Scholar Bowl Competes In District Tournaments

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Gabby Roberts, Page Editor: Feature

On January 28th, the high school Scholar Bowl team will compete against other area schools in one of their few tournaments. Each team answers questions using buzzers to indicate they would like to respond to the given question. If someone answers wrong then the question can be reasked and the other teams have a chance to steal. Contestants are quizzed over numerous topics including geography, American history, sports, literature, sciences, mathematics, spelling, and foreign language.
Michelle Wahlquist, high school English teacher and sponsor of Fair Grove’s team said, “It really is impressive how smart students are and how trivia minded they are. We are split into two groups; one being a junior varsity team and the other varsity. Students are given only a few seconds to answer. When a mathematics question pops up, varsity students are given fifteen seconds to answer and JV are given thirty.” Wahlquist also stated that students often use this experience on the trivia team to put on resumes, and college applications. “MSHSAA recognizes this activity and even backs it up on resumes. Not to mention this broadens the mind for future college classes,” said Wahlquist.
Carter Crews, a current junior at Fair Grove, stated, “We practice every Thursday or Friday after school sometimes using buzzers, other times just reviewing topics with worksheet packets from previous tournament questions. One of the hardest questions we got was about Chinese literature. I don’t think anyone there buzzed on that one.” While Chinese literature isn’t his strong point, he has plenty of other topics he enjoys including advanced English, and mathematics.
Crews also went on to comment that, “Overall I really enjoy being in scholar bowl, it is nerve-racking knowing that the answer is right on the tip of your tongue, but I really do like it!”
The team’s upcoming tournament will be at Marionville after school against most of the area schools including Strafford, Pleasant Hope, Hillcrest, Republic, Buffalo, of course Marionville.