Of the Khmer Rouge, History Bees and Littlest Spock

[Spock]

ittlest Spock (7th Grade) is cursed with my knowledge of crap that doesn't do me any good. I think I had previously posted about his Junior High Knowledge Bowl experiences last fall, but I will get there again.

History Bee

Before Christmas, his 7th Grade history talked to me about entering a History Bee thing-I think Littlest Spock was the catalyst for this. Anyway, a number of kids at school took the first test. The best ten moved into the intramural competition to see who can move on to Regionals to be held April 2. Littlest Spock made it as did about 6 others. The large number (and who they are) who moved on to regionals tell me that the bar for regionals is set pretty low. They obviously want a lot of kids moving on to generate excitement. Littlest Spock was a little torqued about that.

Anyway, one question that he got right was "The Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot are associated with what country?"

I suspect that this is the kind of question that separates the Men from the Boys (as it were) in this contest. Very few 7th Graders are likely to know that one. Too many adults also would probably miss it as well.

The Regionals consist of several oral rounds. To be Honest, I will be disappointed(and somewhat surprised) if he doesn't make the next step to Nationals.

Junior High Knowledge Bowl

Littlest Spock had a successful Junior High Knowledge Bowl season last fall-this is a 4-person team event and he earned the nickname "Shane the Brain" from the 8th Graders.

Junior Varsity Knowledge Bowl

This was recent event for 8th-10th Graders. Per the coach-the 8th Graders wanted Littlest Spock moved up and they all wanted to be on his team. Match consisted of a 60-question written test and 3 oral rounds of 45 questions each. 4 rounds were planned-but blizzard conditions caused the cancellation of the last round.

3 teams in a room for oral rounds with the top 3 teams in one room-2nd 3 in next room etc.

After the written round-The Spocklette's team of 9th Graders was in Room 1, where they ran into a buzz saw and did not get very many points and moved down several rooms.

Littlest Spock's team of him and 3 8th graders was in Room 2 after the written and held this position for all the rounds-I think they would have moved down after the final round if there were another round.

I watched the Spocklette's first round and Littlest Spock's next 2 rounds. It was fun to watch them work together.

FWIW-I kyped one of the written tests and got 58 out of 60. One wrong dealt with adverbs-no shame in getting that wrong-30 years since I was in that world and one was a simple math question that I didn't do the math for.