BY SPENCER WITT
Staff Writer
Most people know Barack Obama is the president of the United States. But most people can’t name all of the current Supreme Court justices.
Middle and grade school students who participated in the America Bowl at Baldwin in late February came across that and other challenging questions based on American history, geography, and politics.
The event consisted of more than 55 teams from 30 area middle and elementary schools in groups of four. Teams earned their points from group answers along with individual answers.
The categories from the competition included Pittsburgh history, U.S. states, U.S. presidents, famous people, ”on the map,” “things to see,” and government.
The middle school competition was won by Canon McMillan. West Jefferson Hills won the elementary division.
The competition was run through the gifted program at the high school with the help of Baldwin students, who admitted they were surprised by how well the younger kids knew the answers.
“The kids were very impressive. It was surprising how much they knew,” senior Evan Isaacs said.
Isaacs helped with the competition for the first time this year and was impressed with the variety of questions being asked.
Harrison Middle School gifted coordinator Daniel Shaner worked alongside gifted coordinators Debbie Reynolds and Jared Hoffman to organize the academic event.
The idea for the event came when the gifted coordinators were helping with a science bowl and realized there was no history competition, so they decided to create one themselves.
“The kids seem to really enjoy themselves, and that’s what really matters,” Shaner said.
Three Harrison middle school teams competed in the middle school division, each of them having to take a test based on last year’s questions to compete.
“It’s a fun competition. I like competing against friends and other schools,” Harrison eighth grader Joseph Shields said.
The competition has grown every year since it was introduced, and there are no plans to stop, Shaner said.
“As long as the students enjoy it, there should be no problem continuing it,” Shaner said.
