When my son (PK) was in 7th grade he got an opportunity to be part of the Science Olympiad team representing his School. He continued in the team during his 8th and 9th grades too. Other parents have had asked me the benefits of taking part in Science Olympiad. The schools that my kids go to are known to be competitive. The parents like to make sure that there is an efficient use of kids’ limited times on extracurricular activities.
When we stumbled into SO, I thought it was something fun and learning experience for PK. When more and more parent participation was required my husband S stepped in. After 2 years my daughter got into a junior team too, and S did a double duty.
There were some parents who would try to analyze the benefits either as a postmortem for the season or before joining in. Over the years I had done my own analysis and here it goes. ( I do the analysis for my son and it applies with equal relevance to my daughter too).
It taught my son to learn at a grade level higher than he was in at school.
It taught my son the skill of how to learn. Many aspects have to be self taught. He learned to do the reading and analysis while discussing with parents. Dad S did a lot more of it that I did.
There were hands on building of vehicles etc. that were part of some of the competition courses. PK would come up with ideas and if he cannot implement them because they required use of power tools, Dad S would be the handyman. It taught my son the discipline of hypothesize-implement-execute-test-analyze-repeat. And as I would tell PK, this is what scientists do, again and again and maybe get a break through if they are lucky.
During the SO season, which would last 4 months with high intensity, 2 months with very high intensity, and rest of the year a continuous learning process. S would do all of it. And man what beautiful skills the Dad taught his son and daughter. Kids learned the art of scientific thinking. They learned various sciences and best of all they learned parenting skills. Through example S had taught how to be a good father and be involved in kids’ lives. S taught them how to be involved in a manner in which the kids want him to spend the time and effort with them and with mutual respect and love.
Each of the subjects PK was competing in required that he work with a partner. Over the 3 years he worked with 3 other girls and few other boys. Generally at school work the groups are either self selecting in which case he gravitated towards some other boy or it’s a teacher selected large group. In SO , I could see PK learned to respect his peers, their thought process and contributions. Generally the first time boys got to work on extended projects with girls is maybe in college or on jobs. Sometimes, the opinions and prejudices are formed by that time. I was very happy that PK got to experience working with smart talented hard working girls before any notions are formed in his brain. The girls were all so beautifully intelligent and hardworking. I am grateful to them every day.
At times likes these when I hear condescending voices about female capabilities to perform at jobs because of their “biology”, I ardently hope and pray that PK will grow to stand up and say - I have worked with smart intelligent hardworking girls who complemented my contribution in every way. I hope he would grow to treat them as a part of team with different yet equal capabilities.
And it teaches my daughter to hold her ground. She would hold firm that capability, intelligence and hard work are not determined by biology or a particular chromosome.
This I see is the greatest lesson my kids learned from SO.