Astronomy

For this event, students are allowed to bring in a resource notebook with any reference materials they can fit in the notebook. The reference notebook will the be the most beneficial to the students if the students have prepared it themselves, and if they have spent time studying and organizing the information in the notebook before the tournament. I have had students in the past that simply print off hundreds of pages of reference material, then simply stick it in the binder and never spend another minute looking through it before the test. Needless to say, they don't get much use out of their resources that way. It was noted that the reference material must be attached to the rings of the binder. This prohibits students from slipping books into their notebook. However, they did suggest that if your students have charts or diagrams that they do not want to hole-punch, they can slip into a clear sheet protector that is attached to the notebook.

During the astronomy presentation, our presenter said that the best way for the students to prepare for this event is by spending time on the websites that are listed at the bottom of the astronomy page in the event manual. He also mentioned that this is a year of eclipse for the variable star epsilon aurigae. I don't know a lot about astronomy, but our presenter said that this is a very big deal in the astronomy community and that there will most likely be questions about that on the tests, so make sure your students spend some time looking into that.