Untitled Document

October 28, 2004

Clue: Reach for Dalhousie
Answer: What was a successful quiz show?

by Kristen Loyst

In the pre-dawn light of 5 a.m., a carload of three grade 12 students and one English teacher hit the road near Yarmouth, making only a single sustaining Tim Hortons stop until they reached Halifax. Minds crammed with facts and figures, bodies humming with caffeine and sugar, they charge through the dark with hopes of a big prize.

	Reach for the coffee: Drumlin Heights students (L to R) Ansel Coutreau, Katie Archibald and Jeff Deviller compete in the preliminary round in the Killam Library Learning Commons. Travelling from the Yarmouth area, they hit the road at 5 a.m. to participate in Reach for Dalhousie.

Travelling from just outside Yarmouth, the Drumlin Heights High School team was one of the groups that came from the far reaches of Nova Scotia to compete in Reach for Dalhousie, a high school quiz tournament based on the former CBC program "Reach for the Top." This unique competition was held on October 22, as part of See Differently, Dalhousie's Open House.

The big prize in question: One year's tuition at Dalhousie for each member of the top team, to be used in 2005-2006 or 2006-2007. Definitely worth the wake up call, according to Ansel Coutreau, Katie Archibald and Jeff Deviller, the Drumlin Heights students who made their best reach for Dalhousie.

Over half of Nova Scotia's high schools entered the first Reach for Dalhousie, with teams of three representing each school. While several schools sent existing "Reach for the Top" teams, many others, like Drumlin Heights, selected their teams based on student interest and qualifying trivia contests.

Drumlin Heights English teacher Nick Doucette explained that in a school with 50 grade 12 students, it was a simple but competitive selection process. "Fifteen exceptional students were interested, so we had a run-off trivia competition, with the entire school watching," he said. "We had five kids tied for the third spot!"

Upon arriving at Dalhousie, the Drumlin Heights group joined the other 47 teams awaiting entry to preliminary round in the Killam Library Learning Commons. As the line of eager students and anxious parents snaked its way to the library atrium, some students used time to relax, while many others pored over textbooks and tested each other with Trivial Pursuit questions.

At the entrance to the Learning Commons, students were greeted by Reach for Dalhousie Coordinator and English professor Melissa Furrow, dressed appropriately in royal blue academic robes.

According to Furrow, the challenge was issued as a way to showcase the diverse subjects that are studied and taught at Dalhousie. Every faculty, as well as the Dalhousie Art Gallery and the university archives, submitted hundreds of trivia questions, from which 250 were chosen. Participants could expect to see questions in every subject, ranging across fields such as physics, biology, Russian history and Canadian art -- and even the occasional reference to Elvis Presley or Harry Potter.

Once inside the Learning Commons, Phil O'Hara, Reach for Dalhousie organizer and Assistant Director (Teaching) with Dalhousie's Academic Computing Services, kicked off the day-long competition with a pledge of scholarly integrity. With hands over hearts, 144 voices echoed him: "I am a scholar, and proud of it. I am committed to knowledge. I came here to win, but I will leave proud, no matter what."

Aside from leading pledges, O'Hara coordinated the use of WebCT for the preliminary round, to give high school students a real taste of academics at Dalhousie. "I wanted to use teaching technology that's not out of the ordinary, that's used every day here," he said.

Northeast Kings Education Centre students Adam Casey, Jessica Roy and Sean Harrison were chatting and laughing as they waited to start the preliminary round, where 48 teams would be whittled down to eight quarter-finalists within half an hour. "We're not nervous, really," said Roy, "we've been preparing mentally, doing practice quizzes online, and we're a well-rounded team." Roy and Harrison brought expertise in science and engineering, while Casey specialized in questions related to the arts.

It was the parents, teachers and team coaches that showed their nerves, observing from the sidelines as each team puzzled through the first round. Mary Hanneman, a guidance counsellor supervising the Northeast Kings trio, watched the team fretfully as they began the round. "I'm here for moral support, but I'm more nervous than they are!" she said. Although the Northeast Kings team didn't advance to the final, Hanneman and the team were excited to take part in other Open House activities.

Following the preliminaries, eight teams moved on to the quarterfinal, this round in the Fireplace lounge of the McCain building. Here, the teams met face to face to answer thirty questions per round. Rather than workstations, the contestants submitted answers using Classroom Performance System, or CPS, an interactive teaching tool being used in several Dalhousie courses. With a laptop computer as the brain of the system, each contestant used a cell phone-sized remote to buzz in their answer. Each contestant's response contributed to their team's total score. From the quarter-final on, audience members also had the chance to match wits with the high school teams through their own personal hand held CPS.

Mike Smit, a graduate student in computer science, was responsible for setting up and monitoring CPS throughout the tournament. He also volunteered two weeks worth of evenings to help review questions, enter them into the quiz system, and develop the presentation format. When he heard about Reach for Dalhousie, Smit knew immediately he wanted to get involved in this collaborative project. "When I find something that captures my interest, I put lots of time into it," he said. "I thought this was a good thing for Dalhousie, the high school students, and the community, so why not get involved?"

True to his computer science background, Smit's favourite question was related to computers: "On April 1, 1990, the Internet Engineering Task Force proposed a communications protocol for what type of communication?" The answer wasn't the more obvious choices of Ethernet or wireless, but the more unorthodox answer carrier pigeon. "The trick was the date - April Fool's Day," says Smit.

With CPS up and running in the packed Fireside Lounge, the eight quarter-final teams worked their brains in preparation, whether in active competition, or just warming up with a remote in the audience.

Grade 12 students Lynsey Poushay, Mark McArthur and Ben MacLeod, representing Riverview High School of Coxheath, Cape Breton, discussed their preparations as they watched the first quarter-final, their excitement growing as they identified correct answers. "This has solidified my faith in Riverview's teachers," said Poushay. "To prepare, we've pretty much just done our work in school, and this shows us that our teachers are doing their job."

Competing against the seemingly omniscient Cobequid Educational Centre's senior Reach for the Top team, the student-organized Riverview group just missed moving on to the next round by nine points. Team members were happy to have the chance to experience Dalhousie, and to make it to the quarter-final.

Hours later, just four teams were remaining. Truro's Cobequid Educational Centre, Halifax's Queen Elizabeth High School, Dartmouth High School and Pugwash District High School came out on top, moving to the McCain lobby for the semifinal rounds.

	Quiz whizzes: Dartmouth High (foreground) squared off against Cobequid Educational Centre in the final round. King's-Dalhousie grad and CBC Radio reporter Jack Julian poses the questions while volunteer Mike Smit keeps the high-tech quiz system running..

At this point, CBC reporter and King's-Dalhousie graduate Jack Julian stepped in as celebrity quizmaster. "I took a course taught by Melissa Furrow, 'Chaucer and his Contemporaries,' at Dalhousie," he said, "but a lot has changed since my days here," gesturing to his surroundings, the new McCain Arts and Social Sciences building.

Although he's a trivia buff and holds a multidisciplinary honours degree in biology, history, arts and Spanish, Julian admitted the Reach for Dalhousie questions were challenging. "On the first run through with these questions, I got a lot wrong," he said, adding that he was very impressed by each school's performance.

Sarah Dykstra, a first year commerce student and one of the volunteers from the Commerce 1501 class, felt the same way about the questions. "Some of these questions are so hard!" she laughed. "But I wish something like this were around for current students, like 'Reach for Next Year'!" Dykstra played along in the audience, but like most other spectators, couldn't keep up with the high-scoring high school teams. In her top performance, she got 48 per cent of 30 questions correct, while most teams averaged two-thirds correct.

	A fulfilling prize: Dartmouth High's Patrick McKelvey accepts the runner-up prize from President Tom Traves. Each member of the runner-up team received a meal plan from Aramark Canada valued at $640.00.

The final round would pair Dartmouth High against Cobequid Educational Centre. Reflecting on the earlier rounds ahead of the final match, Dartmouth High's Ian Watson said, "The questions seem really easy. We're confident." Fellow team members Patrick McKelvey and Kevin Landry added that while questions on literature were hardest, they felt they had an advantage in science and math. "We have our game face on. Let's make this challenging," said Landry.

It seemed the Cobequid team would be a worthy adversary for the laid-back Dartmouth crew, as both are experienced Reach for the Top teams.

With a crowd of spectators gathered in the McCain lobby, including President Tom Traves and Chancellor Richard Goldbloom, the final round got underway at 5 p.m.

As the round progressed, audible groans and frustrated muttering from audience members playing along illustrated the increasing difficulty of each question, while the teams remained calm throughout. In the end, Cobequid prevailed, scoring 69 out of 90 to Dartmouth's 58.

With a modest grin on his face, Cobequid's Joey Fielding explains he was unofficially keeping score, and realized before the end of the round they had won, which helped propel them through the final questions. "This was a great day," he said. "My parents are very happy, and this has been a very positive experience." He plans to attend Dalhousie next year to study sciences.

	Future tigers?: Reach for Dalhousie champions (L to R) Ross Mallov, Joey Fielding and James Mallov hold the certificates entitling them to one year's tuition at Dalhousie.

Twins Ross and James Mallov rounded out the Cobequid team. Ross Mallov admitted he was nervous coming in to the last round, despite training for Reach for the Top twice a week at school. Their older brother, Ian, studies chemistry at Dalhousie, but Ross and James are still deciding which fields they'll choose. "I'm considering my future pretty carefully," said Ross. "Science is an option, but I'm equally interested in many other areas, like history and languages."

Like his teammates, James Mallov is modest about the victory, and credits their success to teacher and coach Nicole Hart. "This was a great thing to have happen," said Mallov. He is considering studying math and physics, but whichever path he chooses, this prize will play a big part in his decision.

With the first Reach for Dalhousie over, many teachers and parents headed home contemplating strategy for future tournaments, while grade 11 contestants dream of winning their way to Dalhousie.

Coordinator Melissa Furrow is looking forward to discussing the future of this successful event. "I'm very pleased with the high school response to Reach for Dalhousie," she said. "And the feedback from participants tells me that it's worth considering another competition - even the teams that didn't move on say the contest was a great chance to visit Halifax and see Dalhousie."