Coaches,
Due to constraints with competition space, event materials, and personnel, we will not be running any hands-on activities for the Thermodynamics event this season. The event will still compete for both divisions and will maintain its event conflicts as set by the national office, but it will consist only of a written exam as described in event Rule 5, Part I.
Please note that this change applies only to the 2027 South Carolina State Tournament and does not affect any other competitions, including invitationals. The exact changes made to the rules can be found below.
Changes to Thermodynamics B/C rules
All rules referenced below are numbered the same for both divisions, so these changes apply to Division B and Division C.
There will be no impound for Thermodynamics B/C.
Omit Rule 2d (teams no longer need to bring one pre-constructed device, spare parts, tools, and/or prepared graphs or tables for use in their calculations of the device’s results)
Omit Rule 3 (construction parameters for the device portion of the event)
Omit Rule 4 (competition area guidelines for the device portion of the event)
Omit Rule 5, Part II (competition outline for the device portion of the event)
Modify Rule 6 to reflect the exam-only nature of the event; specifically:
Modify Rules 6c and 6d to reflect that the event will be scored in the same way as a traditional exam-only event; each exam question will have a predetermined point value, and teams will be ranked by number of points awarded by answering exam questions correctly. There will be no “Final Score (FS)” calculation as currently specified in the rules, and a team’s raw score on the exam will serve as their “Exam Score (ES)”, instead of using the calculation currently specified in the rules. There will be no distinction made between a team’s exam score and their final event score.
Disregard Rules 6e, 6f, 6g, 6h, and 6i, all of which specify scoring for the device testing portion of the event.
Modify Rule 6j to reflect that all tiebreakers in the event will be predetermined exam questions. The specific questions selected as tiebreakers will be noted on the exam cover, answer sheet, or beside the questions themselves.
