Science
In his book Atomic Habits, James Clear shares the story of the British cycling team and their transformation from ordinary athletes to world champions. They were a team where top bike manufacturers wouldn’t sell them their bikes out of fear that their performance would damage the brands image however this team transformed themselves into one of the most successful teams in cycling history. Within four years the British cycling team were turned from ordinary athletes into world champions who over a 10-year period won 178 world championships, 66 Olympic of Paralympic gold medals and captured 5 Tour de France victories.
How did they transform themselves? By a method called “the aggregation of marginal gains” which is the idea that if you break down a task and improve each aspect of the process by 1% then you will get a significant improvement when you put all those parts together.
As students end week 8 and enter the end of the semester we see the importance of this method. It is not about making big changes in the pursuit of improvement but rather looking at making each part 1% better. This could be seen by doing a few more revision questions, seeing a teacher for help at lunch or reading over the feedback they have received and incorporating it. The significance of this strategy is that by continuing to improve by 1% students will compound their improvement. What might be a small change now will be a large difference by the end of the year. When talking with your child over this next week, encourage them to look for areas where they can improve by 1% within their study habits.
If you ever have any questions around what is happening within your child’s Science classes, please don’t hesitate to contact me or their classroom teacher.
Todd Robson
HoD Science