for your question.The total event time for iRobot is 45 minutes. Students will be quickly seated and we will spend 5 minutes going over the instructions for Part A and Part B in an age-appropriate manner. Students will have 15 minutes to complete Parts A and B, moving between both as they see fit. Teams may choose to work separately, one student taking A, one taking B, and checking each other’s work. I do not expect any time pressure on Parts A and B. They should be able to complete the tasks in 15 minutes. We will give time reminders at 10 and 5 minutes left.
After 15 minutes, we will conclude Parts A and B and give 5 minutes of instruction for Part C, as it is more complicated and involves testing areas around the room. Students will have 20 minutes to test and check-in with an adult supervisor when they are ready to test their final code and bot. We will give time reminders at 15, 10 and 5 minutes left. When 5 minutes remain, all students who have not completed the challenge must check-in with an event supervisor and run the code they have. Students should also have plenty of time for this section as well.
Students are free to ask clarifying questions on instructions at any point in time during the event. Event supervisors and volunteers cannot give hints or coding suggestions, but can help them read and understand the given instructions.
To sum up:
45 Minutes:
5 Minutes – Instructions for Part A & B
15 Minutes – Part A & B
5 Minutes – Instructions for Part C
20 MInutes – Part C
Q: Will students need to understand that the 3rd shell can hold up to 18 electrons when there are additional outer shells in the atom or should they just understand that it holds 8 electrons for the 8 elements in the 3rd period/row? I just noticed that the study guide lists 18 electrons but the basic bohr model uses only 8 electrons if we are only drawing up to the third row.
A: Students should know that the Bohr model only covers atoms with up to eight electrons in the outer shell, but that there are elements that may contain more. I hope that answers the question!
Q: The instructions talk about the arrows being shown after each launch and the distance. What will these signs look like and will they be announced out loud?
A: The Arrows indicate, how far past the Target, how far to the Right or Left and or Below or Above. So the Team may make adjustments. The measurements are placed on a Large 3′ x 2′ foot display. Each firing line has a Volunteer, which will assist in reading, if need be.
Encourage your team to ask any questions they may have. We are here for the students.
Q:Are the rockets required to have fins?
A: No. Fins are not required.
Q: Two questions for clarification:
1. “Teams will design, construct, and fly at least two paper airplanes.”–Does it mean a team with 2 students can make 4 airplanes with 4 paper sheets that are provided? 2 for distance and 2 for time?
A: Correct.
Q: “Teams may make a maximum of two flights for each paper airplane. Two flights are measured for distance and two separate flights are measured for time, for a maximum of four total flights.”-If a team makes 4 paper airplanes, then each airplane only can have one flight under this rule. Is this correct?
A: Correct.
The key takeaway from this rule are
– The maximum airplanes the team can construct is 4 planes.
– The maximum number of flights the team can perform is 4 flights, two for time and two for distance. The last statement is based on the rest of the rules which are not mentioned here.
– The maximum number of flights per plane is two.
– Constructing planes or performing flights below the maximum allowed is acceptable.
Q: Two questions for clarification:
1. “Teams will design, construct, and fly at least two paper airplanes.”–Does it mean a team with 2 students can make 4 airplanes with 4 paper sheets that are provided? 2 for distance and 2 for time?
A: Correct.
Q: “Teams may make a maximum of two flights for each paper airplane. Two flights are measured for distance and two separate flights are measured for time, for a maximum of four total flights.”-If a team makes 4 paper airplanes, then each airplane only can have one flight under this rule. Is this correct?
A: Correct.
The key takeaway from this rule are
– The maximum airplanes the team can construct is 4 planes.
– The maximum number of flights the team can perform is 4 flights, two for time and two for distance. The last statement is based on the rest of the rules which are not mentioned here.
– The maximum number of flights per plane is two.
– Constructing planes or performing flights below the maximum allowed is acceptable.