By Michael Rooney
It’s 6:00 p.m. The Gymnasium goes quiet as the last murmurs die away. A woman steps up to the podium, “Are you ready?”
On Tuesday, March 24, the team went to the Hamilton County Tournament.
“At first, we were kind of nervous,” Christopher Zou, seventh grade team member, said, “but we were well prepared and ready.”
The Academic Bowl Team was led by Ms. Gretchen Smiley, sixth and eighth grade science teacher. The team met on Tuesdays and Thursdays for practice.
The tournament took place at Westfield Middle School. Zou explained how the contest worked:
“There were five rounds consisting of twelve questions each. Since we had a team of twenty, a team of four people would go for each round. They would put the question on the screen at the front of the room. Then the moderator would read the question once. You were allowed to non-verbally communicate for the first time. Then she read it again. After she read it a second time you were now allowed to talk. Then the bell would ring and the proctor sitting at your table would check the written answer,” he said.
The contest lasted for about an hour and 45 minutes. Questions varied in topics from the Hunger Games to complex mathematical problems. For the majority, Clay was tied in either third or second. Toward the final round, the team caught up with Creekside, but in the end, Clay won second at 37 points (Creekside at 38).
“I enjoyed the competition,” Zou said. “It was a lot of fun to do, and it was funny when people got the answer wrong to a really easy question.”
Clay almost came home in first place, however. “It was really funny,” said Chris, “at the medal ceremony, they actually gave us the first place medals. We had to switch them out though when we realized we had the wrong ones. If only we had run...”
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
