What state has the largest ice maze in America? What movement in the church was initiated by Martin Luther’s posting of 95 Theses on a church door in 1517? What attractive force causes objects to accelerate towards the earth at 9.8 meters per second squared? What Texan city contains NASA’s Mission Control? If any of these questions resonate with you, perhaps you should join one of Westminster’s most under-recognized extracurricular activities: Scholar Bowl.
Scholar Bowl is a competition-level club at Westminster where students are given the opportunity to compete with scholars from other schools by answering trivia-like questions from various academic categories. The club is sponsored by Dr. Laura Berry, an upper school chemistry teacher, and Mr. Jonathan Powers, the middle school gifted teacher, who seek to both improve their club members’ abilities to think on the spot and to retain knowledge.
“Scholar bowl is a lot of fun because students are just learning about information that really interests them and is usually beyond what they’re learning in school. We just have fun talking about bits of history and mythology and answering questions about them, and it’s fun to see students in that different light,” says Mr. Powers.
Furthermore, Scholar Bowl is not just an extracurricular activity, it’s actually an officially recognized MHSAA sport. There are various tournaments that teams can participate in throughout the fall and spring semesters, as well as state and national level competitions if the team finds success in the regular season.
However, Scholar Bowl has much more to offer than the prospects of intellectual growth and national recognition. It’s also a great place to form strong friendships with peers. Students who participate in Scholar Bowl have a chance to connect with their classmates and peers from different grade levels and grow in their knowledge of the world as a community.
“My favorite part of scholar bowl is hanging out with friends,” said Luke Mason, a regular scholar bowl participant, “It’s fun to learn a whole variety of things together with your classmates.”
Although Scholar Bowl may not be well recognized by Westminster’s student body, the club has a lot to offer in terms of learning opportunities, a competitive environment, and chances to form long-lasting friendships. So if you’re interested in getting involved in the upcoming spring season, be sure to drop by Mr. Powers’ classroom or one of the fall matches to get a first hand-experience of the wonderful world of Scholar Bowl.
