S TUD E N T P RO GR AMS (Co nt inue d )
LCWM Academic Pentathlon® Team Competes at Nationals
T
he Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial Academic Pentathlon® team placed 16th in the eighth-grade division at the United States Academic Pentathlon® national competition May 17–20 in Bloomington, Minnesota. Teams from across the United States as well as seven teams from China participated. This was LCWM’s first year of competition in Academic Pentathlon® and their first national appearance. The team’s highest scoring student at nationals was Blane Anderson. For the national competition, students took written exams in fine arts, literature, math, science and social science. They also wrote an essay and participated in the Super Quiz™, which is a team event where students answered 10 questions in front of their peers. The theme for the 2016-2017 competition season was “World War II.”
LCWM team at the 2017 USAP Nationals awards banquet (Coach Billy James, Jack Richards, Grace Truebenbach, Sophie Begnaud, Colby Nilson, Lauralai Bartelt, Blane Anderson)
The rapidly-growing Academic Pentathlon® program allows middle school students a chance to start experiencing the benefits of Academic Decathlon® before entering high school. Each student experiences the decathlon challenges of rigorous team and individual competition in five events: literature, mathematics, fine arts, science and social studies. The program strives to foster a greater respect for knowledge, promote wholesome interschool academic competition and further develop student communication skills. Pentathlon teams should consist of a maximum of nine team members and a minimum of six team members in grades 6–8. Each team must consist of at least two “A” students, at least two “B” students and at least two “C or below” students. Teams advance through local, regional and state levels of competition. In many schools, the state competition team is determined in the early spring, thus allowing more than nine students to be involved in each school’s program until the final team is selected. The state champions compete in the national finals. All Pentathlon competitions (except for the national finals) take place online in a virtual testing environment so there is no travel required for teams!
LCWM Pentathlon team after Super Quiz™
Visit www.mnscsc.org/pentathlon for more information.
Aiden Begnaud (LCWM Academic Decathlon Member and Assistant Pentathlon Coach), Billy James (Coach), Carter Richards (LCWM Academic Decathlon Alumnus)
Cooperative Link
17
FALL 2017