Category: For Coaches and Teachers

Announcements, For Coaches and Teachers, For Hosts and Facilitators, For Parents

Any Former Participants Want to Volunteer?

Alison Weaverdyck

Hello parents, coaches, and facilitators!

We will need volunteers for this year’s State Meet on April 16, and we wanted to open the opportunity to any former program participant as well as the Minnesota Honors Society students who help us every year. We’ve included the pertinent information below, and we’d appreciate it if you could help us get the word out about this need.

Volunteer Opportunity!

Middle school students across Minnesota have been practicing hard and competing since November for their chance to show their creativity, teamwork, and out-of-the-box thinking at the 2016 State Meet of US Academic Triathlon – and we need your help to make the event run smoothly.

US Academic Triathlon is an academic and creativity competition for grades 5-8. Learn more about our organization at www.usacademictriathlon.com. Volunteers must be at least 16 years old and can be a former student competitor, former coach, high school student, or general volunteer. (Please note, if you coached a team this year that makes you a “current coach” rather than a “former coach” even though the regular season has ended.)

This year, our State Competition is at Cottage Grove Middle School on April 16.

Volunteer shifts needed:

9 a.m. – noon: Set Up (4 volunteers)

11:30 a.m. – 2 p.m.: Refreshment Cart (6-8 volunteers)

2 – 4:30 p.m.: Skit Judges (12-16 volunteers)

4:30 – 6:00 p.m.: Tear down (4 volunteers)

Volunteers will be assigned to shifts based on first come, first serve basis. Sign up to volunteer by emailing sarah@usacademictriathlon.com with your name, email address, phone number, and experience with US Academic Triathlon. Further details will be sent out via email, so including an email address is required.

Contact Executive Director Sarah Sheldon with any further questions at 507-645-2560.

For Coaches and Teachers, For Hosts and Facilitators, For Parents

Regional Meet Reflection

Alison Weaverdyck

Congratulations to everyone for a great season! Even if your team isn’t going to move on to the State Meet on April 16, every coach, facilitator, host, and team deserves a pat on the back.

And we want to keep improving! If there is something about this Meet or this season you really liked and want to see more of, we want to hear from you. Was there anything that seemed too challenging or too easy for the age group? Do you like the series on Multiple Intelligences, or are you most interested in posts about the program itself? Let us know by contacting our Executive Director, Sarah Sheldon, at sarah@usacademictriathlon.com or 507-645-2560.

For Coaches and Teachers, For Hosts and Facilitators, For Kids, For Parents

Remember to Breathe

Alison Weaverdyck

Every Meet so far this season has been practice. Sure, your teams have been doing the challenges and you’ve been calculating and reporting their scores, but the Round Robins are just the warm-up. We want participants to have a chance to hone their skills, learn to work together, and find a rhythm before they make it to “the main event,” and of course, to have a great time along the way.

If yours is a team that doesn’t generally practice, it isn’t too late to start. Winning isn’t everything, but taking a moment to reflect on how the season is going and focus on areas that can be improved could certainly increase your scores at Regionals this week. It is also a great chance to do some team-building and head into the competition with a renewed commitment to the team and working together to achieve a goal.

This is also a time that can make facilitators and hosts nervous. There is added pressure for things to go smoothly because now it “counts.” But those practice Meets weren’t just for the students, it was for you, as well! Remember to revisit the Host/Facilitator Checklist (QQ add link to document), double check that your equipment is working and the rooms are ready, and then relax. Even if this will be the last Meet for the majority of teams, it was your hard work that made this season possible, and you deserve a chance to enjoy your success.

Thank you for your contribution to the 2015/2016 season, and good luck to you and your students at Regionals!

For Coaches and Teachers, For Parents, Multiple Intelligences, Resources

Musical Intelligence

Alison Weaverdyck

As its name suggests, people who can count themselves among the musically intelligent love music. They will often have songs running through their heads, and find it easy to remember lyrics and melodies. Playing musical instruments and composing their own songs come naturally, and they often are adept at more than one style. Not surprisingly, they work as music instructors, composers, and musical performers.

People with Musical Intelligence are in tune with how things sound and the natural rhythms of the world around them. Speech patterns and intonation will stand out to them, and if a teacher or coworker has a shrill or monotonous voice, these people will notice and find it distracting. On the other hand, they can use rhythm and melodies to help them with rote memorization, such as using “Pop Goes the Weasel” to remember the Pythagorean Theorem.

You may think that a musically intelligent person is fidgety because they drum on their desk or their bodies when they are supposed to be reading quietly, but this is just the music in their minds finding an outlet. They whistle absentmindedly while they do menial tasks or feel the need to retreat behind their headphones in order to concentrate.

Admittedly, this intelligence is more difficult to integrate into USAT challenges because it puts the onus on the facilitators to be musically adept themselves. During Face-Off, we try to address people who are interested in music by quizzing them on music theory and vocabulary, because a person who plays an instrument will likely know the words that come with it. Participants are always encouraged to add music to their P.A.R.T.Y. performances, and sometimes it is an explicit requirement to earn points. This year, we were also able to bring some music theory into the Mind Sprint room during our “Duly Noted” challenge, where students had to use treble and bass clefs to fill in the missing letters of words.

We’ll be taking a few weeks off from the Multiple Intelligences series because the Regional Competition is right around the bend, but the series will be back in April with a look at the remaining three: Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, and Naturalist Intelligences.

For Coaches and Teachers, For Parents, Multiple Intelligences, Resources

Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence

Alison Weaverdyck

It may seem strange to think of a person who is “intelligent” when it comes to her body, given that in many Western societies we regard the mind and the physical self to be separate. In fact, the relationship could even be regarded as combative, as shown by phrases such as “mind over matter” and being told to use willpower to overcome those donut cravings. Some philosophies endeavor to completely rid humans of their ties to the physical world and only elevate people who can achieve deep trances to the highest levels of being.

In truth, our bodies and our minds are inextricably tied, and as medical science becomes more sophisticated it is getting hard to deny it. Hormones and other neurochemicals can be tied to a variety of conditions that have specific and measurable effects on our mental health. Likewise, physical symptoms such as a loss of appetite or sympathetic pains for a loved one can be caused by our brain activity.

People who possess the Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence are those who find their bodies much easier to understand and manipulate than their thoughts. Where a visually intelligent person can approximate the distance between the ball and the basket, a “body smart” person will be able to make the shot. Their brains and bodies are in sync in a way that other peoples’ are not, and physical tasks such as dancing or fixing an engine may appear effortless. These are the craftsmen and the builders, the farmers and the firefighters, the performers and the athletes in our world. They tend to enjoy outdoor activities and vigorous hobbies that require exertion in exchange for adrenaline.

In USAT, we try to engage our students physically as well as mentally. During PA.R.T.Y. in a Box challenges, teams are often encouraged to add dancing or some other type of movement in order to garner extra points. They are given physical tasks, such as getting ping pong balls to land in an egg carton, during Mind Sprints, and we reward quick reflexes during the oral Face-Off! round.

Next week, we’ll take a look at Musical Intelligence. In case you missed them, check out the posts about Verbal Intelligence, Mathematical Intelligence, and Visual Intelligence.