Post-Tournament Updates

Hello GGSO community,

With our awards ceremony only 2 days away, we would like to provide you with some updates.

Event Updates: As the tournament progressed, we had to make some tough decisions based on feedback we received about certain events. As we already announced on tournament day, we have decided to make Write it CAD it a trial event due to the multiple issues teams had with Onshape.

During and directly after the tournament, we also received concerns from various teams about the Designer Genes event. It was brought to our attention that a significant portion of the test included questions that were directly taken from the BEARSO Invitational Designer Genes test earlier this season. We sincerely apologize for this oversight; this is against GGSO policy, as we require all our event supervisors to create new and unique questions for our tests. After extensive score analysis to determine how the re-used BEARSO questions affected the scores, the board has decided to make Designer Genes a trial event. We will still award medals to the top 10 teams, but Designer Genes will no longer count towards the official team score. We understand the time and effort that students have put into preparing for this event, but we sincerely believe that this decision is the most fair for all teams that competed at GGSO. Please let us know if you have questions or concerns about this decision, and again we offer our sincerest apologies and take full responsibility for this mistake.

To summarize, there are now three trial events for GGSO (Biophysics, Write it CAD it, and Designer Genes) that will receive medals for top 10 teams, but will not count towards the overall team score.

Awards Ceremony: As a reminder, our awards ceremony will take place Saturday, February 20th at 5 pm PT. We will send out a link to the livestream Saturday morning.

Score Review: Previously, GGSO had the policy that all scores were final after the awards ceremony was over. However, due to the unique nature of Science Olympiad this year, we have decided to implement a score review period after our awards ceremony. After results are released after the awards ceremony, teams will have until 5 pm PT on Monday, February 22 to fill out this form to tell us about any major result discrepancies (ex. Incorrect no-shows, DQs, clerical errors). The score review period will NOT be accepting any regrade requests for students contesting question rubrics. After this score review period, our results will be considered final.

Social Media Contest: The 2021 GGSO Social Media Contest is in full swing! Head on over to our social media platforms to participate in the biggest giveaway series we’ve ever had yet for a chance to win a FREE 2021 GGSO T-shirt! The steps for official entry are:

• Follow GGSO on Instagram @goldengatescioly,
• Double-tap to like each daily giveaway post,
• Complete the mini-challenge for the day!

All challenges close on 11:59 PM PST on Thursday, February 18th. Winner(s) will be contacted via Direct Messages and announced at the 2021 GGSO Awards Ceremony on Saturday, February 20th. Winner(s) will have 24 hours to claim prize. If not claimed, a new winner will be selected.

Follow our socials to get started on winning those free T-shirt prizes!
Instagram: @goldengatescioly
Facebook: Golden Gate Invitational (@goldengatescioly)
Twitter: @goldengateso
Snapchat: @ggscioly

Tournament Survey: Finally, please ask your teams to fill out our tournament survey if you have not done so already! After the awards ceremony, we will be providing PDF copies of tests and keys for all events to teams that have survey responses from at least one coach and one student. Thank you again for participating in our tournament this year, and we hope you join us for our awards ceremony!

If you have any questions, feel free to email us at goldengatescioly@gmail.com!

Best wishes,
The GGSO Team

Links
Email us Score Discrepancy Form Instagram Facebook Twitter Snapchat Tournament Survey