2006 AWQ Announcement
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2006 Academic WorldQuest Flyer
Pledging a Team
Dates of the Competition
What is Academic WorldQuest
How to Play
What Makes Up a Team
Local Competitions
Rounds for 2006
Preparation for the Game
Weekend Program
How to Fund a Team
Why Academic WorldQuest is Important
Questions
Infomational Emails
September 1, 2005
February 2, 2006
March 28, 2006
To pledge a team, please email WACA by December 2 with:
Name of sponsoring council
Contact person with phone, fax, email
Whether council is organizing a local competition
If so, the date of the competition.
We do not need to know names of schools or students on December 2. There is no fee for pledging a team. Our target this year is 60 teams supported by 60 councils Only one team per council please. Academic WorldQuest has tremendous momentum now.
Pledged Councils
as of 1/4/2006
Anchorage
Asheville
Atlanta
Brattleboro
Buffalo
Charlotte
Cinncinati
Colorado Springs
Columbia
Dallas
Dayton
Denver
FPA
Grand Rapids
Greenville
Hampton Roads
Hartford
Hawaii
Houston
Indianapolis
Jacksonville
Juneau
Kansas City
Las Vegas
Louisville
Maine
Mid Hudson Valley
Minneapolis
Montana
Naples
Oregon
Palm Beach
Palm Springs
Peoria
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Providence
Raleigh
Reading
Richmond
San Antonio
Savannah
Springfield, MA
St. Louis
Stamford
Valley Forge
Ventura County
Washington, DC
Wilmington
The national competition weekend is scheduled for March 31 - April 2, 2006.
Academic WorldQuest is a Flagship Program of the world affairs council system. The game was invented by the Charlotte Council and is now widely played at the adult and high school levels in the council system around the country. It is a team game testing competitors' knowledge of world affairs, geography, history, culture, countries, current events, and more.
Councils sent 49 teams to the national competition in April 2005. Over 350 people attended the event. Participants come from high schools that work with our councils. Academic WorldQuest is unique to the world affairs council system and has no direct competitor among K-12 knowledge-based competitions in the US or abroad. We want to make it a major national high school competition.
It has been a huge success in its first three years.
The game is a contest between four-person teams representing a high school, a city, and a council. It is moderated by a prominent figure in the field of international affairs or journalism. Teams compete by answering rounds of questions displayd by PowerPoint.
A full competition is 100 questions, 10 rounds of 10 questions per round. Each team has to come up with a single answer to each question.The team with the highest number of right answers wins. Prizes for the top five teams, plus other kinds of prizes and gifts, are given.
A team consists of four students. They can be freshman, sophomores, juniors, or seniors. Unlike previous years, we will not be able to accept any alternates or substitutes during the competition unless there is an emergency. You may bring additional students as observers, but they will not be able participate in the competition. A maximum number of 2 observers per team may come. Each team has to have one or more chaperones.
Currently 27 councils organize local high school competitions as a way of choosing their team for Washington. We encourage the councils to do this as it broadens participation and builds visibility.
Please note that in 2007, we will require that a local competition is carried out in each participating city and that competition sends its winning team to the national finals.
If you are organizing a local competition, please try to complete it by March 1. Knowing the name of the winning school and students by then will greatly increase their preparedness. The competition is only open to teams sponsored by a council.
Each round will have 10 questions. The 10 rounds for 2006 will be:
CONTEST QUESTIONS
Each round will have 10 questions. There will be 10 rounds. Most questions will have four multiple choice answers. Questions will be projected on a screen by PowerPoint and will be read out by the Moderator. The rounds will not necessarily be in the order below.
Round A: Great Decisions 2005
The Great Decisions 2005 topics are:
- US Intelligence Reform
- Putin's Second Term: A Scorecard for Russia
- Outsourcing Jobs: A US Dilemma
- China: Economic Giant Emerges
- Sudan and the War in Darfur
- US and Global Poverty
- US Challenges in Iraq and the Muslim World
- Freshwater and Foreign Policy: New Challenges.
Questions for this round will be drawn from these Great Decisions articles. We can email you the eight Great Decisions texts upon request.
Later in October, you will be able to access the 8 GD texts through the password-protected section of this website. Passwords are only available to teachers, council staff, and team coaches.
Upon request, we can send you 6 copies of the Great Decisions 2005 book by mail. No more than 6 will be available for one council, city, and team.
Round B. Current Events
This round will consist of questions on world news and world events happening in January, February, March of 2006. To prepare, students should read the world news section of the New York Times or use BBC News on-line.
Round C. People in the News
This round will focus on world leaders and newsmakers involved in events around the time of the competition.
A&E Biography
Searchable index of celebrities and political leaders
Info Please Biographies
Searchable but also has categories
Round D. Countries
This round will be on general knowledge questions about countries: type of government, location, leaders, history, and current events.
State Department Country Background Notes
BBC News Country Profiles
Information about current political events and links to local news outlets
Round E. Flags
Students will be expected to identify flags of countries or international organizations from a PowerPoint screen.
flags from both international organizations and countries
Round F. United Nations
Questions on the United Nations will cover current UN issues, Secretariat, General Assembly, Security Council, and specialized agencies such as UNICEF, WHO, UNHCR, UNESCO, and many others.
Round G. US Neighbors
Questions will focus on Canada and Mexico and be about politics, states or provinces, cities, population, society, famous people, current events, economy, and more.
Wikipedia - Mexico
Contains links to other sites in addition to introductory information
Canada
A comprehensive site by the Canadian government about Canada.
Round H. Famous Landmarks
Students will need to be able to identify photos and answer questions on famous world landmarks, including natural sites, statues, monuments, and buildings.
Wonders of the natural, ancient, medieval, and modern worlds
Round I. Peoples of the World
This round will focus on the culture, language, and religions of peoples across the globe. The questions will be on nationalities and ethnic groups.
Wikipedia list of Ethnic Groups
Summaries vary in content, but do contain links for further information.
Round J. Nobel Prizes
Students will answer questions about Nobel Prizes, winners, and discoveries over the last 100 years.
Nobel Prize Website
Contains list of winners and biographies
None of the above-mentioned websites or sources are intended to be exclusive sources of information for each round!
More information about the rounds and study sources will follow at the beginning of October. There are 200 questions from the 2004 and 2005 competitions on the website.
Everything starts Friday evening, March 31 about 6:00 with a dinner and mixer. More details to follow.
Saturday morning is free time to tour the city, the mall, and the museums.
Saturday lunch is an open-floor discussion with a member of the media, particularly someone from the television news.
Academic WorldQuest is played on Saturday afternoon. The competition is followed by prizes and a pizza dinner.
Saturday night is for Capitol Steps, Washington's favorite political satire group.
Sunday morning will be free.
There is no fee for entering a team.
National sponsorship funds will cover the event costs in Washington including:
Friday evening dinner
Continental style breakfasts
Tours
Main competition
Pizza dinner
Capitol Steps
WorldQuest T-Shirts
Prizes
Facilities
Buses
Local teams will need to cover the costs of getting to and from Washington and the hotel costs in Washington.
Teams used these cost-cutting measures in 2005:
driving rather than flying to Washington
doubling, tripling, or quadrupling up in hotel rooms
having team members stay with friends in DC
getting plane tickets donated
getting parents to cover some costs
getting a grant to cover costs
asking a company or wealthy individual to sponsor the team.
WHY ACADEMIC WORLDQUEST IS IMPORTANT
International education has been falling out of high school curriculums around the country. Yet globalization and interdependence continue to bind the world more closely together each passing day and year.
We are already countering this trend already by making of curriculum units for high schools, organizing of teachers' workshops, sending teachers and students abroad, and playing WorldQuest.
Our goals are to make Academic WorldQuest a major national high school competition, get it on national television, and bring in teams from abroad.
For more information about getting involved in Academic WorldQuest, contact
WACA at 202-833-4557.