Today was the Science Bowl. We began our morning at 4am, so that we could get to Portland for check-in and registration by 6:30.It was bigger than I expected. 58 teams, with 4 or 5 kids each, plus parents and coaches. A sea of spectacles.
I noticed that the kids were mostly boys- maybe 80 percent. And maybe because I live in the Great Caucasian Valley, I noticed that about half the kids were white, the other half were Asian(That half seemed to be split pretty evenly between far-eastern and middle eastern). There were two black kids. The only black girl in the competition was on Madison's team.
Not that any of that has anything to do with anything. It's just what I noticed first. They all looked smart.
Our first match was against an all-boy, all-eighth grade team from Ashland, and I nearly passed out from anxiety watching it. Imagine watching a basketball game where the teams traded the lead, bucket for bucket, and the game went to 300-302. That's how the first match went. Fortunately, we had 302.
The next three matches were a different story. Madison's team won them handily. We noticed that the questions became increasingly difficult as the day went on. At lunchtime, when her team was undefeated, the possibility of victory became imaginable, for me. The possibility of a less than first-place finish didn't even cross Madison's mind until their first loss in the double-elimination round, when they were trounced by a team of eighth graders with a real-life Rain Man. At this point in the competition, the moderators were asking questions that were incredibly difficult. I couldn't even make good guesses, because I wasn't sure if words they were saying were nouns or verbs. In my defense, I'm sure that the moderators didn't know, either.
After their loss, the kids were a little downtrodden, but they got it together and beat another team of 8th graders in the consolation bracket.
Finally, they lost to a team that went on to win. On our way out, we saw that Rain Man's team had lost, too. I think at that point in the competition, luck had a lot more to do with success than preparation and knowledge.
I am so proud of my daughter. I can't wait for next year!
I sat by the phone all day. The later it got - the better I figured they had done. I think I would have had to have been on valium to watch it live. I am so proud of Madison, I could bust. but, I think I forgot to actually say that when I talked to her.
ReplyDeleteNow that they know what to expect, next year they can go. all. the. way.
wouldn't hurt to find a math-er.