Kang et al-
Generally I stay out of discussions except for this issue. When approached in 1995 by Science Olympiad's "National Flight Supervisor" to suggest how to fix their paper airplane event, I quickly suggested flying rubber powered aircraft indoors instead. We all know the the reasons why this works but they didn't at first. It took a solid three years to get all the states on-board. Since then Wright Stuff has been called Science Olympiad's one Elegant Event and one of the finest ways to demonstrate Newtonian Physics. It also spearheaded how to comply with the National Science Standards when it introduced the logbook system of data collection. This small innovation influenced other SO events to introduce similar data gathering and has since been recognized by the US Education authorities. Over the years Wright Stuff continually evolved into one of SO's classic signature events and one that is featured when the SO concept is presented to various agencies focused on education support. It is a great way to show that science can seem magical. Wright Stuff has earned the respect as scientific process event and not just a flying event.
From day one, there was always an ulterior motivation- Flying Sites. As stated by Kang, there really is no better known opportunity to get a foot in the door than having a positive effect on our young peoples' education especially through SO. Frankly, Wright Stuff and Science Olympiad is probably more recognized than F1D, FAI, F1L or Pennyplane. It is a good bet that if you search out any of these SO teams, you will find that better than 80% would love to have you share whatever amount of assistance you can.
Note also that there are other SO events that could use your input and expertise. We underestimate our true worth to these teams. We all have the capacity to assist each and every SO team and any bit of sweat equity puts us that much closer to flying site access.
Regards,
Tom Sanders
AMA EdCom
Science Olympiad National Supervisor
Received on Wed Feb 17 2016 - 19:12:08 CET
This archive was generated by Yannick on Sat Dec 14 2019 - 19:13:48 CET