The Answer Please |
The Asteroid Belt is located between what two planets? Do you know the answer? It's Mars and Jupiter. That's just one of the questions that didn't stump children at the Elementary Scholars' Bowl held Wednesday at Memorial Auditorium, as children from the gifted program at Pittsburg's four elementary schools participated in the tournament. The event was put on by the Pittsburg High School Scholars' Bowl team, which will try to defend its Class 5A state title this weekend at Bishop Carroll High School in Wichita. "I think it helps get these kids ready for Scholars' Bowl at a younger age," said Rick Paul, a PHS junior and Scholars' Bowl member. "It's a cooperative effort to really help them get interested in Scholars' Bowl, so they'll want to do it in high school." The event is in its third year. The high school squad holds the tournaments for both the elementary and middle school gifted programs. The middle school tournament will be later this year. While some questions were easy and others quite challenging, it didn't seem to phase these bright students. They missed questions like "What British nurse was called the 'Lady of the Lamp?'" (Florence Nightingale), and "What is the world's smallest country?" (Vatican City). However, they correctly answered "To the nearest 100, how many bones are in the human body (200, the actual total is 206) and "What is the process of breaking down foods into smaller pieces in your body?" (digestion). In fact, the only struggle they seemed to have was correctly pronouncing the answers. That was the only thing that almost stopped Bethanne Elliott, a fourth-grader from George Nettels, from correctly answering the question "What resulted from Rosa Parks' arrest?" (the Montgomery Bus Boycott). Elliot's reply gave her Wildcats a 70-60 win over the Tigers in the championship game. "I knew it; I just kind of didn't know how to say it," she said. Students were split up into four-person teams, giving them a chance to pair up with children from different schools. The teams were named after mascots for Kansas universities. There was the Falcons (Friends), Gorillas (Pittsburg State), Hornets (Emporia State), Ichabods (Washburn), Jayhawks (Kansas), Shockers (Wichita State), Tigers (Fort Hays State) and Wildcats (Kansas State). The teams played each other in round-robin play, with each match-up consisting of 15 questions worth 10 points apiece. The team with the highest score at the end of the 15 questions got the win. After round-robin play was completed, the top four teams advanced to the semifinals. Tie-breakers were determined by head-to-head competition. In the semifinals, the Wildcats avenged an earlier loss to the Shockers with a 60-50 win, and the Tigers knocked off the Gorillas 70-40 to remain undefeated at 8-0. But in the championship game, it was the Wildcats avenging yet another earlier loss as Elliott buzzed in with "bus boycott" for a 70-60 win. Evette Womack, who was on the victorious Wildcats, was so excited she jumped up from the table. But she said she wasn't always that confident. "After we lost two games, I was wondering if we would lose a third one," the fourth-grader from Nettels said. "It was kind of fun that we won the finals." Logan Fields, a fourth-grader from Westside Elementary School, competed for the Jayhawks. "It was pretty fun," he said. "It was hard and I thought we were going to lose all of our games, but we actually won two." Elementary Scholars Bowl Round-robin play 1, Tigers (7-0); 2, Shockers (5-2); 3, Wildcats (5-2); 4, Gorillas (3-4); 5, Hornets (3-4); 6, Jayhawks (2-5); 7, Falcons (2-5); 8, Ichabods (1-6). Semifinals Tigers def. Gorillas 70-40; Wildcats def. Shockers 60-50 Third-place Shockers def. Gorillas 70-60 Championship Wildcats def. Tigers 70-60 The Morning Sun, (www.morningsun.net) February 9, 2006 |
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