Bassoonaroo Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 In Summer 2008, a friend of mine and I started a homeschool Science Olympiad team. We started with one middle school team and the next year added a high school team. This fall we added a "JV" team, which is simply a younger "middle school" team of elementary kids not quite ready for the big time. Anyway, yesterday was the Regional tournament. Our middle school team took second in a field of 33 teams, missing first by three points to a science magnet school that has won every year since we've been participating. It was really close and we got more medals than the winning team. Our high school team took first among 27 teams, topping the school that has taken first for the past four years. We won handily, with quite a margin. We won 9 of the 23 events. The kids are such hard-workers. Now it's on to the state competition. We know we've got a chance of winning it. If we win either division (and it will be tough as the teams we see there are good...), then we get to go to the national competition in Orlando. I'm so proud of these hardworking kids. Neither team is filled to capacity and both have rather young kids. Thanks for letting me brag. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotherMayI Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 Congratulations! :party: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poke Salad Annie Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 Brag away! I think it's fantastic! :party: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 You deserve to brag! That's quite an achievement! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ma23peas Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 Outstanding!!!! :001_smile: We have participated with SO for four years...our homeschool team has come in 6th out of 30 something teams this year and in the top five other years....the kids get a great deal out of it! I will encourage any families with 'non-science' kids to give it a try...mine are definitely non-science (although I majored in it...sigh) but exposing them to new events each year has built a new found interest for it...they find out quickly what they enjoy and what they do not...it can take a lot of time or little time (some events you really do not need to prepare much for)...my kids have never hit first place in their events but have several 2nd and 3rd...a pretty big achievement for kids who were very reluctant each year! I told them they have to do four years of it then they can choose...and after each regional competition they come back excited and interested...that's a lot gained from non-science attitudes! :) Give it a try, it's easy to form a team and start out just like this mom did! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night Elf Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 Wow, that's great! Congratulations! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmeraldGirl Posted March 4, 2012 Share Posted March 4, 2012 We did that with our middle school team and made it to Nationals in 2005, 2006 and 2007. We never can get enough high school students to make a full team but they still perform well in their individual events. It is very exciting to see their hard word rewarded and to observe all the build events demonstrated on competition day. We are in Delaware. There is a homeschool science olympiad yahoo group on line. You can request to join it. What state are you? Lisa in DE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassoonaroo Posted March 5, 2012 Author Share Posted March 5, 2012 We have participated with SO for four years...our homeschool team has come in 6th out of 30 something teams this year and in the top five other years....the kids get a great deal out of it! I will encourage any families with 'non-science' kids to give it a try...mine are definitely non-science (although I majored in it...sigh) but exposing them to new events each year has built a new found interest for it...they find out quickly what they enjoy and what they do not...it can take a lot of time or little time (some events you really do not need to prepare much for)...my kids have never hit first place in their events but have several 2nd and 3rd...a pretty big achievement for kids who were very reluctant each year! I told them they have to do four years of it then they can choose...and after each regional competition they come back excited and interested...that's a lot gained from non-science attitudes! :) Give it a try, it's easy to form a team and start out just like this mom did! :) Amen. It's not a huge deal and I'd love to see more homeschool teams doing this... It's not impossible and it's so nice for the homeschoolers to see that they DO measure up when compared to the PS kids. Of course WE know this but our dc can feel a bit out of it when they hear, at youth group or orchestra, that so-and-so won a ribbon at the science fair or whatever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catherine Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Congratulations! That is wonderful. Keep up the good work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassoonaroo Posted March 5, 2012 Author Share Posted March 5, 2012 We did that with our middle school team and made it to Nationals in 2005, 2006 and 2007. We never can get enough high school students to make a full team but they still perform well in their individual events. It is very exciting to see their hard word rewarded and to observe all the build events demonstrated on competition day. We are in Delaware. There is a homeschool science olympiad yahoo group on line. You can request to join it. What state are you? Lisa in DE Oh my, you must be "tri state" -- how in the world did you get around the two-county rule? Or is that why you've not made it to Nat's in the last few years? We're hurting due to that rule. We've had to tell some good kids no. We're in Colorado. Here's my dd winning sumobot at state last year: She's the driver. That was a really cool win. Basically she and her buddy built that in four weeks due to a nice kid (with a disgruntled mom) quitting the team, leaving us high and dry without a sumobot. So, we threw one together. It was untested as we went to state but (thankfully) it worked. We scrounged around and found cheap (relatively...) parts and a guy at the sheet metal fabricators gave us scrap metal for the body. We had problems with wheels slipping and put some "God is Awsome" [sic] rubber bracelets on the wheels and that worked. I hope to never repeat that experience because those four weeks consumed us. Yesterday's award ceremonies (they had B and C awards separately) were fun because we got 9 golds in C and a total of 9 in B too (one was by our JV team). And only a few scores were posted before the ceremony, so most were pleasant surprises. It was fun to hear the announcer say the third place team. Then the second. And we would hold our breath wondering if we got first or not. Usually we did, so it was really fun. They worked very hard. Anyway, it sounds like your B team is competitive and your C team is fun. It truly is HARD to find C members. Very few join at that age, which is a shame because it's great on a high school resume. My dh (a very non-emotional guy) is the one in the brown shirt doing the happy dance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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