Survived the guillotine

The Academic Super Bowl has two divisions: a junior division and a senior division. High school students participate in the senior division, as the junior division is for middle school students. The senior division competition involves five subject-based rounds and an interdisciplinary round, which incorporates more than one subject. The five subjects are English, fine arts, math, science, and social studies.

For each round, three students participate in answering questions, except for the interdisciplinary round, which allows four students. There are twenty-five questions for each round, with tie-breakers in between. In addition, the top seven schools in each discipline are state finalists and will participate in the state competition. Schools are also divided into four classes, which use student population for placement.

This year, the theme for the Academic Super Bowl was the French Revolution. The academic teams participated in the invitational on March 9 at New Palestine High School. Area competition was on April 18 at Greenfield-Central High School.

The fine arts academic team will be advancing to state, which is on May 6 at Purdue University.

“I’m on the fine arts academic team,” said Sydney Godwin, 9. “I’m excited about making it to state and hope that we do well.”

The other academic teams did not have enough points to qualify for state.

“I’m on both the English and the social studies academic teams,” said Kaylie Demaree, 10. “I was slightly disappointed we didn’t make it to state. However, we did take first in the area competition, which meant we beat Greenfield Central and Pendleton Heights, which was an awesome feeling. I’m looking forward to next year and achieving more since I have much more experience with all the work.”

Next year’s Academic Super Bowl theme is World War I.