HOULTON, Maine — Six students from Houlton High school joined nearly 200 peers from around the state to participate in the State Academic Decathlon Competition.
Held at Deering High School, Houlton students participating in the event include Alana Smith, Josh Sullivan, Kristen Goodall, Miranda Tidd, Ethan Nickerson, Madelene Anderson. Students who were named to the team, but not attending are Echo Turner, Cody Woods and Nicholas Hannigan.
Other school participating include Bangor High School, Calais High School, Deering High School, Edward Little High School, Hall-Dale High School, Monmouth Academy, Mt. Valley High School, Oak Hill High School, Portland High School, Scarborough High School and Woodland High School.
The Academic Decathlon, the premiere national scholastic competition for high school students, was created to provide opportunities for students to experience the challenges of rigorous team and individual academic competition. Each student competes in 10 events — economics, essay, art, interview, language and literature, math, music, science, social science and speech.
Each year the science or social science topic is used as the “Super Quiz” topic. The competition format of the Super Quiz differs from that of the other subject areas. While students take one written test in each of the other six subjects, they will take an oral test in the Super Quiz subject. The oral relay portion of the Super Quiz is the only part of the actual testing that is open to the public, and it is inevitably one of the most memorable and exciting parts of the Academic Decathlon competition.
The 10-event academic program strives to foster a greater respect for knowledge, to promote wholesome inter-school academic competition, and to further develop student communication skills. A unique aspect of the Academic Decathlon is that it is designed to include students from all academic abilities and achievement levels. Each nine-member team consists of three “A” (Honor division), three “B” (Scholastic division), and three “C or below” (Varsity division) students. Each team member competes in all ten events against other students in their individual divisions. However, team scores are calculated using the top two individual scores from each division to arrive at an overall team score.
Gold, silver, and bronze medals are awarded for individual events and total scores. Overall individual winners are recognized as are champion teams. The broad base of awards allows for major recognition of academic accomplishment. Teams advance through local, regional and state levels of competition. The state champions compete at the national finals. This year’s national event will take place April 25th–28th in Albuquerque, NM.