User:Aherthabey

Aherthabey is a graduate of the Science Olympiad team at Wayzata High School in Plymouth, Minnesota.

I joined the Science Olympiad team as a sophomore. I don't actually remember why, but I definitely remember being overwhelmed by the number of events available. As a junior, I co-led Green Generation. The people in my event will remember my really sleepy presentations given on my iPad in the corner of the cafeteria. I apologize for that, but in my defense, Tuesday afternoons are not good times for me to be talking about environmental remediation. In my senior year, I was chosen as one of Wayzata's four captains, in addition to serving as event leader of GeoLogic Mapping. My most significant contribution to the team is my overhaul of the team website, as well as some pending team organizational changes. I'm hoping to get a real domain name for our site to increase publicity and so we can install a Moodle extension.

I hope that Wayzata can someday qualify for Nationals. I would also like to see Wayzata Science Olympians establish Division B teams at each of Wayzata's three feeder schools: Central, West, and East.

=Reality Check= You are one of the active users on one of the  pages on.

=Philosophy= This has been repeatedly emphasized by Science Olympians past and present, but I feel the need to reiterate it here: the best way to get better at Science Olympiad is to work hard at it. Even if you get straight A's in all your science classes, the skillsets needed for Science Olympiad are so diverse and specific that it is proverbially true—practice makes perfect. This is especially pertinent for events like Dynamic Planet and Fossils, because Wayzata High School has no earth science courses except Astronomy. This also applies to events such as Write It/Do It and Experimental Design, in which the process is more important than the subjects tested. Honestly, I could keep going: building events are 90% trial and error and 10% design, etc. My point still stands: the more you study, build, and practice, the better and more satisfied you will be with your results.

Because practice is a fundamental part of Science Olympiad, I believe that teams that are able to replicate their success have found a way to motivate themselves to work hard and smart. It is very unlikely that all fifteen members will be as zealous as that poor soul that has made Science Olympiad their life, so it is the job of both coaches and captains to make sure that all team members are on task and working hard towards success. The scoring system that Science Olympiad implements demands that all events be strong, lest one event bring down the entire team's score. This is both reassuring and terrifying for the same reason: everyone's score (and therefore effort) matters.

=Events=

Below is a list of events that I have the most experience with:

GeoLogic Mapping Probably my favorite event. I've studied a great deal for this event, and have done reasonably well considering the hit-and-miss quality of the tests I've taken.

Green Generation Hydrogeology Dynamic Planet/Glaciers

Anatomy and Physiology (Integumentary, Cardiovascular, Immune) I specialized in the immune system, so I could tell you a little about the cardiovascular system and very little about the integumentary system.

=Competition History=

Events

 * Water Quality
 * GeoLogic Mapping
 * Dynamic Planet/Glaciers
 * Designer Genes

Events

 * Green Generation
 * GeoLogic Mapping
 * Anatomy and Physiology (Integumentary, Cardiovascular, Immune)
 * Bridge Building (didn't do any building)

Events

 * GeoLogic Mapping
 * Green Generation
 * Hydrogeology
 * Robot Arm (didn't do any building)
 * Wright Stuff (User:Blai35 actually built the plane)
 * Air Trajectory (didn't do any building)
 * Electric Vehicle

Medals
I wore a cow costume to help win the spirit award at the UW-RF Border Battle Invitational. My last name is pronounced "moo." We actually took money out of the team budget to buy the costume, which was pretty cool.