Will/Did you make it to nationals?

[gneissisnice]

I hope for that in Anatomy!

My poor Write It Do It partner has no partner for Astronomy and this is her first year in Science Olympiad. I might take the test with her (she wants moral support) but I'll feel bad not being able to help her really. She's a smart girl though and I'm sure she'll do well on her own.

I'm surprised there wasn't more Sumo interest on your team, paleonaps. Here the whole team is into it and those of us who aren't competing are going to watch and cheer obnoxiously. Ours is named the DOME-INATOR. Its an epic dome.

Well, our school (Naps is from there too) usually runs 4 teams, because we have a LOT of people, so our A team also ran a Sumo (I don't know if our other teams did or not). We typically try to organize it so if we have more than 2 people interested in a event, we split them into different teams so everyone can do that event, and that generally happens with building events like Sumo.

[paleonaps]

I think the D team did run Sumo, but just for the participation- they didn't really show up, and I think there was no robot.

[personasaurus rex]

Oh so your teams are not stacked? Hmm interesting way to approach scheduling.
And that must be so cool being able to send 4 teams to regionals haha we can barely scrap 2 teams together.

[gneissisnice]

Oh so your teams are not stacked? Hmm interesting way to approach scheduling.
And that must be so cool being able to send 4 teams to regionals haha we can barely scrap 2 teams together.

Well, we stack the A team as our "states" team, and that's the one we really care about getting to states. The other 3 teams are set up based on letting people do the events they want to do with the partners they want to do them with (this doesn't always work out, though. Sometimes we still have a lot of people on one team who want to do the same event, so in that case, we test them to narrow it down to the 2 best).

[aubrey048]

We have one team, complete with team members with varying degrees of commitment and skill.The most and least useful kids on the team are miles apart in attitude and knowledge. My coach believes more in having fun than winning medals. He believes that if you did an event last year and another new kid wants to do it, the new kid should get the event. *shrug* Certain individuals on the team are competitive (I am one of them), but we are not competitive as a whole. Ah well. At least almost* everyone seems to be having a good time.

*asterisk: the Mission Possible team is . . . uhh, not having fun with each other. Thus the "almost".

[Teal]

We have one team, complete with team members with varying degrees of commitment and skill.The most and least useful kids on the team are miles apart in attitude and knowledge. My coach believes more in having fun than winning medals. He believes that if you did an event last year and another new kid wants to do it, the new kid should get the event. *shrug* Certain individuals on the team are competitive (I am one of them), but we are not competitive as a whole. Ah well. At least almost* everyone seems to be having a good time.

*asterisk: the Mission Possible team is . . . uhh, not having fun with each other. Thus the "almost".

Same here. We have about 15-20 members. I'm one of the more competitive members, because whatever I do, I want to do well in. (Except for that time in Technical Problem Solving ... but that's another story) I can name off six other people I know who are dedicated to their event, and consistently medal.

Then we have floaters ... the people who are in an event but don't take it seriously. The thing that frustrates me the most is that our coach really wants to make it to state. He doesn't say so, but you can tell that he knows we have the capability. And not going to state would be devastating to all of us. It's our second year, but still ...

Our fossils and optics teams are looking very weak. Huge lack of focus. I mean, we all have fun, but some of them just get on my nerves. I want to scream at them and make them study, make them stay up each night and understand that this is important to our team. But no, I'd just kill the fun mood. I really want to go to state.

[gneissisnice]

We have one team, complete with team members with varying degrees of commitment and skill.The most and least useful kids on the team are miles apart in attitude and knowledge. My coach believes more in having fun than winning medals. He believes that if you did an event last year and another new kid wants to do it, the new kid should get the event. *shrug* Certain individuals on the team are competitive (I am one of them), but we are not competitive as a whole. Ah well. At least almost* everyone seems to be having a good time.

*asterisk: the Mission Possible team is . . . uhh, not having fun with each other. Thus the "almost".

Having fun is important, but in my opinion, letting a new kid do an event over someone who knows it is a terrible, terrible idea.

[paleonaps]

How is that fun? I had the most fun when I was new to the team and DIDN'T get events because the old people were better. He seems to be doing the opposite of fun- letting kids stress out over things they don't need to.

[Kokonilly]

Our coach emphasizes having fun over winning. Most of us think winning is pretty fun, though, so we actually make an effort (which has paid off - we'll see if this year did in about 18 days).

[aubrey048]

Yeah. Personally I would be able to deal with a less interesting event if I weren't the best for and event I wanted, if it might further my team. Besides, what could be more fun for us than going to states/nats? (The hopes and dreams of a puny team of 10 kids! Well, mostly my hopes and dreams but oh well...)

I was referring to be Write It Do It partner from last year. We think of the same jokes, laugh at the same stuff--we were very attuned to each other as Write It Do It partners. He is the coach's son. This year my new Write It Do It partner and I have to practice harder because we aren't as in tune with each other as my last partner and I were. I am ok with it now I guess, because we have practiced a LOT and are getting drastically better. (We began at TOTAL FAILURE and now are approaching ALMOST PERFECT) Just because we're not naturals doesn't mean we can't come out ahead with enough hard work!