Science Olympiad was pretty rough this year. With more responsibilities and more demanding classes, it was hard for me to put in the same amount of time as I did in 10th grade. In my junior year, one of my biggest failures was probably at the Science Olympiad regional. Not only did I not place in any of my events, I didn't help my team improve. In fact, my team performed worse than last year. The hours I spent reading on scioly.org forum about how to improve my team didn't even make the goal come true. I know I am ranting about my feelings but it feels frustrating, especially when I am the vice captain of the team. The purpose of this blog post is to crystallize my thoughts and reflections about Science Olympiad. Despite this year's unsuccessful results, I still learned a lot from Science Olympiad and love Science Olympiad not for the medals but for the learning opportunities it provides me. Here are some lessons I learned:
1. You are never done with learning.
Before, I had this assumption that as long as I checked off things on the rules book for my Science Olympiad events, I would be done. However, this mindset was the wrong way to view learning. Although using a checklist is a good way to identify what you know and do know, simply learning everything what is stated on the rules book is not enough. I learned to not limit myself based on the rules book, but to keep learning where ever I go. This type of learning is what truly embodies the spirit of Science Olympiad: learning for the sole purpose of learning. The question is not, "Am I done?" but "What can I learn next time?" For next year, I am going to try taking the extra steps towards learning instead of confining my knowledge to a small area because there are no boundaries in the world of science.
In short, learning does not have a destination. It is a lifelong journey, so the daily small moments matter. I think the fact that there is no end in learning can feel unsatisfying because you don't feel like you accomplished anything because you still don't know everything. I think that if I could go back and be happier, it would be reflecting upon the small daily successes instead of being goal-oriented and only thinking about the future.
2. Procrastination is my number one enemy
This year, I somehow couldn't get myself to do this build event called Ping Pong Parachute. Initially, I was pretty hyped about doing a build event but after a couple of weeks I was mentally paralyzed and I left the project to the side. It wasn't until a day before the event I started to finish it. Let me tell you that my build was horrible. On the day of the competition, I was the only one with a lame bottle rocket and parachute. I was clearly the odd one out. It was obvious I was the team that didn't start until the week leading up to the competition while all the other teams had careful planning. It was a windy day and not surprisingly, my bottle rocket didn't launch properly and the parachute got tangled. It was really embarrassing and a disaster because quite a few spectators were there to witness the event.
From this event, I learned that I can't let myself slack off. Despite planning out a couple months before the competition, I unfortunately didn't finish what I wanted to do. I think what made it hard for me to start was that the idea of building a bottle rocket to launch a parachute sounded hard and intimidating, but this was all in my imagination. Also, I let perfectionism take over me. I wasn't comfortable with the idea of failing in the beginning. Because of these tendencies, I failed in the end. What is sad is that compared to last year, I was a lot more comfortable with the build event and barely procrastinated. I wonder why all that self-growth escaped from me. I think I wasn't procrastinating last year because I wasn't busy juggling USNCO at the same time, but also I had a peer support group at the engineering room. Teachers were interested in my project and so were my classmates.
Next time, I learned that if you want to get something done, now is the time. It is not tomorrow or next week because from this experience, I ended up not doing anything until the last minute. Also, the hardest thing is starting something but once you start, it isn't that bad. Last but not least, I learned that there is never too much time when it comes to building. There are probably more than 10 variables you can change when it comes to building the best bottle rocket or parachute. Considering the amount of planning, building, and experimenting, you can't really build a good prototype in a time crunch. To prevent myself from procrastinating, I should learn that it is the consistency that leads to good rewards. Success doesn't come from a single event, but a habitual practice. The easiest way to stop procrastinating is to be ok with the obstacles in the process and not being perfect. Without failing in the beginning, how will I learn to do better in the future builds?
1. You are never done with learning.
Before, I had this assumption that as long as I checked off things on the rules book for my Science Olympiad events, I would be done. However, this mindset was the wrong way to view learning. Although using a checklist is a good way to identify what you know and do know, simply learning everything what is stated on the rules book is not enough. I learned to not limit myself based on the rules book, but to keep learning where ever I go. This type of learning is what truly embodies the spirit of Science Olympiad: learning for the sole purpose of learning. The question is not, "Am I done?" but "What can I learn next time?" For next year, I am going to try taking the extra steps towards learning instead of confining my knowledge to a small area because there are no boundaries in the world of science.
In short, learning does not have a destination. It is a lifelong journey, so the daily small moments matter. I think the fact that there is no end in learning can feel unsatisfying because you don't feel like you accomplished anything because you still don't know everything. I think that if I could go back and be happier, it would be reflecting upon the small daily successes instead of being goal-oriented and only thinking about the future.
2. Procrastination is my number one enemy
This year, I somehow couldn't get myself to do this build event called Ping Pong Parachute. Initially, I was pretty hyped about doing a build event but after a couple of weeks I was mentally paralyzed and I left the project to the side. It wasn't until a day before the event I started to finish it. Let me tell you that my build was horrible. On the day of the competition, I was the only one with a lame bottle rocket and parachute. I was clearly the odd one out. It was obvious I was the team that didn't start until the week leading up to the competition while all the other teams had careful planning. It was a windy day and not surprisingly, my bottle rocket didn't launch properly and the parachute got tangled. It was really embarrassing and a disaster because quite a few spectators were there to witness the event.
From this event, I learned that I can't let myself slack off. Despite planning out a couple months before the competition, I unfortunately didn't finish what I wanted to do. I think what made it hard for me to start was that the idea of building a bottle rocket to launch a parachute sounded hard and intimidating, but this was all in my imagination. Also, I let perfectionism take over me. I wasn't comfortable with the idea of failing in the beginning. Because of these tendencies, I failed in the end. What is sad is that compared to last year, I was a lot more comfortable with the build event and barely procrastinated. I wonder why all that self-growth escaped from me. I think I wasn't procrastinating last year because I wasn't busy juggling USNCO at the same time, but also I had a peer support group at the engineering room. Teachers were interested in my project and so were my classmates.
Next time, I learned that if you want to get something done, now is the time. It is not tomorrow or next week because from this experience, I ended up not doing anything until the last minute. Also, the hardest thing is starting something but once you start, it isn't that bad. Last but not least, I learned that there is never too much time when it comes to building. There are probably more than 10 variables you can change when it comes to building the best bottle rocket or parachute. Considering the amount of planning, building, and experimenting, you can't really build a good prototype in a time crunch. To prevent myself from procrastinating, I should learn that it is the consistency that leads to good rewards. Success doesn't come from a single event, but a habitual practice. The easiest way to stop procrastinating is to be ok with the obstacles in the process and not being perfect. Without failing in the beginning, how will I learn to do better in the future builds?
Comments
Post a Comment