Ed. Note: Fall Mountain Regional High School won the Windham World Affairs Council's Regional Academic WorldQuest competition tonight, besting Hanover High School and four other area teams. They go to Washington in April to compete against 49 other teams for the national championship. See the story I wrote below for the Eagle Times last week for the names of the team members! Great job team! We're very proud of you! CCB 2-25-2010 Fall Mountain Defends World Affairs Title By Chuck Bingaman Fall Mountain High School’s World Affairs team defends its regional Academic WorldQuest championship and seeks a third straight trip to the national championship in Washington, DC Tuesday evening at World Learning in Brattleboro. Facing off against four-student teams from five other area high schools, including highly respected newcomer, Hanover High School, Fall Mountain’s coach, history and social studies teacher Nick Belsky, said Wednesday that his team knows it will be a challenging evening. “While we have won the last two years, the regional championship scores have been very close each year,” Belsky said. “But our kids, having tasted trips to Washington for the national championship in the past two years, are very motivated to get back there again!” Academic WorldQuest is a program of the World Affairs Councils of America, a national organization of nearly 100 local councils that promote the study and understanding of international affairs. WACA sponsors nearly 50 regional competitions on knowledge of world affairs with local councils, and the local regional is sponsored by the Windham World Affairs Council of Vermont. The regional competition consists of 100 questions in ten rounds of ten questions. Questions are projected on a screen, and the teams have timed periods to select and record their answers. The team with the most correct answers at the end of the ten rounds gets to go to the finals on April 24 in Washington. For more information on WACA and Academic WorldQuest, see www.worldaffairscouncils.org. This years WorldQuest subject categories are Current Events, Great Decisions 2009, Pandemics, Genocide, International Migration Trends, Food Production and Consumption, the World Cup, World Music, The Islands of the Caribbean, and The Sultanate of Oman. Belsky’s Fall Mountain team has 15 members, and the top four are chosen by internal competitions. Belsky says “we’re very lucky this year to have a strong all-senior team with three members that have been to the Washington national tournament. Lindsay Sanchez-Navarro (Walpole) is our captain, and her teammates are Mackenzie Klema (Charlestown), Kirk Grimsley (Charlestown), and Quinn Prentiss-Sturgill (Charlestown).” Fall Mountain’s successful record is hardly luck! Each of the team’s players is primarily in charge of mastering one or more of the contest’s subjects, and Belsky expects them to study relevant WACA print materials, newspapers and web sites related to those subjects. Each student must accumulate notes in his or her field of study and to have Belsky approve them. And each is expected to attend weekly practices before school on Wednesdays. At the competition in Brattleboro and in Washington, Fall Mountain team members rely on the team member in charge of a specific area of study to take the lead in answering questions on his or her subject but also to confer with the other team members before answering. Spectators will see intense discussions within the teams before any answer is given. “As much as we want to win,” says Belsky, “Winning is actually our third goal. First we want the kids to have fun and enjoy both their preparation and the competition. Second, we want the kids to learn as much as they can and to develop a life-long interest in international affairs. So we’re already achieving our first two goals this year. If we could win the regional competition and get on to Washington, that would be icing on the cake.” Belsky also noted that the questions in Washington, while on the same subjects as the regional questions, are much more difficult. And the competition is much more difficult as well. “Many of the teams that reach Washington are from large, elite schools, and many of them are from charter schools whose whole focus is on social studies or related subjects. So it is stiff competition!” “So, at the competitions, I simply tell our team to relax and have fun. Stick with our strategy of conferring with each other, and enjoy the experience. If we win, that’s a bonus!” Tuesday’s competition is free and open to the public at 6:00 p.m. in the dining hall of World Learning on Kipling Road in Brattleboro. See www.worldlearning.org/7098.htm for a map and directions. --30--