Dear Team,
I’m sorry this is long. I am just so proud of all of you and want to get you all the details you’re waiting for. Take some time to sit down and read this like a story. As before, one free ticket will be awarded to whoever e-mails me off list at [email protected] with the secret hidden code word. What a day we had at Regional!!! Students, go right now and thank your parents! I mean it. Did you know they took on larger volunteer roles than usual this time? Mrs. Rinker and the Edmons ran the homeroom like professional coaches on their own. The parents judging WIDI; Mrs. Walko, Mrs. Mathew, Mrs. Hillebrand, the Ildefonsos, and Mrs. Murdock ran four sessions instead of two with twice as many teams to grade. Mrs. Walko even came to my house twice to help design and prepare the WIDI device. I thank them. You should thank them too. Spirit Award: From the inception of this team as a Learning Vine enrichment class to date under the Naper Valley Homeschool SO name, we have earned the Spirit Award at Regional every time we compete. That is a streak you can be proud of! Coaches and Event Supervisors make the effort to fill out a complicated ballot to vote for you but they also seek me out personally to compliment your behavior, character, personalities, and abilities! You and your parents should be proud of this recognition of who you are as individuals and how you conduct yourselves as a group in this environment. (By the way, I don’t know for sure but I think the vote wasn’t close. Again this year, they told me it wouldn’t matter if I voted when I couldn’t find my ballot. I’ve missed out on voting so many times I really wanted to so they let me write in my vote.) Team Rank: I was right. It was mathematically possible for us to qualify for State this year. However, we landed 16 points behind in a very respectable 6th place. I am pretty sure this is the highest finishing rank our team has ever reached. Considering that the school that passed us has an enrollment of around 2,500 students, a budget, two professional science teacher coaches, and two middle school feeder teams, I’d say we held our own. (By the way, this is the first time that team has ever finished higher than us.) I went up to their coaches after the ceremony, shook their hands, and offered our congratulations. They were so moved by winning their first trip to State those two coaches were understandably in tears. We can be happy for them…and still try to beat them next year. Individual Medals: 9 of our 11 core students medaled in 9 different events. 1 of our 2 fill-in students medaled after a week of serious study / preparation! Some events we weren’t expecting brought in the bling and some we were expecting didn’t. It just goes to show that it’s hard to know how things will turn out in life. Best practice is too keep practicing. Here are the individual results with some lessons learned from them. *2nd Place = Hovercraft, Ray & Crystal. If you’ve been following the evolution of this build you would know there has been more downward draft to the spirits of the engineers than from their vehicle. Don’t be afraid to make radical change in engineering if what you have isn’t working. (The only Hovercraft that was more accurate than ours was competed by UofC Lab.) *2nd Place = Mousetrap Vehicle, Jeff & Tobias. This vehicle went through various stages of development too. They put tires on their wheels and learned that it is necessary to work through, not ignore, environmental conditions (like unseen dust) in order to succeed. (The only Mousetrap Vehicle that was faster than ours was competed by Neuqua Valley.) *3rd Place = Towers, Crystal & Anaiah. It takes dedicated scientists to make a project they know will be destroyed again and again. Even so, some premature carnage can be avoided, if care and precision are employed in construction. (The only two Towers that carried more mass than ours were competed by Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley.) *4th Place = Herpetology, Ray & Nekijalyn. This one is an example of good use of a resource book + background biology knowledge + a childhood playing with pond critters + logic and good handwriting. Throw in a bit of trivia learned on a recent dissection lab experience at the Shedd Aquarium (shout out to MOMR) and the anatomy of an SO event is complete. Trust yourself using what you know, and the resources that you have, to figure out what is being asked of you. (The only Herpetology teams that placed higher than ours were from Neuqua Valley, UofC Lab, and Waubonsie Valley.) *4th Place = Optics, Sam & Jeff. I think this event was dreamed up by someone my age use who made spy periscopes out of mirrors and paper towel tubes as a child. Never doubt a Walko when Geometry and lasers are on the line. (The only Optics teams that were more accurate than ours were Neuqua Valley, UofC Lab, and Waubonsie Valley.) *5th Place = Chem Lab, Sam & Nekijalyn. (The highest Regional finishing rank our team has earned to date in this marquis event.) This one is all about practice, memory knowledge, and computation skills. Keeping a neat work station is one way to avoid being disqualified. -or the equally important- Always bring the necessary safety equipment. *5th Place = Dynamic Planet, Avyi & Jeff. We asked for help and Avyi raised her hand. Then she took a week to study up and bring in a medal. From this we learned two lessons. 1. Sometimes good things happen when we ask for help. 2. A little but of serious effort can have a very good result. (Here’s hoping Avyi is back with us next year for the whole season, not just the last week.) *6th Place = Fermi Questions, Jeff & John. Does anybody know how many acorns can fit in a 1 liter bottle? Or how many trees you would need to harvest to make a new book for everyone on earth each day for a year? (I don’t either.) Knowing how to calculate things like that can be a very useful skill. *6th Place = Game On, Sam & Crystal. Do your parents ever tell you to get off your games and get back to work? What if gaming was your work? I don’t mean playing games, designing them. Some kinds of games are used in education, therapy, workplace training / simulation, and of course entertainment. Don’t discount something you may think it is meaningless. It could have other important applications. ======= Before I go on, let me just restate that we earned 9 medals, in competition with 13 top notch schools, while not being ranked as A or AA. Since there can sometimes be as little as .001 between individual finishing ranks, these 7th and 8th place finishers are very strong showings as well. They also contributed positively toward our team finish and are to be celebrated. Now, back to the scores… ======= 7th Place = Experimental Design, Crystal & Alissa & Anaiah. Bounty may be the quicker picker upper but these three can figure out exactly how to determine that. Scientific principles and practices are marketable skills in industry. 7th Place = Remote Sensing, Cody & Jeff. Cody took on this event about reading and interpreting satellite weather image data around a month ago when he learned that it still needed a dedicated student. This is a very strong showing for such a late start. Don’t overlook an opportunity that may appear out of reach. It might be more doable than you think. 7th Place = Thermodynamics, Tobias & Sam. Tobias took on this event about two months ago when he learned that it still needed a dedicated student. When you courageously take on a project, follow the steps from beginning to end, then have it evaluated by experts, that is something to be proud of. When it does well in a field of others, that is to be celebrated. 8th Place = Disease Detectives, Nekijalyn & Alissa. All season long our DD team has been bringing home the bling in this marquis event. The other teams simply outpaced us this time out. That can happen sometimes. Always compete with poise and win or lose with grace. 8th Place = Microbe Mission, Alissa & Nekijalyn. Biology. Cells. Germs. Sometimes the little things in life can add up to something big. 8th Place = Mission Possible, Sam & Ray. SO completely redesigned this marquis event this year to something almost unrecognizable from its predecessor. Still, Sam took up the challenge and never let it see him sweat, even though that might have been a, “scorable action”. See what I did there? Even the terminology is new. Be willing to try hard things, even if they are indecipherable at first. 9th Place = Forensics, Jonathan & John 9th Place = Helicopters, Jonathan & John 9th Place = Rocks & Minerals, Nekijalyn & Anaiah 9th Place = WIDI, Nekijalyn & Jonathan 10th Place = A&P, Alissa & Crystal 10th Place = Materials Science, Jeff & Anaiah 11th Place = Astronomy, Cody & Jonathan 12th Place = Ecology, Alissa & Kristin 13th Place = (none) This is last place. We have nothing listed here. Every one of our events came “not last,” ahead of at least one other team. Even a little effort can count for something. 14th Place = (none) This is the “no show” category. We have nothing listed here either. Most of the school teams had 15 students competing. Many also had JV teams to draw from. Even so, every event except Herpetology and WIDI had at least one team not show up. In fact, one event had 5 teams not show up leaving only 8 schools competing for those 1st – 6th place medals. Do you like those odds? We should. We earned one of those (six out of 8) medals. To discourage “no shows” any team that doesn’t send in students to compete at a single event is penalized 1 point more than had they competed and simply come in last. (There were only 13 varsity teams competing. It is mathematically impossible to come in 14th place in such a field.) It is a credit to our little team that we competed in every event. Did you see those rows and rows of large school teams sitting together in the auditorium? Our team came in 6th among them! THAT. IS. PHENOMINAL!!!! Not a tournament goes by when at least one of those big school team coaches doesn’t ask me how we do it with so few students. Yesterday two coaches of a 30-student team were shocked when I told them we meet once or twice a month as a team but you do most of your studying / preparing on your own and not for a class assignment or grade. They replied, “You mean they study and prepare for their events because they want to?!” Yep. THAT, my dear team, is character. That is Spirit! And that is to be rewarded! So let’s have a party!!! Please watch your e-mail for information about our end of the year team party. There will be food, fun, and facts! (…certificates with your award data to keep on file for your future college applications. Science Olympiad Div. C medals earned at Regional are reported on page two as, “high school level Regional or State academic awards”.) Blessings, Mrs. Guo PS: Personal Assessment: I would also like to encourage each of you to take a few minutes to reflect on what you’ve learned over the course of the year just for yourselves or to discuss with your parents or each other as appropriate. You could journal some thoughts or write a summary paper for your file. Here are some questions to spark your thoughts. (This is not to be turned in. It is just for you.)
PPS: If you haven’t figured it out yet, all these life lessons and SO skills are setting you up well for college, the world of work, and other adult responsibilities. Well done team! You’re on your way.
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Brenda G.Enjoying the journey through my kids' childhood as a home educating mom. (And no, I don't have time for a blog but sometimes you just gotta write.) Archives
April 2019
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