The Final Stretch

Finally. Third term ends. And there is only one more term to go until summer break. I am so excited, but we're still only 75% done. And it has felt so much more like summer too. Relatively warm weather, little snow. It's not time for air conditioning or anything, but it feels great all the same. This next week could well be one of my most busiest weeks of the year so far. Next Saturday is the Science Olympiad State Tournament. That means 5 separate practices midweek, one or two 50 cm. towers to build, a water rocket to build, and studying galore. Because, besides Nationals, the state competition is the best. It is at Weber State, and all day people are doing tests, building things, launching rockets, breaking towers, battling robots, and more. Really, it is an amazing day. The only problem is that I only have a week to prepare everything. My partner and I are going to have to study for Optics, to get it ready for the state competition. Not to mention collecting some tools for the laser shoot like a toothpick, string, a protractor, and a few other things. I actually feel adequately prepared for the Write it Do it (technical writing) event. Me and my partner would have gotten gold at regionals if we hadn't gotten a penalty for scribbling out our wording mistakes. In Junkyard Challenge, it is hard to know if I am ready or not, because you never know what to expect from the competition. We will either be building a ramp (we are pretty ready for that,) a catapult (this one still needs some work,) or a bouncer device (we have it down, but we still aren't getting very good scores.) Bottle rockets and towers are the ones that I have the most work still to do. I have to prepare a tower for state, so I originally planned to build the same tower that I got a score of 11 with, but then I had an idea for a box beam tower, that would probably be about the same weight, and relatively easy to construct as well. So I think what I will do with towers is build the box beam tower tomorrow, and possibly start on my 11 scoring tower, then on Tuesday, I will test the tower, and if it does well and doesn't break, we will use it. If it does well and breaks, I will rebuild it. If it does badly, I will just use the 11 scoring tower. On bottle rockets, I am going to build a new backglider that will hopefully beat my regional rocket. It will be made with a long cone (probably 4-5 feet,) the same type of fins (I already cut them out,) and some little fins near the top of the cone . . . oh, and I will top it with an easter egg. So, hopefully it will work better. I plan to test it next Tuesday, so I can make changes before state if needed. I really hope state goes well. And there really is a lot to be excited for with only one term left to go.