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Behind the Scenes: Scholars Bowl

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The round is tied, 50-50. The moderator of the round reads the final question to the two scholars bowl teams in the room. Students from each side, Louisburg and Paola, anxiously converse amongst themselves in a desperate attempt to discover the answer. Deciding on a conclusion, Louisburg motions to their captain to click his button. A loud beep emits and the judge calls upon the captain. The room grows silent for a moment, only to be broken by the captain’s hesitant answer. “Hemingway?” The student says, uncertainty in his voice. With a correct response, Louisburg wins the round 60-50. The students walk away with smiles, enjoying the moment in their knowledge-based club.

“Scholars Bowl is different from other clubs because it requires that you have a lot of knowledge of the world around you,” Scott Murphy, sophomore Scholars Bowl member, said. “You have to know lots of trivia spanning across a large range of subjects.”

Christine Staab, five-year Scholars Bowl coach, explains that “each round consists of sixteen questions from the following topics:  World Language (typically Spanish, with occasional French and German), Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Science, Fine Arts, and Year in Review.” Each question is worth ten points and the content of each question requires extensive knowledge for a student to be able to answer.

“A lot of it is just knowledge that you pick up along the way,” Garrett Mills, sophomore Scholars Bowl member, said. “Some of it comes from practices, but a lot is random trivia.”

Scholars Bowl students have practices beginning at 7:15 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays and compete against each other in attempts to boost their knowledge. The students often compliment areas where others fall short:  a student predominant in science topics may fail in math, but with teams of five, all categories are easily completed.

“We know who is strongest in what category,” Julia Walker, junior Scholars Bowl member, stated. “If no one knows the answer, we turn to the person strongest in their category.”

Last year, the team won first place in the 4A district in the qualifying rounds for KSHSAA’s televised Scholars Bowl at Washburn University. They also compete against LHS’s teachers in front of the student body during February’s annual homecoming week.


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