Texas 2010

[RndmPplPrsn]

Oh yeah and if I understand correctly the failing TAKS scores are due to LASA students blowing off the TAKS exams because they find it stupid and irrelevant.

[RndmPplPrsn]

By the way my school, is NYOS Charter School. I am not sure if I correctly explained the disadvantage we are at, but without what has happened recently we are in general already at a huge disadvantage. SciOly is the only thing in which my school can compete with other public schools because of our size. The fact that we reached state two years ago blew our minds, so the fact of losing a coach who did so much work and organization for us, plus losing several students to other schools really put us down. He knew so much, and helped us in many ways (It sounds like he died, from what I'm writing, he didn't). So with a brand new teacher (Never taught before) as our brand new coach, it is sort of difficult. So in turn I end of up doing a lot of the work to get our team going, organized, etc.... Obviously excluding the coaches ONLY duties such as registration. We can amount to greatness, but really, and ultimately it is unfathomable. So with other schools in better positions, with a solid program in hand, with a good set of experience, I just want to see a little more friendliness and sportsmanship between all teams. It's a competition, but we can all handle our good/bad we maturely (I may have taken the "cockiness" comment too far, but this is how I feel). We were also not sure until August if we were going to have SciOly (We call it TACOS) this year, or ever again.

[cypressfalls Robert]

By my previous comments I was wishing to provoke a thoughtful comment like that, thank you. However in the past I have had some problems with LASA, shown by the team in general, or at least a few select members. Such as people standing up way before the announcer has announced first place for that event or tournament. If you win that often, and by such margins it's understandable, but they could hold back their pride for another thirty seconds or so and accept their medals graciously. Also in their name it states what the school is, Liberal Arts AND Science Academy. I also want to note that you may be the poorest school in AISD, but my school, is in Austin, however not part of AISD. I am 99% positive that we have that sad title. I guess though, that I shouldn't have start a "my school is more disadvantaged than yours" argument. Look to see y'all at State, and hope for a fair and good competition.

yeah i noticed that too, at states

[andrew418]

Oh yeah and if I understand correctly the failing TAKS scores are due to LASA students blowing off the TAKS exams because they find it stupid and irrelevant.

I think you misunderstand. LASA has the highest TAKS scores in the district.

The way funding works is that the schools with poor TAKS scores get more money to help bring them up. So schools that perform well, like LASA, do not get extra funding.

However in the past I have had some problems with LASA, shown by the team in general, or at least a few select members. Such as people standing up way before the announcer has announced first place for that event or tournament. If you win that often, and by such margins it's understandable, but they could hold back their pride for another thirty seconds or so and accept their medals graciously.

I can't condone those actions.

I know the incident you are talking about, and you can be assured that the team was not pleased with the person who did it... LASA tries to be competitive without compromising our values or sportsmanship. And at times, unfortunately, we're not successful. We work extremely hard at science olympiad at LASA. I know that last year, I put in at least 30 hours a week on science olympiad on average for the second semester, sometimes up to 60 hours in one week. It's a huge rush when our hard work pays off, and we perform in a way that we think can give us a shot to be successful at the national level.

I hope you can forgive our school for these actions. We don't want to be known as poor sports. And 99% of the time, we aren't. I know that because of our success, we are put under the magnifying glass, and sometimes we don't measure up. Hopefully, Texas teams can look past that 1% of the time.

[cypressfalls Robert]

lol, at nationals the LASA coach told ours that one of her students actually stayed overnight at school studying for SO....that's some dedication

[Mimsie]

It's not how much money you put into the program. It's how much dedication you put into the program. And if LASA is dedicated and wins all the time, then they deserve it. The rest of Texas just needs to step up. (Besides, winning isn't ALWAYS everything, but it IS nice)

[texan92]

I know that last year, I put in at least 30 hours a week on science olympiad on average for the second semester, sometimes up to 60 hours in one week.

Just curious, how were you able to put 30-60 hrs per week? That's some serious dedication. Assuming you don't study Sunday, 30 hours/week means 5 hours/day every day. That's a lot of time.

[andrew418]

Haha, short answer, I was a second semester senior.


Long answer:

1. I took the Scio elective class we have at our school. 5 hours/week
2. I had an off period: 5 hours/week
3. I went afterschool to study 4 days a week, from 2 to 3 hours, depending on how long our coach stayed afterschool: 8-10 hours/week

The time I spent at school was largely working on my building events, doing actual construction and calibration on makeshift courses we set up. Some studying with partners, but that mostly happened at home over instant messaging.

4. At home, I did the things that I could do anywhere. When I finished my homework, I would work on my EV code. LASA has a LOT of homework though, so weeknights I didn't usually get much done, maybe 3 or 4 hours a week. I generally took Friday nights off from Scio. On Saturdays, I studied my academic events with my partners via instant messaging, researching, looking up and doing practice problems, and worked on my electric vehicle code. I probably spent somewhere between 6 to 10 hours on Scio on Saturdays.

So 5+5+ (8 to 10) + (3 to 4) + (6 to 8) = 27 to 32 hours

60 hours was more rare, it only happened once or twice (the week before state or nationals). I had an understanding with a lot of my teachers that if they let me miss their classes for a week before a competition, I'd repay them the next week by doing all my work over the weekend. So I was able to utilize a lot of my school day for that during those weeks.

At LASA, we're incredibly lucky to have an amazing coach/sponsor who is dedicated enough to let us stay afterschool and during the day, working on Scio.

[sciolykid101]

The challenge for the other high schools is to beat them in individual events, few if any have the possibility of challenging them as a team.

My challenge against those Ohioans.

[dolphin1538]

Such as people standing up way before the announcer has announced first place for that event or tournament.

I do not believe (and hope I haven't just forgotten) that we have had such an incident this year. If it has happened, my sincere apologies. Everyone is excited about medaling and/or winning events but I think we know not to take things for granted. Same idea, but at most competitions, by the time the 2nd place team is announced, the room already knows who has won - usually that team (1st place) stands up and claps, and they're also cheering for themselves. It's sort of inevitable (dear piratecapn, it doesn't matter how I pronounce it in my head when typing)... LASA encountered the same in Ohio with Centerville...

As for whether LASA has advantages or disadvantages - both apply. But it won't be collapsing anytime soon.

Whales!