2016 US Academic Bee and Bowl Nationals

Dormant threads from the middle school section are preserved here.
Locked
Great Bustard
Auron
Posts: 1463
Joined: Sun Aug 29, 2010 9:23 pm
Location: DC, NJ, and everywhere else
Contact:

2016 US Academic Bee and Bowl Nationals

Post by Great Bustard »

The US Academic Bee and Bowl is about to conclude its inaugural National Championships, which have been going on since Friday. I'll have a much more extensive post, both on Nationals, and where we'll be going from here with USABB in general by tomorrow, but for now, suffice to say that everything has been going great, and I'm looking forward to reading for Longfellow and Middlesex in the Middle School Finals in half an hour. Team Pi-oneers C (Shiva Oswal playing solo) won the Elementary Division Academic Bowl yesterday over Challenger Ardenwood in the final.

Champions from Friday were as follows:
National Science Bee - Middle School: Dalton Manbeck-Mosig, Team Pi-oneers (CA)
National Science Bee - Elementary: Shiva Oswal, Team Pi-oneers (CA)
National Humanities Bee - Middle School: Sophie Netzel, Hadley Junior High (IL)
National Humanities Bee - Elementary: Ean Casey, Norfolk Academic Guild (VA)

Follow today's playoffs at: http://www.usacademicbowl.com/nationals ... tatistics/

Thanks to everyone who has come to compete and staff!
David Madden
Ridgewood (NJ) '99, Princeton '03
Founder and Director: International History Bee and Bowl, National History Bee and Bowl (High School Division), International History Olympiad, United States Geography Olympiad, US History Bee, US Academic Bee and Bowl, National Humanities Bee, National Science Bee, International Academic Bowl.
Adviser and former head coach for Team USA at the International Geography Olympiad
swimmerstar
Lulu
Posts: 31
Joined: Mon Oct 27, 2014 3:34 pm

Re: US Academic Bee and Bowl Nationals

Post by swimmerstar »

Who won?
Fred Zhang
Longfellow Middle School 2015
TJHSST 2019
Yale 2023
User avatar
J. Young
Wakka
Posts: 106
Joined: Wed Jun 24, 2015 4:21 am
Location: Old Virginia

Re: US Academic Bee and Bowl Nationals

Post by J. Young »

Middlesex won the Bowl in a close final. William Wang, captain of Longfellow, won the Bee division by a large margin.
Justin Young
Longfellow MS '16
McLean HS '20; Captain
Achievement: Walked route of Pickett's Charge
yellow7206
Wakka
Posts: 106
Joined: Sat Jan 10, 2009 9:45 pm

Re: US Academic Bee and Bowl Nationals

Post by yellow7206 »

By "close final" Justin meant it was decided on the last question...again. I'm going to watch video of Easy Goer and Sunday Silence now.
Eugene Huang, King of 109
Coach, Longfellow MS
Langley HS, 1989
Longfellow MS, 1985
Spring Hill Elem. 1983
Great Bustard
Auron
Posts: 1463
Joined: Sun Aug 29, 2010 9:23 pm
Location: DC, NJ, and everywhere else
Contact:

Re: US Academic Bee and Bowl Nationals

Post by Great Bustard »

Finishing champions, Shiva Oswal won the Elementary Academic Bee. More later; all results are final at: http://www.usacademicbowl.com/nationals ... tatistics/
David Madden
Ridgewood (NJ) '99, Princeton '03
Founder and Director: International History Bee and Bowl, National History Bee and Bowl (High School Division), International History Olympiad, United States Geography Olympiad, US History Bee, US Academic Bee and Bowl, National Humanities Bee, National Science Bee, International Academic Bowl.
Adviser and former head coach for Team USA at the International Geography Olympiad
Great Bustard
Auron
Posts: 1463
Joined: Sun Aug 29, 2010 9:23 pm
Location: DC, NJ, and everywhere else
Contact:

Re: US Academic Bee and Bowl Nationals

Post by Great Bustard »

Now that USABB has gone from an idea to a legit National Championship with 46 teams from around the country in exactly 4 months, I'd like to offer a few thoughts about the first year, and where I expect things to go from here regarding USABB for 2016-17 and beyond. First, I'm very gratified about the response we received with USABB in its inaugural season. There was clearly a demand for more middle school quiz bowl tournaments at the regional level as well as a second National Championship and USABB has begun to fill those needs as I anticipated it would. While things were heavily incentivized to promote participation this year on short notice (e.g. cheap or free registration fees, many perks for hosting, and solid prize money at the National Championships), the schools and families who participated this year still put in a very significant amount of time and resources of their own to participate, and that speaks to the viability and appeal of USABB.

Looking ahead to next year, Marshall Mullins (who was a huge help for NHBB this year) is going to be serving as USABB's new Director of Logistics and take the lead with tournament coordinating for USABB regional tournaments. We anticipate about 35-40 or so will run around the country, as we will have a full 12 month cycle to coordinate these. There will be just one regional question set for next year; for now, the higher priority is to expand USABB to more regions, especially ones which have traditionally not had as much in the way of established tournaments. By 2017-18, we anticipate debuting a second regional set of questions.

Next year's USABB Nationals are TBD for dates and location - the only thing we can say with certainty, is that both the host city and the weekend of USABB Nationals will not conflict with the National History Bee and Bowl Middle School Nationals or with MSNCT. We will maintain the ability to qualify for USABB Nationals at any tournament running on standard quiz bowl questions, and anticipate that roughly 80-140 teams will attend. The prize money will remain at at least $10,000 at Nationals, though registration fees will need to increase somewhat at both regionals and Nationals to ensure USABB's sustainability.

In terms of the format, the feedback we've received has been overwhelmingly positive, and I don't see any need for much tinkering, beyond likely expanding the number of questions in playoff games at Nationals (as we do at NHBB). The gestalt of Nationals weekend seemed to work very well too - there were virtually no issues with Nationals logistics that need fixing for next year, though we'll need to plan accordingly to scale things up for more participants. One other adjustment is that at least at Nationals (and wherever possible at regionals), we'll also look to have a separate division for 6th graders and then limit the Elementary division to 5th grade and younger. Elementary students are certainly capable of competing at quiz bowl tournaments, and though the canon for the younger players will need to be established in greater detail, people should note that a 2nd grader made the Academic Bee playoffs and a 3rd grader made the Humanities Bee finals.

Ultimately, we will almost certainly split the Elementary division into 4th-5th grade, and 3rd grade and younger divisions, though that's a ways off. And I do foresee a day when 1st grade and younger becomes a thing too. To wit, I gave an IHBB presentation back in the fall in Vancouver where by a series of miscommunications, Nolwenn set me up with an appointment at a Montessori school where the majority of students were 6 or 7. Going with the flow, I set aside the standard practice questions and came up with a series of 3 line pyramidal questions off the top of my head on topics that were accessible for them (answerlines like "pizza" "Alberta" "Wayne Gretzky" "Cinderella" "Paris" and "New York" are some of the things I remember tossing up) and they totally were into it, especially ringing in on the buzzer. That's a ways off, and we have a lot more pressing work to do elsewhere in the meantime, but there's no reason that the basics of quiz bowl can't be accessible to at least some students as young as 4 years old.

Finally, a word on hosting - for 2016-17, the regional hosting arrangements for USABB that were in place for this year will once again remain in place so as to encourage the establishment of more events around the country. Remember, this can thus be a significant fundraiser for high schools and colleges as well as middle schools. See the website at http://www.usacademicbowl.com/more-news-from-usabb/ for how this works, and please contact me or Marshall ([email protected]) if you're interested in hosting (hosts from this year get priority on hosting again next year if they're interested). Thanks again to everyone who made the first year of USABB a success, and we look forward to continuing to grow and develop USABB in 2016-17 and beyond!
David Madden
Ridgewood (NJ) '99, Princeton '03
Founder and Director: International History Bee and Bowl, National History Bee and Bowl (High School Division), International History Olympiad, United States Geography Olympiad, US History Bee, US Academic Bee and Bowl, National Humanities Bee, National Science Bee, International Academic Bowl.
Adviser and former head coach for Team USA at the International Geography Olympiad
User avatar
Cheynem
Sin
Posts: 7220
Joined: Tue May 11, 2004 11:19 am
Location: Grand Rapids, Michigan

Re: US Academic Bee and Bowl Nationals

Post by Cheynem »

I don't have a lot to say about the middle school national tournament, but I'm interested in thinking about elementary quizbowl as a thing.

Obviously, elementary students can be very good at quizbowl--we've seen it. I am not discounting skill or ability of a few. But, there are probably a few grade schoolers who are big, strong, and athletic enough to compete with high schoolers on JV or Varsity sports teams. And yet we don't really have a grade school sports league that operates the same way as high school or middle school sports. Grade schoolers play Little League or Pop Warner football or go to camps; they don't play a full school run league. Why? Because in grade school they're not ready for this level of competition for a variety of reasons.

Sports analogy that possibly doesn't hold up aside, I think there are some dangers of creating a circuit that gets younger and younger:

1. The "canon." I have no doubt you could create a packet or a couple packets full of questions that grade schoolers could answer. But a whole tournament? Multiple tournaments? A regional, state, and national tournament model? I don't think this is possible without totally descending into the absurd or trash.

2. Burnout. If you start playing as a grade schooler, there is a good chance you will be burned out before you reach middle or high school. There is also a chance you could get really good or motivated, sure, but imagine starting in second grade. For four or five years of your "playing career," you will be effectively be playing the same questions over and over again because the grade school canon is very very limited. Can you keep these kids' interest? What you probably will end up creating is a circuit in which the top kids absolutely dominate and a high possibility in which kids bored with either getting slaughtered or the repetitive nature of the questions end up leaving academic competitions and finding something else by the time they get to middle school. That's a tough pill for NAQT, HSAPQ, and PACE to swallow.

What I think might be a good idea if you want to move into elementary quizbowl is (besides encouraging the very bright students to "play up") to try something like you did at the Montessori school--show up at schools for an afternoon of a few questions--particularly hit kids about to enter middle school--show how fun academic competitions are--maybe preach against drugs or whatever--boom. I think something like that would be way better for the circuit at large and even for you than attempting to create yet another circuit and national tournament.
Mike Cheyne
Formerly U of Minnesota

"You killed HSAPQ"--Matt Bollinger
alexdz
Rikku
Posts: 458
Joined: Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:29 pm
Location: Conshohocken, PA

Re: US Academic Bee and Bowl Nationals

Post by alexdz »

For the record, there is decent interest in elementary quiz bowl (primarily 5th/6th graders, I think) in Missouri, with a few tournaments each year. I agree that starting a kid in 2nd grade on "career" quizbowl is not a great idea, but I don't see any reason why a tournament or two a year for upper-elementary students [3rd-6th grade] couldn't be a beneficial thing for a circuit. You hook the kids in so that they can't wait to join their middle school team when they get to that age. That seems to be what we're seeing in Missouri, anyway. It certainly doesn't seem possible to run a whole "season" on elementary questions, for exactly the reasons stated above.

All that being said, people should definitely be in touch with me if they are interested in (or interested in talking about) elementary quiz bowl. It's an area I'm really passionate about and invested in (literally, as I've got a question writing company who specializes in it). There's some work to do to differentiate the elementary questions from the middle school ones, still, so I'd appreciate any feedback and welcome the dialogue on this.
Alex Dzurick
====
Owner/Editor, SAGES Quizbowl Questions
Middle school teacher, Rohan Woods School
====
South Callaway '08 -- Mizzou '12 -- Illinois '17
SCMS coach '12-'13 -- EFIP coach '20-'21 -- RWS coach '22-present
Great Bustard
Auron
Posts: 1463
Joined: Sun Aug 29, 2010 9:23 pm
Location: DC, NJ, and everywhere else
Contact:

Re: US Academic Bee and Bowl Nationals

Post by Great Bustard »

I completely agree that especially for divisions limited to 3rd graders and younger, different approaches will be needed. Maybe something like just one regional set that can be played at after school events once or twice a year. Obviously, this is a long ways off given that there are very few elementary quiz bowl teams of any sort at the moment. But I do think that if given a basic enough set, there are enough 3rd graders and younger out there who would enjoy playing - I don't think this is inherently limited to an extremely small population of students nationally (like, say, the number of elementary school students who can understand the basics of calculus). It's more that quiz bowl has never been systematically introduced at this level, so I think it's hard to say what the ultimate eventual appeal will be.
David Madden
Ridgewood (NJ) '99, Princeton '03
Founder and Director: International History Bee and Bowl, National History Bee and Bowl (High School Division), International History Olympiad, United States Geography Olympiad, US History Bee, US Academic Bee and Bowl, National Humanities Bee, National Science Bee, International Academic Bowl.
Adviser and former head coach for Team USA at the International Geography Olympiad
User avatar
Marble-faced Bristle Tyrant
Yuna
Posts: 853
Joined: Fri Feb 08, 2008 11:05 pm
Location: Evanston, IL

Re: US Academic Bee and Bowl Nationals

Post by Marble-faced Bristle Tyrant »

alexdz wrote:For the record, there is decent interest in elementary quiz bowl (primarily 5th/6th graders, I think) in Missouri, with a few tournaments each year. I agree that starting a kid in 2nd grade on "career" quizbowl is not a great idea, but I don't see any reason why a tournament or two a year for upper-elementary students [3rd-6th grade] couldn't be a beneficial thing for a circuit. You hook the kids in so that they can't wait to join their middle school team when they get to that age. That seems to be what we're seeing in Missouri, anyway. It certainly doesn't seem possible to run a whole "season" on elementary questions, for exactly the reasons stated above.
Not sure if this is the sort of feedback you're looking for, but this was basically my experience in elementary school, and we had fun.
Farrah Bilimoria
Formerly of Georgia Tech and Central High School (Macon)
User avatar
Fado Alexandrino
Yuna
Posts: 834
Joined: Sat Jun 12, 2010 8:46 pm
Location: Farhaven, Ontario

Re: US Academic Bee and Bowl Nationals

Post by Fado Alexandrino »

Great Bustard wrote: The prize money will remain at at least $10,000 at Nationals
:w-hat:

Prize money at a middle school tournament? Woah...
Joe Su, OCT
Lisgar 2012, McGill 2015, McGill 2019, Queen's 2020
bluejay123
Lulu
Posts: 51
Joined: Thu Apr 30, 2015 10:35 pm

Re: US Academic Bee and Bowl Nationals

Post by bluejay123 »

On the idea of elementary school quizbowl; Feel free to comment as necessary:

1) What do first graders really know is the question? I feel like the limited knowledge they possess is not enough to write a multitude of tournaments on them.
2) I'm good with targeting the 5th/6th graders, but I feel that 1/2/3rd graders may be too young.
3) Can't kids just be kids? Like honestly, they will have their whole middle school and high school years to crack open the books and study. While I'm a proponent of quizbowl to the masses, I feel that those in super young grades may be discouraged, disinterested, or burn out fairly quickly.
Jaya Alagar
bluejay123
Lulu
Posts: 51
Joined: Thu Apr 30, 2015 10:35 pm

Re: US Academic Bee and Bowl Nationals

Post by bluejay123 »

raffi_-_c-a-n-a-d-a.mp3 wrote:
Great Bustard wrote: The prize money will remain at at least $10,000 at Nationals
:w-hat:

Prize money at a middle school tournament? Woah...
true though...
Jaya Alagar
acrosby1861
Lulu
Posts: 54
Joined: Mon Mar 09, 2015 10:09 pm

Re: US Academic Bee and Bowl Nationals

Post by acrosby1861 »

bluejay123 wrote:On the idea of elementary school quizbowl; Feel free to comment as necessary:

1) What do first graders really know is the question? I feel like the limited knowledge they possess is not enough to write a multitude of tournaments on them.
2) I'm good with targeting the 5th/6th graders, but I feel that 1/2/3rd graders may be too young.
3) Can't kids just be kids? Like honestly, they will have their whole middle school and high school years to crack open the books and study. While I'm a proponent of quizbowl to the masses, I feel that those in super young grades may be discouraged, disinterested, or burn out fairly quickly.
Here's my thoughts. I don't really have a set opinion about elementary school quizbowl. My main concern is the limited canon--there's only so much you can ask a little kid in terms of stuff that would come up in the quizbowl canon, and there are only so many ways you can write about what they'd know. As a result, you'd only get so far in terms of question content.

But on the other hand--this stuck out to me--telling elementary school kids (especially the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders) that quizbowl exists would give them something to look forward to when they reach middle school and high school. If those kids really want to challenge themselves at that young of an age and start quizbowl early (as in, while they're still in elementary school), then they can go ahead. They just need to be aware of the difficulty, the canon, and the fact that they're going against older kids with (possibly) more quizbowl experience than they have. Not that I'm completely against elementary school quizbowl, but I'm just pointing out some of the possible disadvantages.
bluejay123 wrote:
raffi_-_c-a-n-a-d-a.mp3 wrote:
Great Bustard wrote: The prize money will remain at at least $10,000 at Nationals
:w-hat:

Prize money at a middle school tournament? Woah...
true though...
Good point.
Arianne Crosby
Los Alamitos High School '17
UC San Diego '20
User avatar
the return of AHAN
Auron
Posts: 1988
Joined: Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:40 pm

Re: US Academic Bee and Bowl Nationals

Post by the return of AHAN »

It's not quizbowl, but Junior NAC (Chip Bowl) hands out cash prizes, wherein taking 2nd in the 'nation' gets you your entry fee refunded. :roll:
Jeff Price
Barrington High School Coach (2021 & 2023 HSNCT Champions, 2023 PACE Champions, 2023 Illinois Masonic Bowl Class 3A State Champions)
Barrington Station Middle School Coach (2013 MSNCT Champions, 2013 & 2017 Illinois Class AA State Champions)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Locked