Category: For Parents

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.

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

Visual/Spatial Intelligence

Alison Weaverdyck

We discussed Mathematical/Logical Intelligence last time, but the funny thing about math is that it is not all about numbers. Depending on the branch of mathematics you are looking at, there may be very few equations at the heart. Geometry, for instance, may have rules such as d=2r, but at its heart it is a discipline that is more about space and the relationships between the measurements than it is about the actual numbers. For this reason, someone who has a terrible time learning Algebra may have no trouble at all mastering another type of math.

People who exhibit Visual/Spatial Intelligence tend to be the dreamers and the visual artists. They can see something clearly in their minds, and then they can bring that vision into being because their bodies cooperate with what they see. At its heart, drawing something accurately has to do with the relationship between the lines, the distance between and the way curves and corners intersect. People with this aptitude don’t just see what is, but they can see what isn’t at the same time. In other words, the space between things can be manipulated just as much as the objects themselves.

These types of people are very good at visual puzzles, such as dual image illusions. These types of challenges “tickle the brain” of a person with Visual/Spatial Intelligence.

Can you see the people talking to each other?
Can you see the people talking to each other?

They are very good at giving and following directions between places. Even though they can describe a place or thing they saw in vivid detail, they probably took a hundred pictures while they were looking at it. And though they will likely prefer a book with pictures, they will also be able to clearly set the scene in their minds if they are reading a book that doesn’t.

For the writers of USAT, this is one of the Intelligences that is the most difficult to integrate, but we try to give people with this propensity a chance to shine in the Mind Sprint round. For instance, during the last Round Robin, we asked students to look at pictures of a three-dimensional object and imagine how to make a pattern for it. As a visual artist herself, Creative Director Alison Weaverdyck has also been giving teams more drawing challenges, such as the Team Crest Mind Sprint at the first Round Robin. We have also challenged them to judge distances while throwing ping-pong balls or bean bags.

Good luck to all of our teams at the third Round Robin this weekend! The Multiple Intelligences series will return on Feb. 29 when we will take a look at Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence.

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

Logical/Mathematical Intelligence

Alison Weaverdyck

Alongside the Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence, the Logical/Mathematical Intelligence is probably the easiest one of the eight Intelligences to recognize. “Math smart” is the simplest one to quantify, which makes it the simplest to score. Particularly in grade school, simple math skills can be tested in a very straightforward way, and there is very little gray area or interpretation to deal with. Politicians like things black and white when it comes to public schools and an institution’s ability to show “progress,” which for many has resulted in an over-emphasis on math at the expense of other types of Intelligence.

People who exhibit this type of Intelligence tend to do very well on standardized tests, but it turns out there is more to this form of Intelligence than just being able to multiply large numbers in one’s head.

5864596642_8f1fe8b09c_zThe other side to this penchant for numbers is the ability to recognize patterns and think logically about how situations will play out. These people enjoy strategy games where they can plot their course many turns in advance. They like to play games of “what if” and think through the consequences. They are often very comfortable doing science experiments and other activities that have a proscribed and straightforward reasoning behind the order of operations. They wonder how things work and feel inclined to decipher things in a step-by-step progression. Logical people also like to sort things into categories; they probably alphabetize their books and like their space set up ‘just so.’ And the funny thing about advanced mathematics is that there are hardly any numbers involved, it is theorizing based on rules and imagining their limits.

You may find this surprising, but one career that a “math smart” person can excel at is the law. But, if you think about it, practicing law is not so different from a science experiment. There are protocols, an order to proceedings, and an internal logic based on past cases. If you look at the LSAT exam, which is what aspiring lawyers must take in order to enter law school, it is all based on logic.

During the course of a USAT season, students are given many chances to flex their math and logic skills. The most obvious example is during the written and oral Face-Off! rounds, when we ask them to do arithmetic or simple algebra. We have also had Mind Sprints such as “Number Jeopardy,” where students were asked to come up with their own equations to get to an answer on the board, and sometimes give teams multiple math and logic puzzles to solve at a time. Logic can also be found in the P.A.R.T.Y. in a Box prompts, where students are being asked to imagine a scenario and consider the consequences of the actions of their characters.

The third installment in our series will be about Visual/Spatial Intelligence, so check back next week to learn about people who are “picture smart.”