4:30 AM - A Tale from the Classroom

I am laying on my desk in the science department office. Eyes shut, listening to two students mumbling in the Chemistry lab next door. It's 4:00 am Saturday morning.

Read that again. 4:00 am... on a Saturday.

These are the last two students. We have been at school nearly 21 hours. Such is the motivation of preparing for Science Olympiad.

Science Olympiad is an annual affair where high school teams of 15 students compete against each other in 23 different events. Typical events include: Cell Biology, Physics Lab, Astronomy, Robotics, Herpetology (the study of amphibians), and Crime Science. The competition follows an Olympics-style format where pairs of students compete for individual medals and an overall team score is derived from the results of all events. For some, this motivates them to go far beyond what they might otherwise learn in the classroom.

Dustin and Robert are now putting the finishing touches on two science projects… Earlier in the evening there were students launching water-bottle rockets in pitch darkness on the football field, flying airplanes in the gym, testing an egg-carrying car, and frantically cramming through pages of science notes.

I lift my head up and slowly drag my body off of the desk.

Wow, the Chemistry room is a complete disaster area and it will need to be cleaned up before we can let Monday's classes back in here. No time to worry about that now... I'll take care of clean up on Sunday...

“Come on guys, we have to... HAVE to get out of here. Let’s wrap it up.”

At 4:30 am we lock up the science building and head to our homes. I get just about an hour’s nap before I have to wake up and get back to school at 7:00 to meet students, pack up the cars and head for the day-long competition at a local college.

For a Science Olympiad Coach, this is the longest weekend of the year.


(By the way... the following day, for the first time, we defeat every other high school in the region.)