Science
Two weeks ago there was a SCIOLY event (Science Olympiad) at UChicago. This week there was again a similar event at a middle school in Arlington Heights. Both were pretty good - impressive.
(Speaking as a parent volunteer, I wish I could help kids with the subjects, or any testing rules/tricks, but I didn't have much experience. I did information in middle school, biology in high school, where participation was limited to a handful of people. I think JY's events are open to everyone and kids are having more fun.)
The logistics was a difficulty at UChicago for kids need to rush from one building to another building. Even for the last event, I was not able to pull the kid I was supposed to escort from a previous event - they worked way over time - then when she finished everything, Ms L. personally escorted her to the final event. Almost running along the way. And the kid I knew got nobody but Ms L. to help escort as well. It is no kidding to have only 10min between the break, and at least 5min to go on one way.
Today's event was much easier. There were more teams, but the school was hugely massive - with only two levels, in the shape of a square. Thus kids are not afraid of getting lost, they only need to go around to arrive at where they started. I led JY and ND on a longer path, and they found they forgot pencils and map and everything. Yet they were able to take the shorter path and come back quickly. Basically it is more familiar than a college campus, kids were more active, more brave to take action. A team of 4 kids rushed back to the (temporary) home room, saying there was a mistake where they should go. Before Mr. C could verify his email, the kids have already identified the typo, and rushed out again. They were bold and brave, with a lot of spirit. I think they did well eventually, also because they got more prepared than the last one.
The most impressive one is in the gym. There are mainly two groups, catapult and model planes. For the catapult (Trajectory), there are two weights, one looks like to be 5lb and another smaller; and each is tried maybe twice to throw a foam ball to a bucket. Pretty fun watching, but it takes way too much time to prepare and measure. I wonder if kids can quickly convert the 1ft-off number to how to adjust. Seriously need more time/attempts. For the model plans (Flight), the structure of a model plane is like a wooden frame, plastic membrane made wings - wide and long, and rubber band to provide power. What's amazing is the ability for the plane to fly around a circle - firstly ascending until it reached the roof, then descending until it hits the ground - all on the same circular trajectory (why not call this item Trajectory instead?) And it was so stable and so mesmerizing. I thought 40s was a good result, but Mr. C said one need to be measured in minutes to win.
The home room is kind of small for all 3 teams of the school. But kids are enjoying other's company, I can tell - they always move together. All are good kids, no matter how tall they are, how talent they are, they are just little kids. I kind of wish they can freeze the time, for I remember in my teenager time, in my middle school, I had the same wish every day. The future was easy to predict, as people scatter around the country (or the globe) and they possibly would not see each other for the rest of their lives. Somehow I can hardly let that feeling go, the feeling to grab everything but knowing one cannot keep it.
The event was busy but very orderly. The school is very accommodating, and there are plenty of snakes, sweets all day long. The classroom was warm and cozy, with bookshelves on all sides surrounding the chairs, like a small library. I saw another classroom (for science) had a huge fish tank, that classroom was not used in the event. It is much better than JY's school, in terms of facility and classroom resource. But I think it still has a familiar feeling to them. I also saw kids in awe of UChicago classrooms - huge blackboards and whiteboards, podium and huge number of seats around it - not sure if they look forward to the academic life yet.