Is Science Olympiad worth it?

[quizbowl]

Science Olympiad is DEFINITELY worth it.
When I started out in 7th grade, I never truly understood what it was about. I thought you would just work independently to try and win a medal or two. I tried to study, but always got distracted, and put it off until later. I ended up not medaling in any of my events, and my team fell apart. I remember that I had studied for one event, Rocks and Minerals, and thought that I could do it all on my own. My partner hadn't even showed up for any meetings, and never even came to the competition. I couldn't handle it on my own, and although I did get in the top 10, all I remember is crying on the way back. I learned that partners aren't just partners; they have to work with you if you want progress.
By my 8th grade year, I was team captain. I still didn't take it seriously, and our team didn't even crack the top 20. I felt like a total failure, and no one even medaled, and we only made the top 10 in ONE event because it was multiple choice and we decided to bubble in random answers. I learned that you need to have the will to succeed to actually succeed.
In 9th grade, I entered high school. Our team was finally starting to come together, and our captains were amazing and inspiring. I happened to be doing the same event as one of the captains, Fossils, and we had to test for the events. Although I did bomb that test, they put me on the lower team to get some experience. I worked with the captain and made some awesome pages with her. At regionals, however, I only managed 10th alone, while she got 2nd with her partner. I learned that just having the information won't necessarily give you a medal. At states, our school's team got 6th, and we barely lost to our local rivals. We vowed to beat them the next year.
This year, after the captains left, both spots were open for fossils. Almost everyone in science olympiad was vying for those spots, including the former captain's prodigious freshmen sister. I studied and studied, and thought I bombed the test. As it turns out, I happened to have tied the prodigy for the best score; we both did perfect! We became really good friends and worked together the entire year up until regionals. We had a little incident at regionals where we had a defective test and had to be given extra time to do a station, but we ended up getting 2nd behind our rival school. We had also given our notes to the second team, who ended up just medaling with 5th place. She also medaled in Ornithology as well.
The worst case scenario happened at states; ornithology and fossils were at the same time. It was a shame, for we looked like good prospects of medaling at states for our events. After much debating, name calling and fire extinguisher battles, it was decided that my partner would be doing ornithology while someone from the second team would be my partner, to my chagrin. She wasn't what I wanted in a partner, but I had to survive. I learned that sometimes you have to go with the flow instead of being stuck in the weeds. I was also put on remote sensing, and my partner decided not to show up for a month. I almost went insane and even contemplated leaving the team, but I felt that I couldn't let down my team because of how hard everyone else had worked. I eventually decided to stay, and I learned that it is better to struggle through than just breeze on by. At states, I ended up getting 17th in remote, which is pretty good considering that the test had a lot of ecology-related elements and my partner medaled in it; otherwise we would have failed horrigly, and 7th in fossils. I was heartbroken that I didn't medal after studying fossils for two whole years, but I kept on trucking. My partner ended up medaling in Ornithology, but she told me that I was the one who really deserved a medal. We ended up getting 5th place overall as a team, which was the best we ever had accomplished at states for over 25 years. One of our biggest thrills was beating out rivals, who had beat us at regionals, at states, and it was just amazing to walk on stage after them and bask in the glory. Our coach was so happy, he started crying on the way back.
Now, as I wait for the final event list, as well as the Fossil list, and school to end and start up again, even my schedule for next year, my team is finally realizing the fact that we weren't that far from Nationals as we thought, and we planned to start even earlier this year. We are upset that we lose so many strong seniors who led our team well, but we know that we will be able to function without them.
I have made countless friends through this, and I have gone from a secluded, quiet kid to an outgoing, extrovert child who isnt afraid to be himself. If you have the opportunity to join Science Olympiads, do it, it will be the best decision of your life.

[Jocool]

That's probably the longest one yet, but i totally agree.

[quizbowl]

naah, ill admit that gyourkoshaven was longer, but they both have the same gist.

[zyzzyva980]

For me, the gist was "read the first few words and give up"

[gyourkoshaven]

Mine Quizbowl
6,366 3,772 (Characters)

I win.

(But in actuality, gh's was longer than both of ours.)

[zyzzyva980]

New life goal: Write one that is longer. And I shall achieve this goal.

[quizbowl]

really, its not a competition.
but still, science olympiad is better than the flip side of the pillow.

[winneratlife]

For me, the gist was "read the first few words and give up"

Pshh...when you fail (eventually you will...I think), you'll come back and read the entire thread, every last word, for comfort. I know I did.

i never really thought i was a winner or the person who helped win a competition

Lucky you...look at my username, then tell me how big you think my ego is.

EDIT: Gh, I just reread your post.

Yet somehow, all the tubes I rolled that year had zero curvature. That is just f'ing magical, if you understand what I'm talking about.

The first time, I thought nothing of it, but since the power round at ARML this year was about Descartes Circle Formula and curvature, I'm pretty sure that 0 curvature = straight line, non? (curvature = 1/r)

[lllazar]

I guess i'll write my Sci Oly story....

When i was in middle school, i was pretty smart. Smart, shy, and socially awkward. But i didn't think i was smart enough for science olympiad, o no...so i decided not to join the team in case i embarrassed myself or let the team down.

7th grade rolls around, and i again, i decide not to join. However, at this point, another reason would be that im sorta addicted to Maplestory, if anyone knows what that is...1.5-2 hours a day, parents yelling constantly to study, and all i have at that point is my "intelligence". Scoff. What is intelligence really? I was good at math, sure. Certainly not a prodigy. Ya, i got As. But its the 7th grade, id have to literally not come to class to do decent. And im as lazy as can be.

Ahh, the year before high school. And guess what? I join the science olympiad team. Im intimidated, and im still playing mindless video games. My work ethic is zero at anything but school work, which isnt much. I procrastinate "like a mug" in all my events (Bridge, Anatomy and Physical Science Lab). But i learned something that year. Working hard at Sci Oly, it could become a gateway for me to change my work ethics - and it could take me away from the magical world of MMORPGS.

Freshman year. Im a 4.0 student academically, but i still feel lost. I want to do harder math, i fall in love with geometry, and Science Olympiad is a beckonin. I decide to give Bridge another shot this year, but the captain, who also does bridge, is annoying and discourages testing out different designs. I only really built 4 bridges this year, he built the regional bridge practically by himself. I get involved early, but i have conflicts with events a few months before regionals...wat a shame, i end with only 3 events - Fossils (which i haven't studied for at all) Bridge, and Experimental Design.

But, our team, for the first time in 5 years, is going to state. Not only that, we WON REGIONALS.

And that's when it happens. We had a volunteer coach this year and she was a paleontology student at the U of I. Call it destiny, but i latched on to fossils like a pair of magnets. I worked on my binder non-stop i put in over 6 hours a week easy, and by the time regionals came, i got results. Fossils pretty much became a hobby for me.

As for my other two events, bridge and experimental: My lazy partner kept on stalling and then the day before regionals said he'd build the bridge himself. I was angry. As for design, i did some research and i felt ok. At regionals, i get 1st in fossils and im beaming. I get second in experimental and im pretty pleased (wat a pun). But our bridge got 2nd-tiered cause my partner build outside the specs. Sigh...

Before state is when i really got involved. I still only had 3 events, and i wanted to make the best of the ones i liked. Bridge building became a hobby for me, and honestly, ill keep building balsa structures for the rest of my life. My partner for bridge cant come to state, and im actually happy. I jump from design to design before building, and with a little help from a physics teacher, i hit on a good design. I rebuild it a few times and im ready to build the state bridge. As for fossils, i completely redo my binder - and boy did i learn a lot from that. I didn't do much for design, which i regret, but i just didn't have the time.

Keep in mind, i pretty much dont have partners for fossils or bridge.

State is here. A glorious day on the U of I campus. Bridge testing goes fine, my efficiency exceeds all expectations and boy am i proud. Fossils test time. It was pretty hard at some parts, and i decided id study even harder next year. Design goes ok, but i know we wont medal...I have fun with teammates, we eat lunch - AWARDS TIME.

Much anticipated fossils rolls along quicker than i thought - but no worries, i win first in my division. Next, bridge - it turns out, not only did i win my division, i beat every other team there. Im bursting at the seems with happiness.

And yet - Im the only person on my time to win a first place medal, and i feel strangely like an outcast...it seemed like i had planted a seed in all my teammates - a seed of desire and potential growth. Anyway, we won first in our division and couldn't be happier. I feel like we'll do even better next year, we'll be in the higher division.

In conclusion, sci oly has made me a more out going, enthusiastic person. People come to me for help in a lot of situations and i feel proud that i can answer their questions. Sci oly improved my work ethic and most importantly, the quality of my life. It's fun.

As a side note, Math Team also helped me out in a similar way. Im also on Varsity Tennis, so let me say something:

Clubs and teams which require you to explore and grow as a person, will always be worth it.

[AlphaTauri]

Is Science Olympiad worth it? If you had asked me this question last year, my answer would have been something like "Definitely yes! We're awesome!". Now, after a year of setbacks, difficulties, some very unfortunate conflicts, and even outright failure, my answer is still, undoubtedly, YES. I don't have a life-changing story like many other people here do- I didn't join Science Olympiad until 7th grade and I had been getting along ok in middle school before then- but it's still been a great journey and a whole lot of fun. I know many people have already said this, but I do think that Science Olympiad (along with MathCounts, orchestra, etc.) has changed my personality. I went from a quiet, little 6th grader who used to keep to herself and not say much, except to her friends, to a talkative, argumentative, and impatient 8th grader who uses way too much sarcasm for her own good.

In 7th grade, my parents told me about Science Olympiad and told me to try it because I might like it (I was interested in a lot of science-y stuff at the time). So I went to the tryout test, thought I bombed it, and was quite surprised to find out I made the team. At first, I wasn’t very serious about the whole thing- I just thought, I’ll go to a few meetings, and if I don’t like it, I’ll just quit. Turns out, I didn’t quit. I’m still not sure why, whether it was the people on the team, the lack of seriousness or good work ethics at practice, the competitiveness, or just the fun of it, but I loved it. So I went to practices, I studied, I built stuff, I took lots of notes, I glued my fingers to stuff, I panicked for Regionals along with everyone else, I competed, I medaled, I celebrated with the team, I studied more, I built more stuff, I took more notes, I glued my fingers to more stuff, I panicked for States more, I competed more, and I even medaled. Overall, it was a very good year. Actually, scratch that, it was a great year.

This year, I arrived at the first meeting feeling confident (maybe even a bit too confident) that we could do better than last year’s minor miracle of a 7th place finish. We didn’t. We barely made it past Regionals and we did much worse than usual at States. But that’s okay, because it’s taught me a some really important things about life along the way:

1. Some things are just out of your control and you have to deal with that. I think this is actually the single most important thing Science Olympiad has taught me...I used to really hate it when I couldn’t change a bad situation, but I guess I’ve sort of learned to just deal with it. Earlier this year, I learned that I wasn’t going to be able to make it to Regionals and I was really upset about it (my coach was even more upset), but I did everything that I could do beforehand, like working on the Trajectory and dumping 25 pages of notes on my replacement for Solar System. And then at States, Compute This was very poorly run. In addition to various computer issues, the event started 20 minutes late, which meant I (along with several others) had to leave early and run to my next event. Sure, it wasn’t very fair and they probably would have tossed the scores if enough people complained, but sometimes you just have to deal with it and complain privately later. That’s life.

2. The results really reflect the effort you put into it, and nowhere was this statement more true than States. I worked my tail off on Solar System and Trajectory and was eventually rewarded with medals for both these events. However, I did quite horrible in Anatomy- not only was the test very tough, I didn’t really study at all. Hard work really does lead to success- unless something goes horribly, terribly wrong, but the more prepared you are, the less likely that's going to happen.

3. The end results aren't the only important thing. Often times, the process of working on stuff and collaborating with other science nerds/geeks is more fun than finding out how you did. So what if we spent half the practice talking and annoying each other (in a friendly manner, of course) instead of working? I know that over the course of the past two years, many of the complete strangers I met at the beginning of the year had become some of my best friends by the end, and that’s worth more to me than any medal could possibly be.

4. As gyourkoshaven said, you’ve gotta believe. I did manage to show up to Regionals...just in time to see our ill-fated and almost comically short plane flight. A rock could have flown longer than that plane. After hearing several stories from the team such as “[build event] didn’t work very well”, “so-and-so forgot [something very important], and “[study event] didn’t go so well”, I was sure that we probably weren’t even going to States. The awards ceremony seemed to back this up, with absolutely no medals up until Can’t Judge and only a relative handful of medals overall. Now I was almost positive that we weren’t going to make it. I guess the rest of the team was just as anxious as I was, because when the announcer called us for 3rd, we jumped out of our seats and cheered as if we had just won Nationals (only without all the hugging and tears of joy). When I looked at the results, not only were we only 6 points away from first, we were 8 points away from not making it to States at all.

Then at States, during Solar System, my event partner and I were excited that we had such an easy test, and thought we might even win the event. But then we saw teams leaving ahead of us whilst we were checking answers, and thought, "We're not getting gold". When the Awards ceremony came around, we sat there listening as they called 5th, 4th, 3rd, and 2nd as teams that either left before us or were in the other event slots. Then he called us for first...sometimes being wrong is a good thing. Anything can happen, and sometimes the only thing you can do is just to believe in yourself and the team.

The ultimate truth about Science Olympiad is that once you really get involved, the competition never, ever ends.