Inside a science lab in Parkinson Hall, on the Mississippi University for Women campus, two groups of sharped-dressed teens sit at tables on the edge of their seats with their thumbs hovering over buzzers.
They stare intently at a pair of W science professors, who will ask the questions and award the points.
“Alright, first toss-up; biology multiple choice,” one of the bearded professors says. “Secretion of hormones into the blood stream to reach a distant target cell is classified as what type of process? W, exocrine; X, paracrine; Y, endocrine; or Z, autocrine.”
As the professor finishes listing the options, Caledonia High School senior Gabbi Norton is already buzzing in. A loud sharp beep is followed immediately by Norton saying, “endocrine.” She was right, but she jumped the gun a bit — in quiz bowl you cannot answer until the moderators acknowledge you — and the team from Brookhaven High School is awarded the four points.
Caledonia rallied back in the game — they were losing 34-28 at halftime — to win 46-42. Norton answered key toss-ups and bonuses to seal the comeback.
“I destroyed us, but I saved us again,” Norton said after the match.
Competition leads to scholarships
Quiz bowl is a competitive, academic based competition. High schools have teams that go to competitions to duke it out with rival brainiacs in head-to-head competitions testing prowess of knowledge in history, art, math, science, literature, current events, sports and pop-culture. Teams face-off for “toss-up” questions that are worth four points; if a team gets the toss-up question right, it has a shot at a 10-point bonus question the other team cannot guess at.
“It’s like playing a game show everyday,” said Caledonia senior Tyler Sheppard.
Some quiz bowl competitions have a narrow focus on one or two subjects. That was the case Friday at The W’s Regional Science Bowl. The W has been holding the Regional Science Bowl since 1999, according to W Department Chair of Science and Mathematics Dr. Dionne Fortenberry.
The school offers scholarships to the students who answer the most questions correctly during round-robin competition: the student who answers the most questions correctly is awarded $3,000 per year, the two students who answer the second most questions right get $2,000 a year and one $1,500 per year scholarship is given to the student who answers the next most questions. Around 100 students from schools throughout the state forming 19 teams (some schools have two teams) competed at the W on Friday. With their win over Brookhaven in the final round of qualifying play, Caledonia secured itself a spot in the quarterfinals.
Fortenberry said The W has benefited from holding the competition.
“Each year we offer the event, the following year we have kids who competed come to school here at The W,” Fortenberry said. “And they are among some of our best and brightest students.”
A melting pot
The quiz bowl team from Caledonia has been coming to Regional Science Bowl at The W for five years, according to coach Sherry McReynolds. A chemistry teacher by trade, McReynolds has been coaching Caledonia quiz bowl for ten years. The team won its first major competition at the East Mississippi Community College Scholars Olympiad this year.
“These kids are very competitive and this is fun for them,” McReynolds said at a practice in her classroom last week. “It’s a mix of personalities and interests. It’s not cliquey.”
After school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, around 10 students shuffle into McReynolds’ chemistry classroom. There are musicians and theatre kids, gamers and jocks, freshman and seniors. They all have one thing in common — they’re all nerds — in a good way.
Senior Malik Richardson is the team captain. He speaks for the group at competitions during bonus questions, which can be a stressful job when a group of four has 30 seconds to come up with a solution to a complex question and not everyone agrees.
“It’s hard as captain to consider everyone’s answers,” Richardson said. “If I get it wrong and someone apparently knew the answer, I never hear the end of it.”
Richardson has been involved in quiz bowl since his sophomore year. A bright, confident young man, Richardson can be seen wearing a gray beanie cap and a big smile. During competition, he swaps the beanie for a Hugh Hefner -style ship captain’s hat. He has earned himself scholarship money to EMCC, which last year he used to pay for his dual-enrollment courses. This year, he took third place in the music category at the EMCC Scholars Olympiad with his saxophone skills. He describes the competitions as “adrenaline rushing” and his teammates as a “melting pot.” He recently received his acceptance to Ole Miss.
“This is my favorite family of nerds,” he said.
There are 10 students involved in Caledonia quiz bowl, but the five seniors make up the teams’ starting roster. Four students play at a time during competition, so Norton, Sheppard, Richardson, Jacob Smith and Layne Cooper rotate in.
The win over Brookhaven put Caledonia’s qualifying round record at 2-1 and advanced them into the quarterfinals to face local powerhouse Mississippi School for Math and Science. In the hallway, waiting to compete the Caledonia seniors pore over textbooks and smart-phones trying to cram their craniums with last second facts.
Caledonia lost in the quarterfinals to MSMS and were eliminated. McReynolds said she was proud of her team, which will have another opportunity to take home a trophy next weekend at the Brain Bowl at Ole Miss.
“This is an opportunity for these kids to showcase themselves,” McReynolds said. “It’s the place where they click. When they’re in the halls they might be different types of kids; when they come in here, they fit.”
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