What happened:
While spring sports are flourishing, another type of competition has been occupying the time of students at Washington Township High School as well. Spring is the season for high school academic teams to put their brains to the test and fight to be the top for each subject.
Over the course of the school year, many students at Washington Township were using their time after school to study for the spring competitions. The teams consist of six subject fields: English, math, social studies, science, fine arts, and interdisciplinary, which is a combination of questions from the previous subjects.
The theme for all the subject fields this year is “The American Woman: A Century of Progress from 1920to 2020.” Each of the subjects dive deep into certain topics that fit into this overall theme. Information includes research on singers like Aretha Franklin, chemists like Ether Conwell, and more astounding women that shaped history.
Overall, the members of each team were met with the challenge of researching and memorizing as much as possible before the competitions happening in March and April. Some coaches met virtually with their students, while others used technology to help the young intellectuals study on their own. Platforms such as Google Classroom, Quizlet, Quizizz, and more were used effectively to get the students as prepared as possible to go against the bigger schools.
The task of preparing for the competitions was challenging due to the current COVID-19 status, but the students and coaches pushed through to bring some real heat to the table this year.
What’s happening:
In recent weeks, the teams have competed in two competitions: The Porter County Conference (PCC)Academic Team Invite and the Lowell Academic Team Invite.
Some teams, such as the English and social studies groups, did incredibly well at the competitions and received very high scores. The effort put in by all of the students has revealed a promising turnout for competitions in the future.
The students now have a couple weeks to prepare for the next virtual competition, which happens to be one of the most important competitions of the season. On April 20, the students will compete against every school in Indiana for the chance to qualify for the statewide competition. In the meantime, the students continue to study hard in preparation for the big day.
Student spotlight:
Although all students put in hard work for their academic subject fields, one student in particular goes above and beyond when it comes to the Washington Township Academic Teams.
Junior Andrew Nichols is a proud member of not one, not two, but three subject teams. Nichols studies information for the science, fine arts, and interdisciplinary teams and is the captain for the fine arts team.
Nichols has been an academic competitor for two years and has seen the drastic change caused by COVID-19.
“The pandemic has made it harder to have practices. We are forced to have more individual learning and communicate virtually. Although this has been a challenge, our teams are still doing fairly well considering the circumstances,” said Nichols.
Nichols has used his time to help others on the team succeed.
“My goal is to help my teammates succeed academically. Although the situation is not ideal, the coaches have found ways to make the academic super bowl fun while also keeping all of us safe. It is fun to be competitive with friends,” said Nichols.
Nichols and his teammates have put in a lot of work to learn all of the material, but one might question the true purpose of doing all of this extra work.
“You really get to have fun with your friends while learning. Learning the material this year has helped me develop my passion in art and I plan to pursue an art related career,” said Nichols “You never really know what you will take interest in until you try it, and academic team is the perfect way to introduce you into real world applications of these subjects.”
Teacher spotlight:
Beth Bell is the math academic team coach at Washington Township High School and has been leading the team for nearly five years.
Although Bell is the coach for a small school’s math team, she believes that small schools can really compete with larger schools all across Indiana.
“You do not need to be from a bigger school in order to be intelligent! I have faith in all of my students,” said Bell.
The implications caused by COVID-19 have made it difficult to conduct practices in the manner that Bell is used to.
“We have had to figure out how to safely conduct practices in my classroom, including social distancing and lots of cleaning. Together, we learned how to compete in a virtual setting, which is a major change compared to the populated gym competition setting that we are used to. I am proud of how adaptable my students have been to these dramatic changes,” said Bell.
Bell does an astounding job as a coach because her goals motivate the team to challenge themselves.
“My goal is for the team members to learn some math concepts that they would not normally learn in the classroom. I want them to challenge themselves in preparation for the challenges they will face as adults. The best way to challenge themselves is to have fun while competing in their free time,” Bell said.
The Washington Township Academic Super Bowl Teams will continue to practice for their upcoming competitions. Regardless of their soon-to-be-determined placings in the competitions, all of the students should be proud of the work that they put in and the lessons that they learned along the way. Best of luck to all of the students in the competitions!