The Academic Decathlon is beginning its fifth year!  I can't believe the time has gone so quickly. The 2010-2011 team started a new tradition by also qualifying for State as had the previous year. However, for the first time ever, the team qualified for State based on point totals. The team was one of the top 40 regional scoring schools in the state. They did a fantastic job in both Regional and State competitions. congratulations on a successful year! This year's theme is "The Age of Empire" with a focus on European Imperialism. The science topic this year is Physics and math covers general mathematics, geometry and differential calculus (and yes, it is as scary as it sounds!) The music selection this year is "The Music of the Romantic Era". These topics should be exciting for all involved.

The purpose of this club is to prepare and send a team of 12 students to compete in the regional, state and hopefully national competitions of the United States Academic Decathlon.  This year we will continue to offer the Academic Decathlon Club Class.  The advantage is that the team will meet during the normal academic day thereby eliminating conflicts with other extracurricular activities.  As a club class the students will also continue to earn academic credit for their participation.  The season runs during the 1st and 2nd trimesters.  The head coach is Dr. M. Quigley and the assistant coach is Mary Lambert.  The role of the coaches is to help the team prepare for the competition.  The team also enlists help from other JMPS staff members.    In addition to the club class time, later in the season there will be meetings after school on Thursdays  until 4:00 pm  as well as occasional Saturday seminars. 

The team members consist of 3 “A” students, 3 “B” students and 3 “C” students as well as one alternate for each of the three grade groups. The students compete as individuals, winning individual gold, silver and bronze medals and their scores count toward an overall team score.  Winning teams move on to State and National competitions.  Each student will compete in the following 10 academic events: art, economics, essay, interview, language and literature, mathematics, music, science, social science and speech.  The final event of the day is the Super Quiz in which the entire team competes in a game-show type setting in front of an audience of family and friends. 

More information is available at the United States Academic Decathlon web site. http://usad.org/About/Overview.asp 

The region 1 competition will be held in St. Johns Arizona on February 3rd and 4th, 2012.  We are looking forward to a great year building on the individual and team successes over the last four years.   Keep an eye on announcements regarding upcoming events and meetings.

Announcements:

Payson Scrimmage: November 19th at Payson High School from 8:00-4:30.  Students must meet at JMPS on Saturday morning at 6:15 and will transported by Dr. Quigley and Ms. Lambert. .

Advisor: Dr. Matt Quigley  

The 2007-2008  Academic Decathlon Team

 The 2008-2009 Academic Decathlon Team

The 2009-2010 Academic Decathlon Team (Snow!) Going to State!!