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Jan. 18th, 2012 04:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckThe last couple of weeks have happened. I know I did stuff, but I can't for the life of me remember any interesting details. My main conclusion right now is that we're paying an awful lot of money to Rec & Ed (for those not local Rec & Ed is a subdivision of the schools that does all sorts of classes-- dance, art, languages, etc. for both kids and adults). Delia is going to be participating in four Rec & Ed activities starting real soon now, and I also had to sign her up for spring soccer.
Our weekly schedule for a while is going to be busy-- Mondays, we'll have Science Olympiad practices for the event I'm coaching, Estimania. Tuesdays, Delia has Chinese. Wednesdays, Delia will have guitar and indoor soccer practice. Thursdays, Delia will have break dancing (assuming enough kids sign up. Last time we tried it, they canceled the class. Right now, there are eight slots filled. I don't know what their required minimum is). Somewhere in there, there will be practices for the other Science Olympiad event Delia's signed up for (I asked for just one event, but they gave her two, and she wants to do both), What Went By.
Estimania is going to be a challenge to coach because what they could ask is wide open. We had the informational meeting last week, and I found the example questions intimidating. Some examples: How many basketballs would it take to fill this room? How many elephants would it take to go around the world at the equator? Given this toy truck, how many would you need to make ten kilograms?
The kids have to be able to eyeball distances and know weights by heft. There'll be five physical questions (questions with a physical object available to touch, lift, etc) and ten paper and pencil questions. The kids will have twenty minutes. I'm supposed to teach them to work quickly and to settle for approximate answers.
Scott and I are currently planning to focus first on teaching units of measure. The kids won't get any credit at all for answers that don't have the correct unit attached to them, and having a feel for the size of different units will be really important. I'm not sure how hard we'll hit conversion between units. That will come up, but that increases the difficulty quite a bit. The second graders really can't do much conversion because they haven't had multiplication and division yet. The third graders can do simple multiplication, but anything involving double digits is beyond them. I know the third graders haven't touched multiplication involving decimals yet. I don't know what the fourth graders have or haven't learned.
We'll have three or four kids, including Delia. The reason for the uncertainty about numbers is that there's a second grader looking for an event to join. I e-mailed his mother to tell her that we have an opening, but some other team may have grabbed him first. I won't know until she responds. Right now, I've got one second grader, one third grader and one fourth grader. It's a bit of a disadvantage for the kids to be working alone, but there weren't many kids who signed up this year. I think it's because sign ups were rushed. Parents had about three days to decide whether or not to commit and to get the form in.
Delia's other event, What Went By, is about endangered and extinct animals. There's an awful lot of ground to cover. I'd have no clue at all where to start. I'm a little concerned that we haven't heard from the coach of the event yet. He or she should already be trying to schedule practices. I hope the coach is open to either a Friday or a weekend practice. I'm not sure we could make anything else work. I think, based on something on the Science Olympiad website, that the kids will be given several clues as to what an animal is and will have to correctly identify it based on those.
I don't think Delia's school has ever even placed in a Science Olympiad event. They read off the top five schools in each event and give those kids medals. They don't reveal the standings beyond that. Coaches also aren't allowed into the rooms where the events take place, so there's no way of seeing what questions were actually asked and noting them for next year. Last year, I got vague information from Delia and the boy doing Rock Hunters with her, but I have no idea if I taught them anything even in the ballpark of the right stuff.
I did pass on some of the vocabulary sheets and lists of mineral characteristics that I made last year to this year's Rock Hunters coach. She appreciated the help. She's going to have a harder time than I did because she's coaching three grades where I only had one.
Our weekly schedule for a while is going to be busy-- Mondays, we'll have Science Olympiad practices for the event I'm coaching, Estimania. Tuesdays, Delia has Chinese. Wednesdays, Delia will have guitar and indoor soccer practice. Thursdays, Delia will have break dancing (assuming enough kids sign up. Last time we tried it, they canceled the class. Right now, there are eight slots filled. I don't know what their required minimum is). Somewhere in there, there will be practices for the other Science Olympiad event Delia's signed up for (I asked for just one event, but they gave her two, and she wants to do both), What Went By.
Estimania is going to be a challenge to coach because what they could ask is wide open. We had the informational meeting last week, and I found the example questions intimidating. Some examples: How many basketballs would it take to fill this room? How many elephants would it take to go around the world at the equator? Given this toy truck, how many would you need to make ten kilograms?
The kids have to be able to eyeball distances and know weights by heft. There'll be five physical questions (questions with a physical object available to touch, lift, etc) and ten paper and pencil questions. The kids will have twenty minutes. I'm supposed to teach them to work quickly and to settle for approximate answers.
Scott and I are currently planning to focus first on teaching units of measure. The kids won't get any credit at all for answers that don't have the correct unit attached to them, and having a feel for the size of different units will be really important. I'm not sure how hard we'll hit conversion between units. That will come up, but that increases the difficulty quite a bit. The second graders really can't do much conversion because they haven't had multiplication and division yet. The third graders can do simple multiplication, but anything involving double digits is beyond them. I know the third graders haven't touched multiplication involving decimals yet. I don't know what the fourth graders have or haven't learned.
We'll have three or four kids, including Delia. The reason for the uncertainty about numbers is that there's a second grader looking for an event to join. I e-mailed his mother to tell her that we have an opening, but some other team may have grabbed him first. I won't know until she responds. Right now, I've got one second grader, one third grader and one fourth grader. It's a bit of a disadvantage for the kids to be working alone, but there weren't many kids who signed up this year. I think it's because sign ups were rushed. Parents had about three days to decide whether or not to commit and to get the form in.
Delia's other event, What Went By, is about endangered and extinct animals. There's an awful lot of ground to cover. I'd have no clue at all where to start. I'm a little concerned that we haven't heard from the coach of the event yet. He or she should already be trying to schedule practices. I hope the coach is open to either a Friday or a weekend practice. I'm not sure we could make anything else work. I think, based on something on the Science Olympiad website, that the kids will be given several clues as to what an animal is and will have to correctly identify it based on those.
I don't think Delia's school has ever even placed in a Science Olympiad event. They read off the top five schools in each event and give those kids medals. They don't reveal the standings beyond that. Coaches also aren't allowed into the rooms where the events take place, so there's no way of seeing what questions were actually asked and noting them for next year. Last year, I got vague information from Delia and the boy doing Rock Hunters with her, but I have no idea if I taught them anything even in the ballpark of the right stuff.
I did pass on some of the vocabulary sheets and lists of mineral characteristics that I made last year to this year's Rock Hunters coach. She appreciated the help. She's going to have a harder time than I did because she's coaching three grades where I only had one.
