Science Olympiad

I love my job!

Saturday was the high point of the year for my students and me.  We attended the annual Science Olympiad at Chattanooga State.  We spend much of our time during the school year preparing for this event.  Much of my curriculum is based on the events of this competition.  It’s a big deal.

We have spent hours building rockets and launching them.  We tested cupcakes and measured viscosity of ingredients for food science.  We built mousetrap cars and ran the wheels off them.  We built a thermal insulator to keep water warm and tested it repeatedly.  We learned how to make graphs on Excel and search for information on the internet. We went to the river to collect water specimens and tested them for water quality.  We built a very light tower that held 15 kg (33 lbs) without breaking (and it wasn't even 3-sided!).

One student built a trebuchet and tested so that he could hit a target every time.  Another student built a Rube Goldberg machine that did a simple task in a most complex way.  Students met with teachers after school.  Parents participated in helping us prepare.

I wish you could have seen their joy in this learning.  I wish you could have heard their excitement leading up to the competition.

“I won’t even be able to sleep Friday night!”

“I get this.  I understand!”

“My machine is awesome. “ He sends me a text message with a picture of it.  (After he shot it at the competition he called his dad to tell him how well it did and he said his dad was screaming on the phone.)

They came back from events to tell me, “We got this.  We knew exactly what to do.”  “I don’t care if I get a medal in this or not… that was so amazing and so fun.” 

This is what a teacher lives for.  This is the ultimate high.  This is success.

I feel for the classroom teachers who don’t get this feeling often enough.  They have so much pressure.  There is so much time spent dragging work out of students who are so difficult to motivate.  I know.  I’ve been there too.

I’m so lucky to have experienced it.  I’m wishing my colleagues days like these, times like these, students like these.