Following an unexpected call from KDKA-TV asking if the school’s Hometown High Q team could participate in the annual academic competition earlier than planned, Baldwin quickly assembled a team and recorded their segment on Tuesday. 

Junior Timothy Book, junior Jacob Gallagher, and sophomore Hannah Ferkett were the school’s three team members. 

With COVID still being an obstacle, the recording of Hometown High Q has changed. Instead of being in a TV studio with representatives of the opposing schools, each team is being recorded virtually at their own school.

“We went to a back room in the library and went into a Zoom call with the questioner. We were asked questions and we had to respond with our answers. Our team had 380 points in total after four rounds,” Gallagher said. 

The team was formed just two days before the contest, so Baldwin did not have a lot of practice. 

“It was intense. We prepared as much as we could with constant questions and questions that have been on Hometown High Q,” Book said. 

Because of the limited preparation time, the team found some of the questions to be more difficult than others. 

“Our worst area was the author’s background and authors’ names,” Gallagher said. 

But there were easier questions and sections and well. 

“Flash round, which is 45 seconds to answer as many questions correctly as possible, was easy, and we easily got questions correct through the quick time round,” Book said.

The show will be aired Oct. 23, on KDKA Channel 2.