As the pandemic continues and life under social distancing becomes the norm, MHS continues to implement distance learning procedures. Many types of academic competitions, such as Science Olympiad and Speech and Debate, have to adjust to virtual platforms.
These academic competitions are normally large gatherings of students from across the region, state, or even nation. It wouldn’t be uncommon to see students scattered across hallways and classrooms, studying last minute for their events, or even crammed into the cafeteria. To conform with social distancing regulations, competitions have been held through services such as Zoom, which is what the Speech and Debate team uses to engage in competitions live, according to the Milpitas Speech and Debate Facebook page.
Junior Disha Yadav, president of Speech and Debate, said via email that the speech and debate community adapted well to the circumstances of COVID-19. MHS students are able to continue to compete while staying safe in the comfort of their homes, Yadav added.
“Everything has been running pretty smoothly, [with] no notable concerns that I have seen so far,” Yadav said. “The only possible concern would be effectively being able to engage all the new students that joined the extracurricular via Zoom. This concern is pretty standard for probably all clubs and teachers, but at some points it does pose as a challenge, especially in an extracurricular in which talking is the main goal,” Yadav continued.
Speech and debate saw an increase in student interest, Yadav said. A lot of extracurriculars were cancelled as a result of not being able to attend them in-person, but speech and debate is a relatively easy extracurricular activity to do online, causing more students to join, she added.
Senior Tejas Balebail, Parent and Middle School Liaison of the Science Olympiad team, said via text that “Science Olympiad has adapted very well to the challenges posed by COVID-19. Tournaments have shifted entirely online, and events have been altered to fit the parameters of an online tournament. For example, there was an old event named Write It Do It. One team member is given a structure built from some construction materials, and then writes a set of instructions on how to build it. The other team member is given the instructions written by their teammate and a set of unassembled materials to attempt to recreate the object as accurately as possible. In this year’s competitions, this event was replaced by Write It CAD It, which is similar but can be conducted entirely online.”
While many school-related events have lost students’ interest due to students’ inability to attend them in person, there is no shortage of interest in Science Olympiad, Balebail said. Some of the biggest tournaments, such as the MIT Invitational, had over 120 teams from across the nation participate, he added.
However, one concern for these online events is the integrity of the tournaments, as unsupervised competitions naturally have a few competitors who break the honor system. “The platform we use to compete, Scilympiad.com, has its own security measures against cheating, but it is still quite difficult to entirely ensure the integrity,” Balebail said.
Despite these challenges, the entire Science Olympiad community has shown great resolve and exceptional ability to quickly adapt, and they are confident they will continue to make this season an excellent one, Balebail said. As a senior who has competed in Science Olympiad since his freshman year, he is disappointed that his final season won’t be a normal one, but hopes to make the most of it, he added.