Seb Cooley

Physics teacher; polyglot; fives player; aspiring polymath. Never concise.

[Seb Cooley @SCools_5s]

@archer_rs Can't believe I'm six years late discovering this story. It has just given me perhaps an hour of guffaws rolling thunderous around the massifs de Provence. The neighbours will be asking if I'm OK.

[Seb Cooley @SCools_5s]

@Chloe_povs @grok How are you planning to open the right hand door?

[Brad Stulberg @BStulberg]

Norway consistently wins the most medals at the Winter Olympic Games, with a population of just 5.6 million people.

A big part of their success is how they treat youth sports—and it’s the opposite of what we do in the US. Here’s what we can learn from Norway:

1. Scorekeeping:

In the US: Youth sports tend to be hyper competitive even at early ages. Leagues almost always keep score.

In Norway: Scorekeeping isn’t even allowed until age 13.

Removing winners and losers keeps the focus on the process not outcomes. It keeps kids engaged longer because it minimizes pressure (and tears) and maximizes fun, learning, and growth. The goal isn’t to win a third grade championship. It’s to love sport and keep playing.

2. Trophies:

In the US: If you give everyone a trophy, you’re creating snowflakes who will never gain a competitive edge.

In Norway: Whenever trophies are awarded, they are handed out to everyone.

If getting a trophy makes young kids feel good, we should give them trophies. Maybe they’ll come back and play again next year!!

As for the creation of snowflakes with no competitive edge—Norway’s athletes are tough as nails and all they do is win.

3. Prioritizing Fun:

In the US: Far too often, the goal is to win.

In Norway: The national philosophy is “joy of sport.”

Youth sports in the US are driven by adults, ego, and money. Youth sports in Norway are driven by fun.

Only half of kids in the US participate in sports. The number one reason they drop out: because they aren’t having fun anymore. In Norway, 93% of kids participate in youth sports. Fun is the foremost goal.

4. Playing Multiple Sports:

In the US: There’s pressure to specialize early and play your best sport year round.

In Norway: Try as many sports as you can before specializing as late as college.

Norway encourages kids to try all types of sport. This reduces injury and burnout and increases all-around athleticism. It also helps promotes match quality, or finding the sport you are best suited for as your body develops, which is impossible if you commit to a single sport too early.

5. Affordability

In the US: There is increasingly a pay-to-play model with high fees for leagues, equipment, and travel. This excludes many kids from playing.

In Norway: It’s a national priority to keep youth sports affordable and therefore accessible for all.

Kids aren’t priced out, which creates opportunities for everyone to participate (and develop into athletes), regardless of their parents’ income level.

We could learn a lot from Norway:

In the US, 70% of kids drop out of youth sports by age 13. This not only diminishes an elite-athlete pipeline, but it also destroys an opportunity for healthy habits and all the character lessons kids can learn from sport.

In Norway, lifelong participation in sport is the norm. The goal isn’t to have the best 9U team. It’s to develop the best athletes. Those are two very different things. And Norway has the gold medals to prove it.

[Seb Cooley @SCools_5s]

@JohnCleese 16 1×1
9 2×2
4 3×3
1 4×4
Total 30 I think.

[All day Astronomy @forallcurious]

🚨: France just beat the world record for nuclear fusion! They ran for 22 minutes!

It maintained astonishing 90 million degrees Fahrenheit (50 million °C) for 1,337 seconds—more than 22 minutes.

[Seb Cooley @SCools_5s]

@Hookean1 What if you're only half as quick with a full bucket?

[Seb Cooley @SCools_5s]

The batters are not for wafting. 212 to win, an hour plus twenty overs.

[Seb Cooley @SCools_5s]

As pleasant a sight as ever wafted on a summer breeze.

[Seb Cooley @SCools_5s]

@almurray Imagine they had sent a telegram. Carnage.

[Seb Cooley @SCools_5s]

Diplomacy may be alive and well, but on a festive holiday in the Hebrides.
BBC News - Trump campaign adviser calls incoming UK ambassador to US a 'moron'
https://t.co/QPpEnppeM9

[Seb Cooley @SCools_5s]

Warm cycle in between bits of cricket. Not Lord's conditions: even the tarmac is sunbleached.

[Seb Cooley @SCools_5s]

@joel120193 @CLEAPSS If it gives you a strong enough electric field. And I'd keep delicate electronics and people with pacemakers in the viewing gallery.

The boring way is with an HT supply if you have one. Worth looking up what sort of voltage you'd need first.

[Seb Cooley @SCools_5s]

@joel120193 Stick it close to a Van der Graaff generator or Tesla coil - or do it the boring way and apply voltage across the ends. Do the gases glow different colours?

[Seb Cooley @SCools_5s]

@joel120193 Looks like Magdeburg hemispheres. For demonstrating atmospheric pressure. Use a nice old vacuum pump to remove the air from inside: the strongest kids will be unable to pull them apart.

[Seb Cooley @SCools_5s]

Un printemps plutôt pluvieux a rajouté des éclats de vert au bleu éternel.

[Seb Cooley @SCools_5s]

It's difficult to leave eternity.

[Seb Cooley @SCools_5s]

@susie_dent Surely one for @QuireMemes.

[Richard Brock @RBrockPhysics]

Amiera Davies, an MA STEM education student, is doing a study looking at UK science teachers' experiences of students using misinformation / pseudoscience / disinformation in lessons - if you are a science teacher, please consider completing her survey: https://t.co/NQYVMrCEn0

[Seb Cooley @SCools_5s]

@LissaKEvans Jacques ?
Marie and Pierre Curie were the husband and wife science team, I thought.

[Seb Cooley @SCools_5s]

Sunset over Shrewsbury yesterday.