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May 14, 2006 Each spring, the Gaston County Schools, The Gaston Gazette, and the Rauch Foundation, Inc., sponsor an academic competition that puts the brightest minds from high schools in Gaston and Lincoln counties to the test. And for each of the last eleven springs, I have been honored to be an integral part of this celebration of interesting, esoteric, and sometimes useless knowledge. This year, ten schools competed in the Gaston County Schools Invitational High Q Tournament. Three of Lincoln County’s five public high schools—Lincolnton, North Lincoln and West Lincoln—joined six public high schools from Gaston County—Bessemer City, Cherryville, Forestview (Gastonia), Highland School of Technology (Gastonia), Hunter Huss (Gastonia), and South Point (Belmont)—and the private school Gaston Christian for the event. Highland School of Technology, which fielded two teams, was the tournament site. Unlike many academic competitions, where winners are determined in head-to-head matches, the Gaston County tournament allows each team to generate its score in isolation. The questions and rules are based on those used in College Bowl competition. Each team plays through three rounds of twenty-five tossup questions. Each tossup question answered correctly earns the team ten points, and a bonus question worth a stated number of points, usually between twenty and thirty points. The team with the highest score at the end of the three rounds wins. Each team is assigned a moderator who reads the questions and acts as the final authority on answers during the rounds. This year, I moderated the rounds for North Lincoln, which is located northeast of the county seat of Lincolnton, near the community of Pumpkin Center. North Lincoln is one of the region’s newest high schools, but the four players on their team—two seniors, one junior and one sophomore--exhibited the skill and confidence of old veterans. They answered some tough questions, but missed a few along the way as well. In the end, North Lincoln wound up with over 1,400 points. In some years, that would have won them the tournament, but the top three schools this year each scored over 1,700 points. This year’s champion, South Point, scored 1,940 points. That is the highest score that I can remember any team scoring in all the years I’ve been associated with the tournament. Second-place Lincolnton, a team I’ve read for during a couple previous High Q events, scored 1,770 points. And Highland’s second team locked up third place with 1,710 points. It thrills me to see young men and women who are willing to sacrifice part of their weekend in the pursuit of academic glory. And as a product of the Gaston County Schools myself, I consider it a privilege to be able to share in that pursuit. I can’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday morning. ------------ About the author: Claxton Graham has written a number of articles for Useless Knowledge. He works as a business systems analyst. Email: scifiwriter8502@email.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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