Academic Challenge pits students' wits against each other

The Academic Challenge at Havre High School put students to the ultimate test - answering random questions they could not prepare to answer in the hopes of beating out their colleagues.

In the auditorium at the high school, a tense crowd gathered to watch almost 10 teams of students answer questions that had been prepared by their instructors.

The categories ranged from questions about the staff and faculty of Havre High School to math, geography and everything else.

Mary Wagner, a math teacher at Havre High School, has been organizing the Academic Challenge for more than 30 years, she said.

"It started out as a geography competition," Wagner said. From there, other math classes showed interest in the competition and their curriculum was added. Then English classes wanted in on it.

In the beginning, in the early '80s, the Challenge began in the cafeteria, with students striking pots and pans with spatulas to chime in with their answer.

These days, the challenge has moved out of the kitchen and has become more heated. The setup in the auditorium consists of a buzzer and scoreboard and the teams facing each other in the bracket-style tournament must chime in before the other does. If they get the question wrong, the other team may take it.

In the final round, the final two teams had to answer the most questions before the final school bell rang. Some of the questions included:

On what continent is Suriname? Answer: South America.

What African country nearly touches Spain? Answer: Morocco.

What microbiologist was given credit for discovering penicillin? Answer: Alexander Fleming.

During a lunar eclipse, which of the involved spheres is in the middle? Answer: Earth.

"There's no way you can study for it," Wagner said.

Teachers submit some of the questions asked for the majority of the competition. For those who reign supreme in the grueling competition, a plaque awaits their victory.

The champions of the challenge thise year were Savanna Pierson, Arjan Pokharel, Cayden Seiler and Trenton Parrote.

Their team competed in last year's Academic Challenge and received a second-place standing.

Seiler said that three of them are juniors and will be present at next year's challenge.

"We're going to get two plaques," he said.