MN Academic Decathlon

Mankato West High School Wins First Place at MN Academic Decathlon—Earns Trip to Nationals in Chicago

On February 28 and March 1, 2005 approximately 100 students from 11 high school teams competed in the State Academic Decathlon Competition. Participating high schools included Avalon School, Hermantown, Lake Crystal-Wellcome-Memorial, Lakeville, MACCRAY, Mankato East, Mankato West, Proctor, Red Rock Central, St. Peter, and Windom. The participating schools are divided into two divisions, small and large schools, with the overall high scoring team advancing to Nationals in Chicago, Illinois, April 13 through April 16.

In the large school division Mankato West High School was the first place winner with a score of 32,307, second place went to St. Peter with a score of 31,078 and the third place team was Hermantown with a score of 29,423. In the small school division Lake Crystal/Wellcome Memorial High School was the first place winner with a score of 28,309, second place went to Windom High School with a score of 25,816 and the third place team was Red Rock Central with a score of 24,816. For a complete listing of team and individual place winners, please visit the Minnesota Academic Decathlon website: www.mnscsc.org/student_outreach/mnad/ad.html and click on “state scores”.

Academic Decathlon™ was created to provide opportunities for students to experience the challenges of rigorous team and individual academic competition. Each student competes in ten 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 used for the Super Quiz topic.

A unique aspect of Academic Decathlon is that it is designed to include students from all academic ability and achievement levels. Each nine-member team consists of three “A” (Honors division), three “B” (Scholastic division), and three “C or below” (Varsity division) students. Each team member competes in all of the 10 events against other students in their individual divisions, however, team scores are calculated using the top two individual scores from each division to arrive at an overall team score. Gold, silver, and bronze medals are awarded for individual events and total scores. Overall individual winners are recognized as well as champion teams.

Interested in learning more about the Minnesota Academic Decathlon, or want to learn how to become a sponsor or volunteer? Please visit www.mnscsc.org or call: Wanda Sommers Nielsen at 507-389-1076. The Minnesota Academic Decathlon is sponsored in part by an academic grant from Midwest Wireless.