I know this is a bit early but I am wondering about the general feeling this year about the KMO? As a coach I am a big supporter of the KMO. My teams and I enjoy it. The KMO is the only times the ENTIRE team can work together as a team. No infighting of A vs. B. The younger players also get to play and help out. All of this really helps team spirit. It is a fun afternoon. I make sure we have pizza and drinks, so during times out the kids and the coaches along with a few fans (hey the free pizza is a big help here!) relax and enjoy the afternoon. In addition there are some good questions. Plus the corny jokes and the Great Auk himself are great, you know so bad you love'em! It is a enjoyable afternoon of challenging quiz but with out all the travel, and everyone gets to play. I have noticed that over the last few years that the KMO has been losing schools. I hope to see more schools enter the KMO. Players, coaches what are your views?
Michael Harvey
American Community School
Abu Dhabi, UAE
KMO
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MamaFlanagan
- Lulu
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I agree completely. We have many students who are not into face to face competition, but really enjoy KMO. The team really comes together and we bring in shy genius classmates. We take over the AV room for the whole morning and eat tons, (how'd you manage the free pizza, by the way?). It is also how we recruit middle-schoolers, because we have no middle school quizbowl. Don't tell my team, but I like the corny jokes.
The free pizza arrives because the principals pays for it out of school funds. This will be my 5th school in which I have coached a KMO team. I do allow grade 9's play in the HS KMO and I normally have a Junior High KMO. This allows the grade 9's to be top dog for the day! "Mama" what school are you in?
Michael Harvey
American Community School
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Michael Harvey
American Community School
Abu Dhabi, UAE
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First Chairman
- Auron
- Posts: 3651
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- Location: Fairfax VA
- Contact:
You all should eventually try High School Celebrity Shoot. It's non-buzzer, but still team oriented with an individual twist. :) :) :)
I've had to remove any corny jokes or else my life would be threatened (even more than it is :) ).
I've had to remove any corny jokes or else my life would be threatened (even more than it is :) ).
Emil Thomas Chuck, Ph.D.
Founder, PACE
Facebook junkie and unofficial advisor to aspiring health professionals in quiz bowl
---
Pimping Green Tea Ginger Ale (Canada Dry)
Founder, PACE
Facebook junkie and unofficial advisor to aspiring health professionals in quiz bowl
---
Pimping Green Tea Ginger Ale (Canada Dry)
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MamaFlanagan
- Lulu
- Posts: 17
- Joined: Tue Nov 30, 2004 10:36 pm
I'm from Charlottesville High School, in Virginia, and until No Child Left Behind leaves our school alone, I doubt we get free pizza. The international aspect of KMO is fun too, and not something I saw in Quizbowl until we played you guys at Nationals. Do you find that not being in America hurts your team at all in KMO or NAQT, in terms of the odd pop culture question or something?
Dr. Chuck, can you tell me more and/or give me a website about the High School Shoot Out?
"Mama"-now I remember you. Your team cleaned my teams clock! But all very politely. Yes we found many of the cultural questions difficult. Now the students tend to go to North America during the summer and most places around the world get some American TV, though a few years behind the states. Kids are normally on top of movies etc. but overall it does make it harder
I am still interested in hearing more about teams and the KMO.
Thanks,
Michael Harvey
American Community School
Abu Dhabi
"Mama"-now I remember you. Your team cleaned my teams clock! But all very politely. Yes we found many of the cultural questions difficult. Now the students tend to go to North America during the summer and most places around the world get some American TV, though a few years behind the states. Kids are normally on top of movies etc. but overall it does make it harder
I am still interested in hearing more about teams and the KMO.
Thanks,
Michael Harvey
American Community School
Abu Dhabi
-
First Chairman
- Auron
- Posts: 3651
- Joined: Sat Apr 19, 2003 8:21 pm
- Location: Fairfax VA
- Contact:
HSCS
The Case College Trivia Club have finally taken off all the info about the HSCS. At some point, I'll probably put it all up as soon as I get the guts to do it.
In short: it is a non-buzzer competition. Teams consist of exactly 4 students and no change of rosters throughout the team events.
Learning objective: HSCS is a biography tournament. The entire set of questions will focus on a student's ability to recognize a specific individual of general renown (academic or non-academic) based on his/her accomplishments or other trivia (as listed in the question).
1) Individual Written Test (70 questions, 30 minutes, 200 points)
Each of the students will take a written preliminary test. Each team member's score counts towards the team score (800 points possible).
2) Team Foursomes Test (44 questions, 800 points)
All the teams convene in a large auditorium and are read questions. The four team members consult and write down their answers after each question.
3) Team Category Relay (40 questions, 8 categories, 800 points)
For each 5-question category, one team member is chosen to answer that set for the entire team (written answers). Each team member must answer two categories (one in the first group of 4, one in the last group of 4 categories). The teams are not aware of the entire panel of categories beforehand.
The team competition ends with the highest aggregate total of team points wins.
The top 64 highest-scoring individuals on the written test advance to a single-elimination one-on-one mini-tournament to determine the final Individual champion. All answers are written down, and question values vary depend on difficulty.
This format is completely original, and because it does not involve buzzer systems, a lot of the "hard core" teams tend to shy away from it (for whatever reason). On the other hand, those teams that do play this competition have really enjoyed the fact that a one-person team does not have a strong chance to win the team event, and the "shy team members" get a chance to show off what they know. Plus, the tournament is a lot of fun.
EDIT: Also, the fun part about this is that adults can also play along on a space-available basis (for free). And we usually try to be sure we have space. Usually we have them play because we have extra kids without teams (meaning we cannot create a complete foursome).
It's also a very sociable tournament: extra kids left over from various schools are haphazardly put together to form chimeric teams. If we have enough of these, they have their own little trophies to take home with them because we recognize it really is hard to play with a person or a few people you never met before.
We also give awards to the top four freshmen/sophomore scorers on the written test.
In short: it is a non-buzzer competition. Teams consist of exactly 4 students and no change of rosters throughout the team events.
Learning objective: HSCS is a biography tournament. The entire set of questions will focus on a student's ability to recognize a specific individual of general renown (academic or non-academic) based on his/her accomplishments or other trivia (as listed in the question).
1) Individual Written Test (70 questions, 30 minutes, 200 points)
Each of the students will take a written preliminary test. Each team member's score counts towards the team score (800 points possible).
2) Team Foursomes Test (44 questions, 800 points)
All the teams convene in a large auditorium and are read questions. The four team members consult and write down their answers after each question.
3) Team Category Relay (40 questions, 8 categories, 800 points)
For each 5-question category, one team member is chosen to answer that set for the entire team (written answers). Each team member must answer two categories (one in the first group of 4, one in the last group of 4 categories). The teams are not aware of the entire panel of categories beforehand.
The team competition ends with the highest aggregate total of team points wins.
The top 64 highest-scoring individuals on the written test advance to a single-elimination one-on-one mini-tournament to determine the final Individual champion. All answers are written down, and question values vary depend on difficulty.
This format is completely original, and because it does not involve buzzer systems, a lot of the "hard core" teams tend to shy away from it (for whatever reason). On the other hand, those teams that do play this competition have really enjoyed the fact that a one-person team does not have a strong chance to win the team event, and the "shy team members" get a chance to show off what they know. Plus, the tournament is a lot of fun.
EDIT: Also, the fun part about this is that adults can also play along on a space-available basis (for free). And we usually try to be sure we have space. Usually we have them play because we have extra kids without teams (meaning we cannot create a complete foursome).
It's also a very sociable tournament: extra kids left over from various schools are haphazardly put together to form chimeric teams. If we have enough of these, they have their own little trophies to take home with them because we recognize it really is hard to play with a person or a few people you never met before.
We also give awards to the top four freshmen/sophomore scorers on the written test.
Last edited by First Chairman on Wed Oct 05, 2005 12:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Emil Thomas Chuck, Ph.D.
Founder, PACE
Facebook junkie and unofficial advisor to aspiring health professionals in quiz bowl
---
Pimping Green Tea Ginger Ale (Canada Dry)
Founder, PACE
Facebook junkie and unofficial advisor to aspiring health professionals in quiz bowl
---
Pimping Green Tea Ginger Ale (Canada Dry)
I agree with Dr. Chuck, Celebrity Shoot is a ton of fun even if your team doesn't do well, you can still compete individually. I think last year, my team (Tippecanoe) finished around 9th partly due to the fact that most of our A team was busy that weekend and couldn't make the trip, but I ended up 3rd in the individual competition. The team part of the competition in my opinion is more team oriented than most other competitions such as NAQT, PACE, etc. since you need a solid contribution from every member of your team to succeed. The tournament is also always well run and is definitely as enjoyable as any other tournament I've ever been to.
I do not care much for large yellow Avians.