Compiled by Kimi Danaei/ Theme editor, Karli Wallace/ Executive Theme Editor And Rosy Travis/ Illustrator
Mira Costa will continue hosting its annual Scholar Quiz trivia tournament from March 9 -18 in various classrooms on campus for the purpose of providing an environment for students to compete with one another academically.
Scholar Quiz is a six-day tournament in which students from all grade levels form teams of four and compete against one another to answer questions on all academic disciplines, including topics such as geography and art history, according to Scholar Quiz Co-Chairs John and Janet Dargan. Team sign-ups are first come, first serve and began on March 3. According to the Dargans, over 250 students participated, and the 64 slots for teams were filled within a few hours.
Over 100 parents, teachers and community members volunteered for Scholar Quiz. They had different roles such as reading questions, watching and judging flags and scorekeeping. The competition is sponsored and supported by the Parent Teacher Student Association and Study Hut. The Dargans’ duties as co-chairs include coordinating with school administrators, teachers and volunteers, managing team sign-ups and communicating results of matches.
“I’d say the purpose of Scholar Quiz is to provide students with a venue for friendly competition,” 2019 Scholar Quiz runner-up and senior Caleb Hong said. “I think it’s become an annual tradition both because it gives students a way to test themselves on random tidbits gleaned from our years here at Costa in a fun and friendly way.”
The tournament took place in classrooms across campus during lunch. Thirty-two teachers left their classrooms open for the early stages of the competition. The idea to implement this event at Costa was introduced to AP United States History and AP Government teacher Bill Fauver by former Mira Costa Principal Garry Hartzell after Fauver spoke about participating in Quiz Bowl at the University of California, Los Angeles. Along with Hartzell and former teachers Jerry Quigley and Jim Ruderman, they started the tradition soon thereafter. Scholar Quiz has been successful because of its competitive, academically stimulating and simultaneously fun nature, Fauver said.
“For me, a school is all about academics; the other stuff is just frosting on the cake. Scholar Quiz in a trivial way puts the focus on what a school is all about, which is academic and intellectual development. There are very few things that we do in high school that really focus on that,” Fauver said. “I think I have achieved quite a bit as an AP teacher and as a member of the union, but the thing I’m most proud of is my role in developing Scholar Quiz and the fact that it has been continued by students 33 years after it was founded.”
Teams are given toss-up questions on various subjects. Some of these toss-up questions lead to a bonus round. In bonus rounds, one team is given a certain topic and asked four questions relating to it. In the bonus rounds, teammates are given time to collaborate and at the very end, the team captain must list off the answers to the questions. There are also lightning rounds. Students may gain five points for every correct answer and lose five points for every wrong one.
“[We have] a diverse variety of topics which span all four high school grades, many levels of difficulty and fun trivia on popular culture mixed in,” Dargan said.
Last year, senior Alex Fiorito’s team won Scholar Quiz. The team consisted of alumns Kevin Chen, Russel Blaker, Avery Haas-Goldberg and Fiorito. This year, Fiorito is the team captain of the number-two seed team, which includes seniors Rohil Dave and Nick McAree and junior Jack Nathan. The team formed because of their mutual friendship, equal balance in their knowledge of trivia and Fiorito’s faith in the team’s ability to do well, Fiorito said. According to Fiorito, most of the questions in Scholar Quiz can be answered with the knowledge students learn in their classes. His team’s knowledge of trivia is constantly expanding and being refreshed with the different classes that he and his teammates take at Costa, Fiorito said.
“Obviously, being a returning champion has motivated me to try and make a deep run through the bracket this year, and I think our team definitely has the potiental to win this year,” Fiorito said. “I don’t ever feel stressed about Scholar Quiz. I think it’s fun to compete in. Even spectating is fun since it’s the one time of year that being a nerd is considered super cool and useful. For a knowledge-based game, there’s actually a lot of momentum involved when someone’s doing well. ”
Seniors Caleb and Justin Hong are competing again in Scholar Quiz after being the runner-ups in last year’s tournament. They competed with alumnus Baker Harrington and senior Rohil Dave. On their new team, Caleb Hong is the team captain and is competing alongside his twin brother amd senior Justin Hong, as well as seniors Rachel Clinton and Katie Stone, who have both been nominated for Student of the Year. The Hong brothers team is currently the number-one seed in Scholar Quiz. In the first elimination round, the team won with 81 points against a freshman team Jessica Lewin, Athea Reynolds, Ellie Chien and Livia Tseng.
“Last year, I did well with discipline on lightning rounds by keeping gut instincts in check unless I was absolutely positive I was right,” Justin Hong said. “This year, I wanted to be more aggressive and take more chances on questions and toss-ups I’m fairly positive I know the answers to.”
The process of planning this event began after winter break in early January. The co-chairs began by recruiting over 100 parent and teacher volunteers. After that, the co-chairs then manage team sign ups and coordinate teams to compete against one another as the competition proceeds. This involves constructing and updating the bracket banner outside Costa’s Associated Student Body classroom for each round. The bracket banner was first introduced last year and has generated excitement and support from students, according to the Dargans.
“[The biggest challenge is always] securing the parent volunteers on a daily basis and recruiting teachers to give up the lunch hour to support the students and the event,” the Dargans said. “[Scholar Quiz is] one of the few Costa events that brings together students, teachers, parents, district administration, school board members and community volunteers for a common purpose that is positive and rewarding to all its participants and spectators.”
Study Hut creates the wide variety of questions that contestants must answer during their match. Study Hut is a local one-on-one tutoring center for all academic subjects and SAT and ACT prep. They formulate questions that pertain to the material that students of all grade levels learn and other information they may gain through extracurricular activities and on-campus programs. The questions also have many levels of difficulty on academic subjects like chemistry and pre-calculus, along with fun trivia topics such as pop culture and current events. According to the Dargans, these questions are formatted so that they connect to all students who are competing.
“We are grateful to Study Hut for writing the great variety of questions that connects with students of all academic and extracurricular interests, closely guarding the questions before each competition round, and their generous support and sponsorship of the event,” Dargan said.
The winners of the competition will receive the Sean Barnes Memorial Trophy. According to Fauver, the trophy has been apart of Scholar Quiz history for 33 years. During the 1990s, the student team who made it to the championship match would compete against an all-star teacher’s team, Fauver said. This year’s grand finale and championship match will be held in Costa’s auditorium on Wednesday during second period for students and staff to see.
“Scholar Quiz is one of the best events year in and year out at Costa. Being a spectator is just as much of a blast as playing,” Fiorito said. “I remember watching some kids do complex math problems in seconds or answer the most obscure questions right. Scholar Quiz is just an epic showdown that makes knowing about random facts feel as special as a March Madness game, if not even better.”
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