Are you smarter than a James Hart School student? Teacher Rick Druse would be happy for you to prove your abilities by going against any student on the school’s winning Scholastic Bowl team.
Hart School. (Provided photo)
Are you smarter than a James Hart School student? Teacher Rick Druse would be happy for you to prove your abilities by going against any student on the school’s winning Scholastic Bowl team.
Team members can think quickly on their feet, answering questions with split-second timing going against the clock or sounding the buzzer over other teams, Druse said.
Between the start of competition in January and the conference meet in early April, the seventh and eighth graders had competed against junior high teams from 11 other communities.
These students get a chance to answer tough scientific and math questions, as well as topics in literature, social studies, agriculture and fine arts. There’s even a miscellaneous section that covers topics from TV shows and industrial technology.
Druse’s “Team Jeopardy” is 13 students: Grace Anderson, Erik Dedo, Delaney Eaheart, Grace Gallus, Tacy Graham, Madeilyn Harris, Savannah Holly, Joshua Joseph, Asya Lengel, Grace Mahorney, Dylan Puffenbarger, Khadeejah Ryan, Umar Ryan, Samantha Sextonson and Josephine Urbaniak.
Their after school practices twice a week went on for months before their first competition Jan. 25. Then it was two or three meets each week until the conference April 12.
“The hard thing is to try and keep them from getting burned out,” said Druse, who uses materials from previous meets as test questions.
He admits practicing and competing takes a lot of time, but this team showed its stamina by winning the conference meet with a 9-1 record, and went on to win the regional competition as well before losing in the sectional round. Druse said he wants his students to know making it to sectionals is quite an accomplishment. They are in the top 10 percent of the 265 schools competing across Illinois.
Hart School has been in the competition, sanctioned by the Illinois Elementary School Association, the past five years and has won the conference each of the five years, and the regional meet four out of the last five years. It won the sectional meet in 2013 moving on to state which the Hart team took fifth place.
Druse is happy he discovered the program and initiated it at Hart. There are tournaments for sports and music, but Scholastic Bowl is a way to give the gifted students a competition.
“It’s been a fun experience. I’ve enjoyed it a lot,” the science teacher said.
SAMPLE QUESTIONS:
Science – Give the Russian word for the largest terrestrial biome, found mostly in Russia, Alaska and Canada, that separates temperate forests from tundra. (Taiga)
Language Arts – Characters in this work include Ajax the Greater, Ajax the Lesser, the prophetess Cassandra and her father, King Priam. Name the ancient epic poem that begins “Sing O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans.” (Iliad)
Social Studies – Give the two-word nickname of the man who served as a gunner before receiving pilot training in 1915 and became so successful that when he was killed in April 1918 his British enemies gave him a full military funeral iin honor of his 80 reported kills. (Red Baron)
