Dropping the Baton at the Science Olympiad by Meredith

Dropping the Baton at the Science Olympiad by Meredith - February 2017 Scholarship Essay

Our lab coats were embroidered with our school logo. Grinning and ready for action, we put them on, pulled our hair back (safety first) and tucked pencils into our white canvas pockets. After grabbing our trusty TI-84 graphing calculators, my lab partner and I set off across the tent-strewn quad, safety goggles glinting in the sun, towards the Chemistry Lab event in the 2015 Science Olympiad State Tournament. We were all confidence as we breezed into the lab and assessed the competition, smiling at each other as we noticed that all the other teams had brought binders full of notes, while we carried nothing, our heads full of hours of late night AP Chemistry homework and white board explanations. I grabbed the sodium thiosulfate, and the hour-long event began.
Calculator keys clicking, we powered through the lab. Then, suddenly, we hit a wall. I was about to begin calculating more data for additional questions, when I noticed something odd about the instructions. Off to the side, in parentheses, as if meant to confuse me (but only as an afterthought) was a very simple mathematical formula. Too simple. By this point in my chemistry schooling, I knew the kinetics formulas like I knew my own name, and this was not one of them. As I agonized over what to do, I could hear the ghosts of teachers past telling me to always read and follow instructions. They must have been whispering to my partner too; when we consulted, I saw a similarly angst-ridden expression on her face. After a painful hesitation, we let doubt take over and used the enigmatic parenthetical suggestion.
The results came out and we discovered (or confirmed) that our team did poorly in chemistry. Before the tournament, my partner and I trusted almost entirely in our separate practice and knowledge, without spending much time working together. Had we communicated both before and during the event, we would have concluded that the formula given was wrong and ignored it. To keep this from happening this year, my partners and I created a new study schedule for the team in order to make sure partners are on the same page for the entire year.