Competitive student teams spar in Academic Bowl
Nicole Tavenner
Trance Bird and other St. Ignatius students team up at the buzzer to answer trivia questions in the Academic Bowl.
Nicole Tavenner
Ronan School Resource Officer Levi Read watches students scribble answers in Academic Bowl.
Berl Tiskus
Charlo Academic Bowl team took home the gold this year.
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Berl Tiskus
Berl Tiskus
Berl Tiskus
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RONAN – School Resource Officer Levi Read was a bit less enthusiastic than Alex Trebek or Pat Sajak when he took to the stage to pepper students with questions for the Lake County Middle School Academic Bowl in mid-February, but the competitors likely could give any of the contestants on America’s favorite trivia shows a run for their money.
The youngsters, in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades, showed off their academic smarts by identifying local and foreign geography, doing quick mathematical calculations, imparting scientific wisdom, spelling difficult words and remembering important historical dates.
“It’s a trivia type question and answer with an oral round of students getting to buzz in and give answers,” Ronan Coach Stephanie Swigart said, adding that there is also an additional written round of testing conducted.
Schools travel to four meets that rotate around the Mission Valley each spring. During the season students use a number of strategies to prepare for the matches.
“At Ronan we practice every Wednesday at lunch,” Swigart said. “We use notecards and a game called Brain Quest. We give them written tests. It’s a whole lot of sharing (of) information.”
Swigart said the program attracts a lot of well-rounded competitors, not just students who might be stereotyped as “nerdy.”
“These are not the typical pocket protector, bookworms you might expect,” Swigart said. “We get a varied mix of students. They might be the student who struggles in social studies or science but they have a penchant for math. Maybe they aren’t even great in math class but they have a lot of knowledge and this is a whole different way for them to show their skill. A lot of times the kids who don’t perform well in the classroom with surprise you.”
The varied knowledge is meshed together in many different configurations, teaching teamwork.
“It’s really cool to see the kids get in their own groove,” Swigart said. “And we put kids in different groupings every match and sometimes you get a group that doesn’t jive, but other times it’s like, ‘Wow! This is what they are capable of when they work together.’”
Schools were neck and neck as they headed into the final round March 11 in Polson.
The Charlo team, coached by Mindy Cox, practices three times per week. As a group they named Allison Delaney “the smartest kid around,” although every competitor contributes.
“We have kids who are good at everything, but history is our strength, overall,” Charlo student Wills DeGrandpre said.
In the final academic bowl of the season, Charlo kids were sweating it out. Although they were in the lead, there was one last round, and they weren’t competing in it. But their biggest threat — the Polson team, coached by Melissa Bahr and Pam Oberwegner — was.
Polson has dominated the competition, placing first the last three years. To be on the Polson team, students must fill out an application and have two or three teachers recommend them; and they have to list their GPA, interests and hobbies, according to Oberwegner.
Questions were tough as the teams battled in the final.
One of the hardest, according to Polson teammate Gabe Mergenthaler, was “What is the second square root of 1,490?”
When the day ended, Charlo prevailed and secured the top county spot overall, smashing Polson’s win streak.
Results, year-end
Charlo 1,983
Polson 1,952
Mission 1,827
Ronan 1,339
