MINNESOTA ACADEMIC DECATHLON

Start a Team—Join Academic Decathlon Today!

Academic Decathlon®, the premier national scholastic competition for high school students, was created to provide opportunities for students to experience the challenges of rigorous team and individual competition. Each student competes in 10 events, which are Economics, Essay, Art, Interview, Language and Literature, Math, Music, Science, Social Science and Speech. Each year the Science or Social Science topic is designated as the Super Quiz™ topic.

The 10-event academic program strives to foster a greater respect for knowledge, to promote wholesome inter-school academic competition and to further develop student communication skills. A unique aspect of Academic Decathlon® is that it is designed to include students from all academic abilities. Each nine-member team consists of three “A”(Honor), three “B”(Scholastic) and three “C or below” (Varsity) students. A new theme of study is established every year with topics that are relevant and challenging. Gold, silver, and bronze medals are awarded for individual events and total scores. Overall individual winners are recognized as well as champion teams. This very broad base of awards allows for major recognition of academic accomplishment. The theme for the 2009–2010 school year is The French Revolution.

In many schools, tryouts for team positions occur in the fall after summer study sessions. Thus, substantially more than nine students can be involved in each school’s program. Teams participate in local, regional and state levels of competition. The state champions compete at the national finals.

For the upcoming Academic Decathlon season, the regional competition will be held solely online. The state competition will be held partially online. Teams will meet for the interview, speech and SuperQuiz portions of the competition, followed by an awards ceremony and banquet. The new format will decrease school and team costs to attend and participate in events.

What Does Academic Decathlon® Do for Students?

• Supports team spirit and encourages a sense of belonging
• Creates an academic vision for the school and community at large
• Promotes the use of higher-level thinking skills to create excitement and interest
• Produces a feeling of success and pride
• Promotes individual accountability while, at the same time, providing the dynamics of group/team interaction
• Stimulates personal student growth and encourages learning while having fun

Academic Decathlon® Provides Academic Rewards:

• Learning beyond the normal curriculum
• Meets national content/curriculum standards
• Preparation for college and life skills
• Socialization with peers and community
• Local, state and national competitions
• Individual and team medals/trophies
• School recognition

Schools may register as early as May of each year. The USAD Study Guide comes out in May and lists the official outline of the subject areas to be studied for the upcoming competition season. Schools may complete their application to register teams and pay their entry fee from May until October in order to field a team in the January regional competition. The entry fee is $350 per team.

For more information on starting an Academic Decathlon® team at your school, please contact Sue Ehlers at sehlers@isd2071.k12.mn.us or Joyce Swenson at jswenson@mnscsc.org.

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