The Lathrop High Academic Decathlon Team put together a strong effort against teachers and staff at Thursday’s Brain Bowl VI.
The victory and the yearlong ownership of the Global Brain Bowl Trophy – established in 2015 – once again went to the teachers, who outlasted their young counterparts through six rounds of multiple-choice questions ranging from art, literature, pop culture, social science, math science and history.
Final score: Teachers 85, Students 79.
“This is the closest it’s ever been,” said LHS Academic Decathlon coach Hillary Pangburn.
She and her husband, Michael Pangburn, who served as the emcee for the Brain Bowl held at the LHS Theater, had the task of putting together an AcaDec team from scratch.
For the past two years, they’ve been sidelined from such activity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Hillary Pangburn, 28 students stepped up and enthusiastically got involved with the local team.
The LHS Team will play host to the upcoming Super Quiz Academic Decathlon in February.
Brain Bowl served as preparation to that local event, according to Michael Pangburn.
Rotating teams of three once again went head-to-head for six rounds, with this year’s theme being American Revolution.
For U.S. History teacher Jerrod Teyshak, the subject was right in his wheel house – he playfully goaded his students before and during Brain Bowl.
“This was a fun event,” he later said. “The kids worked really hard.”
There were certain questions that both teams had no trouble answering, including the top-grossing movie in 2019 – the answer was ‘Avengers: End Game’ – and the winner of the first Super Bowl: The Green Bay Packers.
The teachers knew that Gimli was the dwarf who accompanied Frodo in ‘The Lord of The Rings’ and the New England Patriots won the most playoff games in the NFL.
The students cut the deficit to three late in the fifth round, 63-60, by successfully answering that Daniel Craig made his debut as James Bond in the 2006 film, ‘Casino Royale.’
Michael Pangburn, meanwhile, said Brain Bowl was more about team building.
“We have a lot of new kids – I think they had fun seeing what their teachers were like outside of the classroom,” he added.
