Knowledge Bowl

Mom loved doing Knowledge Bowl with her boys.

Ever since Mark first did Knowledge Bowl at Highland, we have loved the program. This year Dax was old enough to join as a third grader, and he and Mom were really excited. Mom had her work cut out for her, managing two teams and creating content for them both. It seemed even worse, too, because the topic was history, and the study guide seemed wide open. For example, the students were supposed to know Alexander the Great and Charlemagne. How many things are there to learn about just those two men?

Luckily she got a lot of help from Mark and Dad, and with a ton of her own work and planning, she trained three teams (two 5th-6th and one 3rd-4th grade team). Mark would anchor one of the upper teams, and Dax the lower team.

All the 5th and 6th graders!

Mark's competition came first, and we weren't too worried about it. His team won every battle and really racked up the points. We had no doubt that they would place in the top ten. (This is the only award given. You are either Top Ten, or you're not.) The other 5th-6th team showed a lot of nerves. They only managed to win one battle, but they still had fun.

Mark's team only had 4 players. Teams are allowed 5, but we were one short, so Mark counted as two players. 

The following week for Dax's competition, we were a lot more worried. Dax had a really smart friend on his team, but it was their first time. Because they were third graders, they had a huge disadvantage against fourth graders who have a whole year of Utah history under their belts. But Dax was super fast on his buzzer. They won their first battle and then came from behind to win their second. In the third they played Highland's accelerated team, which is always tough. They didn't win, but they managed to score a hundred points in a narrow loss. Then they won their final battle. We were pretty confident they'd rank in the Top Ten with three wins and a decent score in a loss. But we had to wait for final results.

Dax was the speediest buzzer on this team!

When the results came in, both Mark and Dax's teams ranked in the Top Ten. Best of all, they got to face off against the teachers in a battle during an assembly. Both teams outscored the teachers, which was the best reward of all. Now Mom is looking forward to not managing the program as Mark moves out of elementary school and Dax participates at Highland with Dad next year.

Mark received his Knowledge Bowl medal and was recognized for being the top Perennial Math scorer at his school.
He scored in the top 10% of the 6th Graders in the Nation.

Dax's first Knowledge Bowl. Hopefully there will be lots more to come!