AGazine, May 2020

News and Notes

May is always a transition month for Academic Games – from last year’s variations and themes to the new school year’s variations and themes. But this year, with no national tournament, the transition has some new wrinkles.

Equations and On-Sets

With no opportunity to discuss proposals face to face at Nationals, there is a moratorium on rules changes in these games for 2020-21. However, situations that require clarification may be submitted for discussion by certified judges in the affected divisions. Any modifications to comments and examples in the Equations Tournament Rules/On-Sets Tournament Rules or situations in the Officials Manual will be included in those publications by July 1.

The usual shift from Even-year variations to Odd-year variations takes place. (Whether the school year is Even or Odd is determined by Nationals. So 2020-21 is an Odd year although 2019-20 has certainly been an "odd" year in another sense of the word.)

• Elementary Division: Two-digit Numerals, LCM, GCF, and Number of Factors replace Average, Smallest Prime, Percent, and Decimal Point.
• Middle Division: Number of Factors, Exponent, and Powers of the Base replace Average, Percent, and Decimal Point.
• Junior/Senior Divisions: The variations are the same every year – no even/odd alternation.

Note: The Even-year and Odd-year variations are all listed in the 2019-20 Equations Tournament Rules. So coaches can consult those rules for the wording of the Odd variations and any comments and examples before the 2020-21 Equations Tournament Rules are published July 1.

Also, the April and May online Equations quizzes have already focused on the Odd variations.

Propaganda

The sections for 2020-21 are: B, C, D, and E.

The April and May online Propaganda quizzes covered those sections.

LinguiSHTIK

The 2020-21 Tournament Rules will be available by July 1.

Presidents

For 2020-21, the Presidents groupings are as follows:
El/Mid: Group B #16-33 (16-24 first round, 25-33 second)
Jr/Sr: Group B #16-33 and Group C #28-45
The Themes are: All Divisions – Occupations and Posts; Jr/Sr – Immigration

The April and May online Presidents quizzes focused on those groups and themes.

Theme

The theme for 2020-21 is the 1990s.
The Social Studies committee is currently developing the outline of topics, which will be published by July 1 at agloa.org and will be included in the July AGazine.

Current Events

The year changes to 2020.

Like all AGLOA Outstanding Senior nominees, Susannah Jackson from Grove City PA in the IU4 League was an outstanding player but also an invaluable leader for her team and league. Here are excerpts from her nomination written by her coach, Heather Fry.

Susannah has always been a leader in Academic Games and in our school. She has helped students study and practice in her own age group. The last four years, she has been my right hand at Nationals, helping students practice, keeping schedules straight, assisting younger students, crowd control, walking younger students to games, and helping with paperwork.

Susannah also assisted at our National Practice Day for all of IU4. She helped create the Theme packet for the students to study the last several years and was an invaluable help with our state tournament assisting with registration, setting up tables, and helping with the younger students.

This year, Susannah officially became the assistant Elementary coach, attending tournaments with the students, assisting in practices, and helping with tournament paperwork, judging, and monitoring. All while taking a full load of high school/online classes and college classes and participating in all academic games tournaments herself.

As a coach, I could not do what I do without Susannah. As busy as she is, she always makes time for Academic Games. She will be sorely missed when she graduates. Her commitment to the program is legendary. Parents and students know Susannah and seek her out for help and information. She is well known among the coaches in our league for helping not only Grove City students but all IU4 kids.

Susannah is not the best Academic Games student I have ever had, but she is the most dedicated Academic Games student I have ever had and a true ambassador for the games!

Liana Lau from Northville MI attended Detroit Country Day School. Here are excerpts from her nomination written by Yanli Zhao, President of Northville Academic Games.

Liana started Academic Games when she was a 4th grader at Amerman Elementary School. She has contributed to her team winning over ten state championships and four national championships and was the 2016 national On-Sets individual champion.

Liana is not only an outstanding academic gamer, but also someone who demonstrates enormous passion for Academic Games and its community.

She started an AG club at Detroit Country Day to spread her love for the games. She designed a crossword puzzle for the Northville AG t-shirt which has been in use since 2015. And last year she designed another logo for our new t-shirt! She also made spirit buttons for national tournaments which became a popular collectible to those who attended the past several years.

Liana is also eager to share her passion with younger players. She volunteered at our summer camps the past four years. In the fall of 2018, Northville AG couldn’t secure an adult coach for a group of elementary players, and Liana stepped up! Despite her busy high school schedule as a junior, she dedicated one night each week to teach a group of fifteen 5th and 6th graders. She came prepared every week with a lesson plan and even recruited her brother, who is also an AG player, to help. The fifteen new players would have lost the opportunity to grow if it wasn’t for her; instead they have caught up with players who have been playing for a couple of years because of her commitment. Liana continued her coaching journey in her senior year. She even went to Saturday tournaments with her players and earned respect among players in Northville community.

Liana’s contribution to our AG community is greatly appreciated by coaches and parents.

Down Memory Lane: National Academic Olympics XIX

The newspaper published by the National Academic Games Project following the 1984 Nationals at Rock Eagle, GA, contained this story.

More teams and more players competed in the Elementary Division than any other division in the history of the National Academic Olympics. 73 teams consisting of 365 players participated in this year’s program. In 1978 there were eleven teams and 55 players – six years of hard work has produced impressive results.

Louisiana’s Jefferson All-Stars swept the Sweepstakes with first place wins in LinguiSHTIK, Ameri-Euro Card, On-Sets, Overall Social Studies, and Overall Math. They also had second-place wins in both Overall Language Arts and Mr. President.

The Metairie All-Stars from Jefferson Parish won second place in Sweepstakes, finishing first in Overall Language Arts and third in LinguiSHTIK. They also tied with the Capitalists from Palm Beach for second place in Propaganda/Strange Bedfellows.

Third place in the Sweepstakes went to the South Lyon First Edition from Michigan. They finished in second place in Overall Math and tied for third place in both Equations and On-Sets. Hally Masters of the Game tied them in Equations, and New Orleans Little Woods A team tied with them in On-Sets. Bates Humanoids won third place in Overall Math. They tied for first place with the Longfellow Bandits in Equations and won second place in Wff’N Proof.