Science Olympiad First Parent Meeting

We recently met with parents (new and old) to recruit coaches for our middle school Science Olympiad team.  Our team is coached by parents with support from the school.  At the middle school level, the students still need to learn skills like organization, time management, research skills (thank you Google), and how to use power tools!  The students need an adult to help them learn these skills, as well as the science content, and so each event needs a dedicated coach.  I wanted to share with you some of the things I said to the parents as we talked about being a coach for a Science Olympiad event.

1.  For our team structure, Science Olympiad is not an activity where you can drop off your child, go run errands, and come back to pick them up in a few hours.  This is like a travel baseball team where at various times you may be needed to be the base running coach, batting coach, driver, team manager, or snack provider.  There is a job for everyone, and we need every parent to help in some way.

2.  You don't need to be "good" at science, just good at managing the kids.  Your primary job is to keep the kids on task, help them organize the information they are learning, and help them read and understand the rules and event parameters.  We need you to schedule a time for your event to meet and practice, and help the kids set goals for the next practice or next competition.  The kids are pretty good at learning the science when provided with a structure.

3.  Our team will become an extended family.  Like many travel sports teams, we will spend a lot of time together at practices and competitions.  During this time, we will get to know one another and offer support when needed.  We will try to organize social activities for the families to foster this friendly and supportive atmosphere among the kids and families.

4.  No one is judging you on your coaching ability based on how your event performs.  The event performance is really up to the kids, and the effort they exert to improve between competitions.  Some events will do well, some will fail completely.  It is all part of the experience, and we often learn more from our failures than from our successes.  We will appreciate your efforts, no matter the end result.  Because without your help, we would not be able to offer this experience to our kids.

5.  As parents, we are asked to do many things for our children.  Most parents that get involved with Science Olympiad love the experience, not only for their children, but for themselves as well.  Parents love learning new things too, and science is a fascinating subject.  And it makes for great dinner conversations!