On Friday, April 22nd the 6th grade Quiz Master team gathered in Mr. Pillot’s room. It was the final competition… America Answers.
The competition was 100 questions long. Not only did the Quiz Master Team have to choose the best answer but the team also had to indicate their confidence in their answer. For example, you might call out “Charlie 100%” meaning you were sure that answer C was right. And the team earned more points for being fast: for example, a correct answer in 5 seconds was worth 15 points whereas a correct answer after 30 seconds was worth 10 points. On the 2nd try you could only get 5 points. Each team member had a role during the quiz: to work the computer, to check that data entry was correct, and to call out alternative answers.
After 90 minutes of intense question-and-answer, the competition was done. PFMS’ team had scored 1,311 out of 1,500 points for answering 99 out of 100 questions right. Of the 99 correct, 89 were correct on the first try. The 6th grade Quiz Master team had completed America Answers and now they had nothing left but to wait for the scores of the other 204 schools that had competed. How had PFMS scored against the competition?
A week later the results came in: Park Forest Middle School came second in the nation! (Sadly, we were beaten by 33 points by a school in Georgia.) After such a success came pictures… and of course, pride! Congratulations to PFMS team members. And thanks to our teacher, Mrs. Menard.