By AMBROSIA SARABIA, Staff Writer, Imperial Valley Press
Thursday, February 2, 2006 3:01 PM PST
Printed courtesy of Imperial Valley Press, El Centro, CA
Local high school students will use their intellect to earn medals during the annual Academic Decathlon, which kicks off Friday.
Students from Central Union, Southwest and Imperial high schools will participate in 10 categories to help collect points for their teams.
The event, put on by the Imperial County Office of Education, tests students in areas ranging from interviewing skills to their knowledge of mathematics.
All participants must have earned a minimum grade-point average of 2.99 to compete. Students will be assigned to either the honor, scholastic or varsity divisions based on their GPAs.
Teams can have a maximum of nine members and there must be three team members to compete in each division.
Community members, superintendents, principals or school counselors will score the students in the two-day contest based on set rules.
For instance, for the speech portion of the event, speech development, appearance and effectiveness, grammar, appropriateness and non-verbal movement will be judged. Students also will be scored on time management as they have one and one-half minutes to give a prepared speech and another minute to speak on a given topic.
After scores have been tallied, a winning team will be announced as well as the top-three individuals with the highest scores in each division and category.
The first portion of the event will include the speech and interview portion, which will be from 8 a.m., to 5 p.m. Friday.
The second portion will include the written and super quiz portion of the competition and will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.
Both days will be ICOE at 1398 Sperber Road.
An awards banquet will be Wednesday at Southwest High School. The winning team will continue to the state competition in March.
For more information contact Denise Cabanilla at 312-6498.
>>Staff Writer Ambrosia Sarabia can be reached at 337-3452 or asarabia@ivpressonline.com