My team has a bunch of 8th graders (me included) that are really good friends to begin with. There are like 9 or 10 of us and we all go around making trouble at competitionsCelestite wrote:So would you guys say that it's more effective to have a practice where everyone eats, plays, makes friends and gets to know each other, or is it better to be studying and practicing with your partners?
I'm sure a lot of answers will say that the best way to go is somewhere in between, but I think that eating and getting to know one another may be a bit more important than studying. It's a large part of science Olympiad to have a tight knit community of friends, where everyone supports another, and I'm trying to figure out ways to do that to the science Olympiad at my school. I see that a lot of the top scioly teams are very supportive and have a great community, and I'm wondering how they get that kind of feeling on the team.
My school right now uses practices for studying only, and I'm wondering if that's an effective method. In schools that usually do very well, they're always clapping and yelling and getting up to give any medal winners high fives during a medaling ceremony. But in our school, we're only clapping politely for one another. Any suggestions for how to make Science Olympiad teams stronger and more tight-knit?
To make your team more close-knit (assuming you aren't a coach), you should make friends with your teammates. If you are a coach, get to know them and who's friends with who. I would create a relaxed atmosphere at practices, where maybe you could spend some time screwing around and study a little afterwards.
You could also do team-building things, like that game where you all tie up your hands with each other in a circle and try to get "un-done"
