What I Know Now That I Wish I’d Known A Few Months Ago

·         Travel at the university is slow, so organization is critical. 

·         Find an activity for your students between ending & awards ceremony.

·         Knowledge of event details gained through experience.

·         I wish I had known that the actual day was so relaxed.  I thought it would be much more stressful.

·         We need a few dependable parent volunteers on SO day to take/escort younger students on bus and to events at different locations.

·         Two coaches can’t be everywhere at once to monitor events and behavior.

·         Online registration – I need to do it soon.  School work keeps us busy then you forget about the timeline.

·         That Science Olympiad is more fun than scary.

·         Review the specific times of events so that students can schedule around it better.

·         Building events need to be started EARLY in the school year, regardless of when the other events are arranged.

·         READING THE RULES IS THE #1 MOST IMPORTANT THING TO DO (we knew this, but we can’t stress it enough, especially for our kids who didn’t do it, despite our constant reminding).

·         Which kids were going to quit on me at the end.

·         That this really needs to be started/organized in advance – we started 1 month ago, but wrangling 12 teenagers into action requires more like 6 months.

·         I wish I’d been at the coaches meeting in October.

·         As a coach, I would appreciate some Science Olympiad test-taking suggestions that could help my team members.

·         I couldn’t figure out how the whole program worked for a long time.  You need to make it clear that a school competes but in each event there are only 2-3 team members from that school in any one event.

·         Make sure to spread team out to participate in more events.

·         Whether or not I had my funding (which I didn’t know until the end of February). 

·         What the questions would be like (access to last years tests/results).

·         You do a fantastic job of keeping us in the know and it is really no fault but our own if we don’t adhere to the given instructions and notices that are sent in advance.  I’ve learned that the hard way.

·         Time always passes by quickly and I guess I could use a timeline with deadlines for myself and my students

·         I should have paid better attention to the fact that we were in the Dee Events Center – caused many problems last min.

·         The students in Anatomy were surprised to see actual bone specimens that they needed to identify.

·         You need lots of parent participants.

·         You can’t be late for Astronomy – tell students to arrive before 8 am to be safe, if parents are driving.

·         How much influence SO has on students who think they may have an interest in science/engineering and the enthusiasm it brings on the day of competition.

·         I thought the information put out was sufficient.

·         I appreciated the coach’s page, but I am still confused about the actual testing format for each event and what to expect and how to prepare the students. 

·         I took over as coach after our original one got sick, so I appreciated the improved coaches packet with videos, etc.  Coaches who can’t go to the clinic need as much in that packet as you can give them.

·         Get help from parents.

·         Each year I learn more about the events.  Each year I try to learn and focus on different events so that I can learn more and help the students with more events.

·         Prepare EARLIER!!  I need to start revving my students up for this at the beginning of the year, not a few months beforehand.

·         How hard it is for the students to build a robot for Robo-Cross and how tricky to make a control system to “communicate” – wish there had been more tips online from the national website and state website for some of these “building” events.  It is hard to do it for the first time and know where to find parts, etc.  More networking would help.