What famous laboratory helped develop America’s first satellite? Where does most of the water in rivers come from? What eight-letter word meaning “the deliberate destruction of employers or government property” originated in 19th century France?
While most adults would most likely have no idea what these questions even mean, there’s a group in Weehawken High School that has put a lot of time into making sure that they do know the answers.
“You become surprised at how much you know,” said teenager Richie Turner, a member of Weehawken High School’s Academic Bowl “Team A.”
“We can be ourselves while we answer questions.” – Rahat Merchant
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Like ‘Jeopardy!’
Similar to the TV game show Jeopardy!, the Academic Bowl (also known as Quiz Bowl) is a nationwide competition open to students from grades nine through 12. The competition features six categories of questions ranging in subjects from “Characters in Literature” to “Historical Geography.”
Based on academic knowledge, each category has eight questions, which the students answer as a team while competing against other schools.
Alexandra Louppova joined the Weehawken team for the first time this year. “It seemed like a lot of fun,” said Louppova. “It’s general knowledge, not just stuff from school.”
While all of the students on the team are involved in different activities at school, they agreed that the Academic Bowl is their favorite.
“It’s so laid back,” said Rahat Merchant. “We can be ourselves while we answer questions.”
Joshua Duncan said the camaraderie makes the activity enjoyable. “We’re all so tightly knit,” said Duncan. “It makes it a lot more fun. There’s always something to look forward to.”
Will Lechus, a sophomore participating in the competition for the first time, said he likes the competitive team atmosphere as well as the personal challenge. He watches quiz shows at home as practice. “I used to be pretty good at ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,’ ” he said.
Stephanie Agudelo, a senior, said that she has continued her participation each year because there’s a “luck of the draw” element to the competition and you never know which categories will come up.
Agudelo added that while other schools involved in the competition have special classes in which they practice trivia, Weehawken High School does not.
“I’m proud because we don’t have that and we made it this far,” she said.
The group has practiced twice a week for 40 minutes since December and said that each individual has his or her own area of specialty such as sports, language, and entertainment.
They joked that they had an ace in every category except the ones chosen for the day of semi-finals. Team A lost in the semi-finals to a team from High Tech High School in North Bergen.
Learning and laughter
The students begin practicing in December by studying with mock categories and learning techniques for making an educated guess.
Each school has its own academic team and Al Cevoli, a teacher at Weehawken High School, coordinates among the schools to run the competition.
“Getting to the semi-finals was great for us,” said Cevoli. “I’m really proud of the kids.”
Teacher Jon Hammer, the assistant advisor to the team, said that in addition to building team skills, the competition provides a release for the students. “The informality of it helps,” said Hammer. “It gives them a chance to laugh and relax.”
The answers
As for the readers still wondering about those questions: Jet Propulsion Laboratories helped develop America’s first satellite, Explorer I. The primary source of river water is from mountain runoff, and the word “sabotage” originated in 19th century France, when workers would toss their wooden shoes into machines to halt production.
Lana Rose Diaz can be reached at ldiaz@hudsonreporter.com.