Are you smarter than an eighth-grader?
No, that’s not a TV show. It’s a question. Like this one: “ ‘Riddle of the Mode’ is a spoonerism of what political position?”
And this one: “The hard-copying of books extremely limited their production until what German came along in the 15th century?”
And this: “What is the value of P in the equation? P/4 - 3Q = R?”
Not so easy, is it?
(Try “Middle of the road,” “Johann Gutenberg” and “P = 4R + 12Q”).
What’s it take to answer such questions?
“Practice before school, after school and at lunch,” 14-year-old Andrew Kronser of Thurston Middle School said. Kronser and the other members of his eighth-grade team took first place in the seventh- and eighth-grade division Monday in the fifth annual “Brain Bowl” — modeled after the popular “Jeopardy” quiz game of TV fame and held at the University of Oregon — among Lane County middle school students.
The event is organized by the Lane Education Service District, the UO’s Youth Enrichment and Talented & Gifted programs in the College of Education and the university’s Office of Admissions. More than 230 students from 10 Lane County middle schools got a tour of the UO as part of Monday’s event.
“I think kids need the stimulation,” said Joan Hladky, a retired Pleasant Hill teacher who organized the first and subsequent Brain Bowls with Marjorie DeBuse, director of the UO’s Youth Enrichment and TAG programs.
It is based on the Brain Bowl competition in Southern Oregon, organized by the Southern Oregon Educational Service District and Southern Oregon University’s Pre-College Youth Programs, which has been held for more than 30 years with teams from schools in three counties.
Only 11 teams competed in the first Brain Bowl at the UO in 2006. On Monday, 35 teams of up to seven players each competed in two divisions (the sixth-grade teams competed in a separate division).
The two-round finals for the seventh/eighth grade division were held in the Erb Memorial Union Ballroom in front of students, parents and teachers.
Eight teams sat at tables with microphones, in front of a large PowerPoint presentation of a “Jeopardy”-like blue game board filled with columns of categories such as math, science, literature and geography and point (not money) levels of 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500.
Unlike “Jeopardy,” though, answers did not always have to be framed in the form of a question. Sometimes they were just, well, answers to questions. And although you gained 500 points from answering a 500-point question, an incorrect answer was only a 100-point deduction, as it was for any point level.
The Thurston team got off to a rousing start in the first round.
“Literature for 500,” said Kronser, the team captain.
“These novels are set in what country? “Journey of the Shadow Bairns,” “Jason’s Gold,” Frobisher Bay” and “Anne of Green Gables,” asked Marianne Oakes of the Lane ESD, playing the Alex Trebek role.
“Canada,” Kronser said.
“Canada is correct,” Oakes said.
“Language arts for 500,” Kronser said.
“What is the gerund phrase in this line? “When I returned to my dorm room, I heard my pet goldfish singing in the shower.”
“Dorm?” answered the team captain for one of two teams from Agnes Stewart Middle School in Springfield.
No.
“My pet goldfish singing in the shower?” answered the Pleasant Hill team.
Nope.
“When I returned to my room?” said the Oakley Middle School team from Junction City.
Negative.
“Anybody else?” Oakes asked.
“Singing in the shower?” answered Kronser for the Thurston team.
“That is correct,” Oakes said.
While teams around them were losing 100 points right and left for incorrect answers, the Thurston team rarely answered unless it was confident of the correct response.
“If you get trigger happy, you definitely lose points,” said Kronser, who watches “Jeopardy” daily.
No comments:
Post a Comment