Practices at school may not be possible this year. Make sure that your student has a place and time set aside at home to work on his or her events.
Build events may be very different! The reality is that some schools in a region may not be equipped to run their build events and some tournaments may run some of the building events as trial events or not run them at all. Remember that any decision regarding events is made under the guidelines of Safety, Fairness, and Equity.
Frequently check in on your Science Olympian. Science Olympiad is a team competition and your Olympian may be missing the team aspect more than you know when they do their practices at home. Encourage practices over platforms such as Zoom or Facetime.
Provide lots of encouragement. Team members usually count on each other for support and motivation but that may not be possible this year. Take a genuine interest in their events and become their biggest cheerleader.
There are a number of ways that parents can help suport their Science Olympiad team. Look at some of the ideas below!
Volunteer to coach an event. No experience? No problem! Having a parent run a Zoom meeting, assemble resources and work with the team can make a huge difference.
Plan virtual activities. With social distancing concerns it is a good idea to plan some fun virtual ideas for the kids.
Meal Planner. Due to the pandemic, the National Science Olympaid is not allowing food to be served at sanctioned tournaments this year. If your team competes at a tournament, parent supplied meals or snacks will be essential.
Call your coach. There are so many ways to help out this year, your coach will be more than happy to fill you in.
Get artistic. Many teams usually design fun team T-shirts. This year masks are required at all competitions so perhaps this is the year to design fun team face masks.
