Take the Academic Challenge
Archived article from Nov 6, 1998
By Ruby Keise
President Francis L. Lawrence issued a challenge to more than 60 high schools to register and participate in the Rutgers Academic Challenge, a major statewide competition for high-school students launched Nov. 3 at an event at the Rutgers Student Center. Student advisers, high-school media and prospective competitors from across the state visited the New Brunswick campus to attend the launch and learn firsthand about the new competition.
Coordinated by Rutgers' Office of Television and Radio (OTR), Academic Challenge is a series of tournaments promoting academic excellence and teamwork among high-school students. During the past year, members of the Rutgers and K-12 communities worked together to design a competition based on the state's Core Curriculum Content Standards. The competition will culminate in three regional finals and a championship tournament, which will be broadcast on New Jersey Network television.
"Academic Challenge is one more way in which Rutgers can accomplish its mission to provide quality educational opportunities for all of New Jersey's residents, a key initiative out-lined in the university's strategic plan," said President Francis L. Lawrence, who will present the President's Cup to the championship team next spring. "The challenge allows us to add a new dimension to the continued outreach by Rutgers faculty who, through research and service, are having an enormous impact on K-12 education in the state.
"Even more important is the opportunity the challenge provides to identify outstanding students, bring them to our campuses and, with the help of admissions, show them that Rutgers offers an excellent education," Lawrence said.
Academic Challenge differs from the College Bowl-type shows popular in the 1960s, explained Linda Bassett, director of programming at OTR. Rather than simply answer rapid-fire questions, contestants will participate in a variety of activities that require teamwork, problem-solving skills and creativity. These include "History in a Box," "Mystery Desk," "Piles of Tiles," "Science Outside the Box," "Three-Way Quiz" and "What's Your Point?"
"Academic Challenge is more than just a recall of facts or a test of trivia," Bassett noted. "Using the state's curriculum standards as a guide, content advisers from K-12 school districts in almost every county have worked diligently with us to design a competition that is fun, interesting and challenging to high-school students."
During the Nov. 3 event, students and their advisers moved from one display to another, listening to presenters outline components of the challenge and participating in a variety of activities. Holli Aaronson, a junior from Rancocas Valley Regional High School and one of two students already identified to represent her school in the challenge competition, tried out the "Science Outside the Box" activity.
With a single sheet of paper, students had to create a paper plane that would fly for a minimum of two seconds with a ping-pong ball attached. "It wasn't just a matter of asking us questions about things we didn't care about," said Aaronson, whose plane flew for 2.5 seconds, giving her the highest score of all who tried the activity. "The paper plane, for example: Everybody has made one at some point, but we had to think about it and elaborate. We came not knowing what to expect, but this was a lot of fun," she said.
"A contest like this really reveals what students know," said Frank Heffernan, a science teacher at Chatham High School, who helped design the science component. "It is by far the best way to evaluate how well students understand what's going on. This is cooperative learning at its best because in order to come up with solutions they're going to have to be part of a team and work together."
The goal is to emphasize creative thinking, added James Giarelli, professor of education at the Graduate School of Education and chair of the challenge content advisers committee on the humanities. "Every person -- in the workplace, as a family member and as a citizen -- requires the skills being tested in the challenge tournaments: the ability to think critically, solve problems and communicate effectively."
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