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Scholar Quiz at MCHS and MBMS

June 9th, 2014

These past few weeks excitement waas in the air as Scholar Quiz took place! Both the Mira Costa High School study body and the Manhattan Beach Middle School student body, both competed in what we like the call, “The Scholar Quiz.”

Teams of 4 compete in different rounds of Lightning Rounds and Bonus Rounds. During the bonus rounds, you can score up to 20 points. Scholar Quiz’s premise is the same as that of the popular game ‘Jeopardy’. Each team includes four students. The the game consists of two teams of four students each, a Reader, Judge, and a Scorer.

Other schools put on their own Scholar Quiz as well. The idea started at Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach. Mr. Cooper, former PV High Econ teacher and Football coach, and  Barton, PV High teacher, took the idea from Costa. Both teachers attended and taught at Mira Costa High School. Cooper approached Barton, and PV High’s Scholar Quiz began in 2005.

There are three types of questions asked in the Scholar Quiz- Toss Up, Bonus, and Lightning Round questions. A toss up question is one that either team can answer. The first team raising a placard is given the first opportunity to answer. If they answer incorrectly,  the second team has a chance to answer the same question. A toss up question may lead to a Bonus Round. The Bonus Round includes a specific topic with four questions. This round is where teammates work together to come up with the final answer. Only the team that wins the Toss Up can benefit from the Bonus Round. A Lightning Round question is one where ten questions are given in quick succession to the teams, with each team being allowed to answer only once. If a team answers a Lightning Round question incorrectly, they are penalized with a loss of points.

Pictured below are the winners from the MCHS Scholar Quiz

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Pictured below are the winners from the MBMS Scholar Quiz

 

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Scholar Quiz 2013!! June 2nd @ the Manhattan Beach Country Club!

June 4th, 2013

Scholar Quiz 2013 – Blog part 1

We had a great turnout at our first ever Study Hut Foundation Parent/Teacher Scholar Quiz on Sunday June 2nd at the Manhattan Beach Country Club! 

We had 16 teams participate at our event, and the event lasted from 4pm until 8pm. The winning team’s name was WB and the Funky 3. 

The teams were parents and teachers from all the surrounding areas including Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, and Hermosa Beach. Many teachers from the schools participated including: Palos Verdes, West High School, Manhattan Beach Middle School, and Mira Costa High School. 

The questions that were asked ranged from all different subjects, including English, History, Geography, Pop Culture, Math and many more! 

We had a silent auction as well which included restaurant certificates, jewelry, signed memorabilia from the Kings Hockey Team, cupcakes from Susie Cakes, and many more. 

Many local merchants donated silent auction iteams, including but not limited to wine, plants, hair appointments, free tutoring sessions, and music lessons. 

We also had raffle tickets that we sold ($5 for 1 or $20 for 5 tickets). The people who won, received a trip for 2 nights (air fare not included) – and they can pick from over 50 different destinations. 

We served Hors d’œuvres while the event was going on including but not limited too: Quiche and dumplings – and we also had a cash bar outside that overlooked the tennis courts. 

If you would like to donate to the Study Hut Foundation, you can log on to our website at StudyHutFoundation.org and click “Donate” 

As of right now we have 13 students that attend the Study Hut Foundation and next year we are hoping to bump it up to 50 students. We are seeing improvements already in their grades and have changed the way that the students view going to school. 

Thanks to all the teams that participated! Congrats to the winners! Thanks again to everyone that came out and supported our event! We really appreciate it!

Stay tuned for Part 2 and more pictures in the next blog! 

Avoid the Last Minute Summer Reading Cramming

July 29th, 2011

I remember when I was a Mira Costa high School student, summer just starting, tried to forget about school as much as I could.  This behavior is quite common among high school student.  This ultimately would result with most of my friends and I spending the last weeks of summer reading non-stop all of our assigned summer reading books.  As my family usually chooses to go on our family summer vacation during those weeks, my memory of those vacations is marred with memories of: If Beagle Street Could Talk, The Crucible, An Affair to Remember, One Flew Over the Cookoo’s Nest, and the other books our teachers said we needed to read.

Looking back I wished I started reading those books earlier in the summer.  There was no real need to wait so long.  I have heard kids make the excuse that if they start reading early in the summer they won’t remember the details and promptly fail the “rigorous” summer reading tests.  While that line of reasoning seems quite logical, it’s also been accounted for by the Mira Costa English teachers.  The summer reading tests are very simple short multiple choice exams, asking easy basic plot questions; the point is to just make sure that the taker simply had read the book.   Over the first few weeks class time is spent reviewing the summer reading books preparing the students for a more involved analytical essay.   So there is no advantage of cramming all the reading in the last weeks of summer.  Instead, start those books right now.  Read when you can.  Find your-self with a spare hour or two at home with no plans?  Spend some of that time on your summer reading.  By reading a few hours at a time throughout the whole summer you can easily avoid cramming them all at the end.  And in my case, I could have enjoyed my summer vacations much more.