Tower Heights Science Olympiad
A Note From the Coach:
November 17, 2023
Greetings,
I hope each of you is thoroughly enjoying your Science Olympiad experience so far. You have been working hard and soon will have an opportunity to showcase your efforts. We are approaching a transition point where the excitement jumps to all new levels: competition season! If you are enjoying practice season, then whoa…hang on to something because it’s about to get crazy awesome!
You are still expected to practice and learn all you can to help the team, but our schedule is going to change up a little bit with the inclusion of invitational tournaments. These tournaments will take the place of many of our Saturday practice times. Our first three tournaments (Dick Smith Memorial Invitational on 12/2, Boyceville Invitational on 12/2, and Raymond Park Invitational on 12/9) are learning tournaments.
Our four main goals for these three tournaments are learning how to compete well as a team, learning how to communicate effectively with our partners and coaches, learning competition strategies in a low-stakes environment, and learning how to win and lose graciously. Everyone wants to win, always. Don’t get ahead of our developmental process. I want you to focus on improving. This may mean improving from 2nd to 1st. It may mean improving from 100th to 95th. This may mean completing 100% of test questions instead of completing 90% of questions. The number doesn’t matter. What is important is capturing the opportunity to learn and to improve and using that to our advantage so that near the end of the season, at Regionals and States, we can then focus solely on winning.
I expect each of you to bring your best effort to the competition. Your teammates are counting on you and expecting the same. This may mean you need to accomplish some self-study to prepare for your events. Let’s go compete strongly, learn some cool stuff along the way, and have a lot of fun!
Sincerely,
Matthew Kincade
Team Coach, THSO
Archived Notes from the Coach
October 12, 2023
Greetings Science Olympiad,
We are off to a great start to our season. Now that you are getting the hang of the practice schedule and event activities, I want to you to focus on four key things that will help make the team successful. We recently discussed in our team meeting the concept of “Do Your Best” and how that applies to THSO. Allow me to expand upon our talk. There are four key things that define “Do Your Best”: Show Up, Help Others, Positive Attitude, and Gracious Effort.
Show Up: This means being on-time and ready to participate in all practices and competitions. This is more than being present physically; showing up means being mentally and emotionally prepared as well, ready to face challenges and grow intellectually. This does not mean you can never miss a practice. We understand there are sometimes event conflicts, especially with athletics or family activities and that is okay. To show up though, means you’re coming to practice to practice! You’re coming to competitions to compete! So put away the phones, avoid the horseplay, and let’s practice and compete well.
Help Others: This means to not expect the team to carry you but rather, expect to carry your own load and help the team succeed. Use your strengths to excel in your events and help others excel in theirs. Share information. Give your best effort in your event and expect others to do the same in their events so in the end all the events collectively contribute to an awesome team score.
Positive Attitude: You are important! You bring a unique perspective and unique skills to this team. Do not focus on weaknesses or inabilities; focus on the strengths and abilities you and each of your teammates brings to the table. When you bring YOUR best, you make the team better. When you contribute YOUR best, the team is at it’s best.
Gracious Effort: I expect all of you to be gracious winners and gracious losers. Be humble, be kind. Far more important than getting #1 is the gaining of everything along the way: character, friendships, teamwork, leadership, followership, mentorship, passion, career inspiration, knowledge, support, memories, laughs, patience, overcoming challenges, bouncing back from mistakes, critical thinking, resilience, strategies, communication skills, and so much more! When we lose, I expect us to keep our heads held high knowing we did OUR best and congratulate and applaud those that beat us…because they’ll deserve it. We’re going to make them earn it through OUR hard work though. Conversely, when we win (and I think this will happen a lot), I want us to be gracious about that as well. Let’s celebrate and applaud and cheer but let us also extend the same grace and congratulatory respect to our competitors.
These four elements of “Do Your Best” are foundational to how this team operates. Let’s practice hard and compete well so that THSO is (hopefully) standing at the top of the podium everywhere we go! Let us not forget as we climb that ladder of success though, there is so much more to be gained along the way. Pay attention! You just might have a “once in a lifetime” experience with THSO!
Sincerely,
Matthew Kincade
Team Coach, THSO
September 24, 2023
Greetings Science Olympiad,
Welcome officially to the 2024 season of Science Olympiad! We had a great start to our practice season on Saturday and are now in the fast march to invitationals coming up in a few months. During the practice season, we’ll be covering a lot of material to help you prepare for upcoming competitions. I want you to know that your coaches are here to support you and mentor you as you explore Science Olympiad events. You are going to face many challenges that we will help you learn to adapt to, face with confidence, and overcome throughout your time with us.
There is an important note here though. Our coaches support and mentor you; they COACH you. Our coaches are not here to teach you everything you ever need to know about every event, ever! There is not enough time in the practice season to ensure each of you has 100 percent of your event content mastered. If you want to succeed as a competitor and succeed as a team, you should utilize every resource available to you to be as prepared as possible. These resources do include your coach. They also include things like textbooks, teachers, siblings, parents, the library, the internet, YouTube, agencies dedicated to science disciplines, etcetera.
The 2024 Rules Manual for Science Olympiad Division B, located in our Slack workspace general information channel is your go-to resource to know WHAT to learn. Your coaches are the go-to resource to figure out how to organize and focus on the most pertinent to learn. All your other resources are available for you to explore your events to their fullest. Do not look at weekly practice as the sole learning spot for THSO; rather, look at our weekly practices as a place to bring it all together with your fellow competitors to help each other reach amazing heights, as a team.
I am excited for what you are going to accomplish this year. I can’t wait to hear all those medals clanking together! Let’s lift each other up, and each do our part to bring home some GOLD!
Sincerely,
Matthew Kincade
Team Coach, THSO
September 6, 2023
Greetings Science Olympiad,
It was wonderful seeing so many families at our August and September information nights. I am very excited about the upcoming season and hope you are too. We’re going big this year with new tournaments, new practice structures, new processes, new shirts, new lab coats, and new expectations! We are going to have a LOT of fun and we are going to collect a LOT of medals, because THMS has the BEST students and some awesome and amazing event coaches to guide them this year.
If you are new to Science Olympiad, I understand it can seem like an overwhelming amount of information at first but trust me, it’s worth exploring. My goal is to inspire middle school youth to embrace, investigate, and explore STEM material while learning essential life skills such as problem-solving, teamwork, leadership, followership, character, sportsmanship, camaraderie, and resilience to name a few. I will strive to clearly communicate efficiently and effectively with you, so the entire team and their families have a positive, exciting, and enriching Science Olympiad experience.
You can always reach me by email at science.thms@gmail.com and I will share my phone number with you at our information night. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns you have. Once again, welcome (back) to Tower Heights Science Olympiad! #EPND
Sincerely,
Matthew Kincade
Team Coach, THSO
THSO Registration Due Dates
The Tower Heights Science Olympiad (THSO) program is for all THMS students in 6th through 9th grade interested in advancing their understanding and interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). 6th-8th grade is open enrollment; 9th-grade enrollment is only for THMS alumni and by invitation of the head coach only.
DONE Initial Sign-Up form is DUE on September 16, 2023. DONE
DONE All registration forms are DUE on October 28, 2023. DONE
NEXT Student Registration payments are DUE on December 2, 2023. NEXT
Overnight tournament payments (only for students on overnight competition rosters) are DUE on January 13, 2024.
2023-2024 THSO Registration Packet
Step 1: Complete the Initial Sign-Up Form (Due Sep 16, 2023)
Step 2: Complete Registration Forms using GoogleForms (Due Oct 28, 2023)
THSO Extra Shirts & Spirt Wear Order Form - Coming Soon. Team shirts have been ordered. When they arrive, an online spirit wear store will open for purchase of additional long- and short-sleeve shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, etcetera.
Step 3: Download, Print & Sign remaining registration documents.
Medication Authorization for Field Trips (may need provider signature)
(If Applicable) Emergency Allergy Plan / Epi-Pen (requires provider signature)
(If Applicable) Asthma Action Plan (requires provider signature)
Step 4: Return completed forms to Coach Kincade in person or via the provided upload link (Due Oct 28, 2023)
Step 5: Registration Payment (Due Dec 2, 2023)
Please make registration payment checks payable to "CSOO" or "Centerville Science Olympiad Organization".