The Cook County varsity Knowledge Bowl team shows off their school spirit during Homecoming Week by donning pajamas and ugly sweaters—and by claiming first place in the Knowledge Bowl meet at Mountain Iron on Tuesday, Oct. 11. (L-R, front) Erica Weisberg, Madison Roy, Julia Larsen, Sara Carman. (L-R, back) Will Seaton, Morgan Weyrens, Sean MacDonell, Pete Summers.
Cook County is once again competing in Knowledge Bowl, sending varsity and junior varsity teams to Mountain Iron to compete against students from around the state. On Tuesday, October 11, the Cook County News-Herald caught up with the varsity team during a practice session. Despite the fact that it was Homecoming “Spirit Week” and team members were wearing the requisite ugly sweaters for the day, the students were serious as they fielded questions from history teacher and Knowledge Bowl Coach Dorie Carlson.
Carlson was happy to share the results of the first Knowledge Bowl meet on Wednesday, Oct. 5. Based on the results of written tests, the Cook County team went into the meet seeded No. 2. Students were glad to enter the oral round competition. “The written test is no fun,” said Sean MacDonell.
The three top-rated teams face off and when the day’s competition was over, Cook County was No. 1, edging out Edison North Star and Woodland Schools, with a total of 101 points, well ahead of the second place score of 95.
On Wednesday, Oct. 12, the junior varsity Knowledge Bowl team traveled to Mountain Iron for competition and tied for second place with Hermantown, finishing just behind Virginia. (L-R) Joey Chmelik, Audrey Summers, Libby Zafft, Danielle Hansen, Nate Carlson, Lars Scannell.
Watching the Knowledge Bowl practice session is interesting, as students hit the thin green strip that is the buzzer, often before acting-emcee Carlson is finished with the question. Often students know the answer by just the introduction to the question. But not always, said Will Seaton. “Once in a while it’s a trick question,” said Seaton.
As students hit the answer strip and shout out answers, Carlson reminds them, “Talk to your team.”
The teams have 15 seconds to discuss their answer. If they are wrong, the other team gets 15 seconds to come up with a correct answer to claim the points. Does it help to listen to another team? No, said Seaton, “Listening to another team is a bad idea!”
They learn from each other though, drilling with questions from previous years on the long drive to Mountain Iron.
The junior varsity team makes the same trip on a different day, studying the same questions. They also fared well in their first meet. At the competition on Wednesday, the Cook County JV team earned 2nd place at Mountain Iron under guidance of Coach April Wahlstrom.
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