Students earn individual honors in state Academic Decathlon competition

Media release: Academic Decathlon teams from Coosa High, Armuchee High and Pepperell High joined nineteen other teams at Berkmar High School in Gwinnett County last week to vie for the title of Georgia Academic Decathlon State Champion.  The championship competition was held February 22 and 23 and was sponsored by the Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE), The PAGE Foundation, Apple, the Georgia Department of Education and Oglethorpe Power.

The Armuchee High Academic Decathlon team for placed 4th in their division in this year's state competition.  Nine team members from the three local teams also earned individual honors at the event.  Individual students honored were:

AHS. 

Augusta Hosmer - Bronze Medals in Literature and Music, Honors 

Conrad Sharpe - Bronze Medals in Social Science and Interview, Scholastic

Bennett Garland - perfect score and Gold Medal in Interview, Honors 

 

CHS

Layton Hayes - Bronze Medal in Science,Honors  

Nathan Johnson -Silver Medal in Science, Scholastic 

PHS

Brenda Almaras - Bronze Medal Super Quiz, Overall, Silver Medal Super Quiz, Scholastic

Cameron Sharpe - Bronze Medal Super Quiz, Overall, Silver Medal Super Quiz, Scholastic

Blake Rochester - Bronze Medal Super Quiz, Overall, Silver Medal Super Quiz, Scholastic

Bill Crowe - Bronze Medal Social Science,Varsity

The PAGE Georgia Academic Decathlon is a competition in which teams of high-school students (grades 9-12) compete in 10 academic events. Team and individual honors are awarded in the competition. The Academic Decathlon program is unique because each nine-member team is comprised of a variety of academic talent levels in the classroom. Students with the highest academic honors compete in the Honor category, next follows the Scholastic division and then Varsity. Three students from each team participate in the different levels. Students are tested in seven content areas: economics, art. language and literature, mathematics, science, social science and music. In addition, students are awarded points in three communication events: public speaking, personal interview, and written essay. This year's overall curriculum theme is: "Russia."

The competition also features an event called "Super Quiz." This is a game show formatted event where students who are quickest to hit the buzzer and provide the correct answer receive points for the team. This year the competition's format changed for Super Quiz. The event showcased information from the entire curriculum, rather than focusing on a specific topic.