Posted by: thepinetree on 01/23/2010 08:45 AM
Updated by: thepinetree on 01/23/2010 08:45 AM
Expires: 01/01/2015 12:00 AM
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2010 ACADEMIC DECATHLON PROMISES TO BE “A PIECE OF CAKE”....With The French Revolution as Super Quiz Topic!
Parents, students and interested community members can get the most entertaining history lesson they’ve likely ever had on Saturday, February 6, 2010, at Bret Harte High School in Angels Camp, when 55 students from three high schools compete in the 28th Annual Regional Decathlon Competition. Participating teams hail from Bret Harte High School in Angels Camp, Mountain Oaks School in San Andreas and Summerville High School in Tuolumne. The French Revolution is the topic for this year’s Super Quiz Competition, in which decathletes will wow the audience with their history prowess beginning at 3:15pm in the lower gym. Admission is free to the public......
The Academic Decathlon, the premiere national scholastic competition for high school students, was created to provide opportunities for students to experience the challenges of rigorous team and individual academic competition. Each student competes in ten events: Economics, Essay, Art, Interview, Language and Literature, Math, Music, Science, Social Science and Speech. The program strives to foster a greater respect for knowledge, to promote wholesome inter-school academic competition, and to enhance student communication skills. This year’s regional competition is sponsored by the Teichert Foundation as part of their grant to the Calaveras County Office of Education supporting all 2009-2010 countywide student events.
A unique aspect of the Academic Decathlon is that it is designed to include students from all academic abilities and achievement levels. Each nine-member team consists of three “A” (Honor division), three “B” (Scholastic division), and three “C or below” (Varsity division) students. Each team member competes in all ten events against other students in their individual divisions. Team scores are calculated using the top two individual scores from each division to arrive at an overall team score.
Students prepare for the competition in special classes taken as part of their academic program in school. Former decathletes remember the experience as “the best college prep course I ever had” and as “a good course in LIFE.” “The preparation was actually the coolest part,” remembers former Academic Decathlon winner Colleen Dolan, who helped with speech coaching for this year’s Mountain Oaks team. “The skills I acquired in essay writing, interviewing techniques, preparing speeches and impromptu speaking have helped me ever since.”
Each year the Science or Social Science topic is used for the Super Quiz. This year’s topic is the French Revolution, when Marie Antoinette reportedly quipped “Let them eat cake” in response to reports that her subjects were starving and had no bread to eat. The competition format of the Super Quiz differs from that of the other subject areas, in that students take two tests in the Super Quiz subject: one written and the other oral. The oral relay portion of the Super Quiz is the only part of the actual testing that is open to the public, and it is inevitably one of the most memorable and exciting parts of the Academic Decathlon competition.
Gold, silver, and bronze medals are awarded for individual events and total scores. Overall individual winners are recognized, as are champion teams. The regional champions will travel to Sacramento to compete in the state competition, March 12-15, 2010. The Calaveras team won third place at this event in 2007. The California Academic Decathlon is one of the premier academic competitions in the country; the winning California team has won the national Academic Decathlon every year for the last six years and fifteen times since 1982. This year’s national finals take place April 21-24, 2010 in Omaha, Nebraska.
More information about the California Academic Decathlon is available at www.usad.org and/or www.academicdecathlon.org or by calling USAD at 866-511-8723. More information about the regional Academic Decathlon is available by calling the Calaveras County Office of Education at 209-736-4662.
Contact information:
John Brophy
County Superintendent
Calaveras Tuolumne Academic Decathlon, Executive Director
Calaveras County Office of Education
P.O. Box 760
185 S. Main Street
Angels Camp, CA 95221
209 736-6008
JBrophy@ccoe.k12.ca.us
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