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Entomology, For The Win!

April 14, 2014 By Kim
Tagged With: STEM, STEM Girls

Science Olympiad Entomology team

Between last weekend’s exciting state Science Olympiad competition and Passover seders for the next two nights (I’m hosting 12 family members Tuesday evening), I’m low on bandwidth, but I want to take a minute to share the awesome performance of my entomology team. My girls came in the top five out of a field of more than 45 of Illinois’ best teams! They know their bugs like a boss.

I saw that someone landed on this blog after searching for tips on teaching the entomology event in Science Olympiad, so I’ll return at some point to share my award-winning advice. Really, though, the girls earned the win. I just assigned them homework each week. We studied bugs and even ate a few. (More about that too, eventually.)

Clearly I was meant to coach entomology, though. Goodness knows how long I’ve had those buggy glasses sitting around my office. Finally they got put to good use!

In other good news, our school team is back in the top ten after a poor showing in 2013! I’m leaving on a high note. After 5 years of student involvement in SO, including six “coaching years” between my husband and I, we’ll be retiring upon our younger guy’s graduation. That younger guy plans to continue on with SO in high school, so maybe I’ll be back at state next year after all.

Well, I did say, I’d be open to some fun, informal insect exploration over the summer when the bugs are actually out. So maybe I’m retiring in the fall. But I’m retiring.

On a related note, kudos to the two dads who volunteered as coaches even though their kids have moved on from the program. And congrats to the brand new teacher who volunteered got suckered into taking the open role of head coach and his trusty assistant coach for making this year possible. And thanks to school for generously funding the program once again finally to all the parents who volunteered to coach events despite fears about not having the time, knowledge or teaching skills to do so. Maybe next year more teachers will get involved.

And now back to my potato kugel.

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Comments

  1. Brandie says

    April 15, 2014 at 2:49 am

    Congrats!! That’s fabulous for your team =)

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About Kim

Kim headshot Summer 2012 I’m a Chicago-area mom / empty-nester who is passionate about sharing ideas and resources to raise kids who love Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). I’m a published author, blogger, vlogger, baker and maker. I love to travel, especially on trips that involve hiking and other active endeavors, farm tours, and learning new things in general.[Read More...]

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