MS Knowledge Bowl Students Prepare for Upcoming Tournament

Caption: Middle School students focus intently on the buzzier as the coach, Mr. Lima, begins to read the question. One way to practice is knowing when to press the buzzer while a question is being read. [by Dr. Cristina Meier]

by Annabelle Harper

The Middle School students who attend weekly Knowledge Bowl practices, are preparing for their upcoming tournament on February 25-27 at EARJ in Rio de Janeiro. The practices for the month of November have been critical, because the points earned during these meetings determine which 5-6 students will attend the tournament taking place in the second semester of the school year.

This year’s Middle School Knowledge Bowl students are putting forth their best effort into making the team that will travel to Rio next semester. Each participant is hoping that they can help the team succeed at the tournament.

Mr. Gui Lima, the Knowledge Bowl coach, is preparing to submit his final list of names at the beginning of next semester. Still, he is not ready to make that list public. At this point, there is one student who is guaranteed to be on the team already. This is the team captain, who is grade eight student Theodoro Ribeiro, and has already gained experience by attending the Middle School Knowledge Bowl tournament last year.

This years’ middle school participants have a lot more sixth and seventh graders who are passionate about participating in “working out” their cranial muscles in this way. This will provide more potential for growth for students who can be involved on the middle school level for a longer period of time.

Even with the lack of experienced players among the middle school knowledge bowl players, participant Daniel Peloso, who is a current 7th grade student, is optimistic about what the team can accomplish this year.

“This year I think we’re pretty good,” said Peloso.“but we also have a little bit of a disadvantage because they don’t have as many eighth graders as the other schools.”

Last year, there were a lot more eighth grade level students participating from other schools. This can also seem confusing with the participating IB program schools, whose older middle school students are already in “Year 9” while competing at the Middle School Knowledge Bowl level.

This is because some of the other Brazilian International schools follow the Interbaccalaureate program of the U.K. which designates students in one grade higher than the American curriculum. Middle school students are in Year 7-9 (which is equivalent to grades 6-8).

This still leaves the PACA team at a disadvantage, because most of last year’s middle school team were in eighth grade and they have moved into the high school level this year. This year, PACA’s middle school participants have a lot more students attending practices from sixth and seventh grades, which will ensure that experience and strength can continue to build for another year or two within the middle school team level.

Nevertheless, having even one experienced player attending the tournament will be an advantage. Ribeiro also has his hopes up on this point.

Last year, the team was still very well prepared and with more time to train this year’s team, there are even higher chances of success. They started off the school year with just one practice per week, which was Thursdays during first sports practice. However, once the High School Knowledge Bowl was finished and the Nationals Tournaments were finished, the number of practices for middle school has gone up to two or even three practices a week.

With the longer amount of time and an experienced team member, Guilhereme Lima is feeling confident that the amount of practice time the students have been using is helping them prepare for the event coming up soon.

“We are as prepared as we can be,” said Lima. “Because of the practice we have had our players know the rules and how to play the game.”

Besides playing the game, some of the team is getting nervous about specific categories in the game. Peloso expressed some concern for the lack of players skilled in math. He mentioned that the group as a whole struggles with the math questions.

“We don’t have a really good math person,” said Peloso. “That might be a disadvantage.”

Looking past the disadvantages and setbacks, there is one thing everyone can agree on. Attending Knowledge Bowl weekly practices every week can also be really fun. One of the middle school participants with the highest scoring levels in the group is seventh grade student, Seth Meier. He enjoys impressing his classmates and coach with the number of questions he can answer quickly.

“I enjoy answering the questions before the moderator finishes,” said Meier. “I like seeing the moderator surprised.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYdvA-CZyJY

The students enjoy participating in the Knowledge Bowl practices and are excited to see who will be chosen to go to the tournament that will be held in Rio de Janeiro.

The students who will be participating in the MS Knowledge Bowl are still undecided but Mr. Lima believes that he will be able to make his final choices by early February.