High school students from across the state came together at the Hilton Anchorage last week to compete in the 2016 Alaska Academic Decathlon competition, the 10-event, premier national scholastic competition for high school students.
The Alaska state championship went to the IDEA team, home school students from Anchorage, Eagle River, Houston, Palmer, Sutton, Talkeetna and Wasilla. IDEA I students will compete in the U.S. Academic Decathlon in Anchorage, April 28-30 at the Hilton Anchorage. Craig High School took the top prize in the small school division, Valdez High School in the medium school division and IDEA I in the large school division. Gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded to the students and teams for their placement in individual events and total scores.
Students in the 2016 IDEA team were Henrique Miller, Iris Jones, Olivia Siegel, Owen Rohler, Matthew Isada, Keith Averre, Jonathan Raynovic, Rory O'Neill, Isadora Mattfeld and Trinity Johnson. The team was led by coaches Scott Gingrich and Lori Zulliger.
The Academic Decathlon is an opportunity for students to showcase their academic knowledge in an individual and team competition. Each student competed in 10 events including economics, essay, art, interview, language and literature, math, music, science, social science and speech.
This year’s statewide competition included student teams from the Craig City Schools, Hutchison High School, Lathrop High School, Monroe Catholic High School, West Valley High School, Valdez High School, Juneau-Douglas High School, Metlakatla High School, IDEA Correspondence School, Ketchikan Gateway Borough School District, Bering Strait School District and Lower Yukon School District.
The United States Academic Decathlon will be held in Anchorage, April 28-30. Volunteer and sponsorship opportunities for the national event, as well as photos of the winning teams from the Alaska Academic Decathlon, are available at gci.aad.education.
The Alaska Academic Decathlon’s presenting sponsors were GCI (www.gci.com<http://www.gci.com/> ) and School Access (http://www.schoolaccess.net/<http://www.schoolaccess.net/> ).