K-State chapter of Mortar Board senior honor society organizing academic decathlon for high school students

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Sources: Carla Jones, 785-532-6432, cjones@k-state.edu;
and Heather Reed, 785-532-6432, hreed@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Erica Martens, emartens@k-state.edu

Friday, January 12, 2007

K-STATE CHAPTER OF MORTAR BOARD SENIOR HONOR SOCIETY ORGANIZING ACADEMIC DECATHLON FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

MANHATTAN -- The Kansas Academic Decathlon will be Friday, Jan. 26, and Saturday, Jan. 27, at Kansas State University.

K-State's chapter of Mortar Board, the national senior honor society, will be the host of the event at the K-State Student Union.

Student teams from 15 high schools across the state and one team from Missouri will compete in the decathlon during the weekend, testing their intellectual strength. Each team has between nine to 12 members who are selected from three different academic levels: three honors students with grade point averages of 3.75 to 4.0; three scholastic students with grade point averages of 3.0 to 3.74; and three varsity students with grade point averages of 2.0 to 2.99.

Teams are tested in art, economics, language and literature, mathematics, music and social sciences. The students also write essays, participate in interviews and deliver prepared speeches. The decathlon also features a super quiz, in which teams earn points for correctly answering questions in a head-to-head competition. The subjects covered in the decathlon are part of a study guide used by teams from across the nation.

Points earned by individual team members and the team score from the super quiz determine the winning team. The winners will go on to represent Kansas at the 2007 U.S. Academic Decathlon in Oahu, Hawaii.

High schools scheduled to compete at this year's Kansas Academic Decathlon include:

Bonner Springs High School.

From Greater Kansas City: Bishop Ward, Kansas City, Kan.; University Academy Charter School, Kansas City, Mo.; Shawnee Mission North, Mission; Olathe East and Olathe Northwest; Blue Valley North, Blue Valley Northwest, Blue Valley West, Shawnee Mission South and Shawnee Mission West, all of Overland Park; Shawnee Mission East, Prairie Village; and Shawnee Mission Northwest, Shawnee.

Independence and Washburn Rural, Topeka.

The state director is Diane Hansen from the Shawnee Mission school district. The K-State meet directors are Carla Jones, assistant vice president for student life, and Heather Reed, assistant dean of student life. Caroline Chapman, senior in anthropology, Manhattan, is the academic decathlon chair for Mortar Board.