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Coaching a high school Science Olympiad team.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

Each year thousands of high school science teachers serve as Science Olympiad coaches. These teacher-coaches mentor and assist students who compete in biology, chemistry, earth science, physics, and technology events at this extra curricular academic competition. Why do teachers serve as coaches? What are their rewards and challenges? What levels of competition and cooperation exist among students engaging in this endeavor? What is the relationship of coaching a Science Olympiad team and teaching high school science? Nine science teachers who served as coaches at a regional high school Science Olympiad in 2002 were interviewed to answer these questions. Their insights are reported here.

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The Science Olympiad [SCIO] is "an international nonprofit organization devoted to improving the quality of science education by generating student interest in science and providing recognition for outstanding achievement in science education by both students and teachers" (Putz, 2002, p. CC1). According to Gerald Putz, SCIO National Director, roughly 13,500 elementary and secondary teams involving 200,000 individuals from all 50 states and Canada take part in this extra curricular academic competition each year. In New York alone, 275 high school teams with 550 high school teacher-coaches and 4000 students (grades 9-12) participated in 2002. Of this total, 25 teams involving 50 teacher-coaches and 375 high school students, with nearly equal numbers of girls and boys, took part in the regional tournament in Rochester, New York, on a Saturday in February of that year. On the day of the tournament, students in groups of two or three per school competed against their peers from other schools in 18 science and engineering events.

The events required students to apply their scientific content knowledge and laboratory skills during 50-minute sessions addressing such topics as bird identification, chemistry laboratory investigation, topographical map reading, and physics experimentation. They also used their engineering and technical know-how in constructing remote controlled robots, balsa wood boomilevers, catapults, energy transfer devices, and musical instruments based on precise design specifications and performance criteria. Students who finished in the first three places for each event received gold, silver, and bronze medals to recognize their accomplishments. All participants in each event earned points for their teams based on their results. The top finishing teams received trophies as well as invitations to the state level high school SCIO to compete against other regional qualifiers in March. The top two teams from the state tournament participated in the national SCIO in May. The SCIO evolved out of a "concern over dwindling science enrollments both in high school and college and waning student interest in science fairs (Macbeth, 1977, p. 22). A SCIO and a science fair are similar in that they are extracurricular science competitions. They differ in that the SCIO involves collaborative group competitions on a variety of science and technology events whereas a science fair tends to be an individual scientific research project on a particular problem (Jones, 1991). There has been a belief among many secondary and post secondary science teachers and science teacher educators that the SCIO generates student interest in science (Cairns, 1984; Fletcher, 1981; McGee-Brown, Martin, Monsaas, & Stombler, 2002; Wilson, 1981). The authors of the National Science Education Standards (NRC, 1996) wrote that the SCIO enhanced scientific literacy as students "display their understanding and ability in science" (p. 39). In light of this published support, what can be learned about teachers who served as coaches at a regional...