Monday, December 7, 2009

Friday Results, 12,4

Team results from Friday's tournament:
Oompa Loompas - 57 points, 4.38 average
Last Good Team Name - 59 points, 4.21 average
The Betterers - 54 points, 4.15 average
Stupid x Stupid - 60 total points, 3.75 average

Overall Standings:
Last Good Team Name - 905 points, 57.06 average
The Betterers - 788 points, 52.53 average
Oompa Loompas - 729 points, 52.00 average
Stupid x Stupid - 738 total points, 50.65 average

Top players:
Sussane 79 points
Shreya 75
Taryn 74
Luke 70
Matthew 68
Shwetha 66
Shalini 66
Ann J. 64
Orion 63
Simon 63

Friday, December 4, 2009

On-Sets Worksheets

On-Sets Worksheets are linked at the left. This packet is smaller than the Equations worksheets, and students can only get a maximum of ten points toward their Friday tournament scores by completing these worksheets. As with the Equations worksheets, students get a point for every page they complete, regardless of the number of correct answers they get. All students can get points for these worksheets, there is no limitation on the 8th graders.

These worksheets are due before we leave for winter break. We will have some time to work on them at practice, so we do encourage students to bring them with them to practice.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

November Tournament Results

Over the weekend we had our third tournament at Bates Academy in Detroit. 39 students competed for Clague against 287 students from other schools in Ann Arbor, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Northville, Jackson and Lincoln. The team finished first in Top Five (100 out of a possible 100) and second in average (15.92 per student, 20 is perfect), about two-tenths of a point out of first place.

Top scorers (18 points or higher) for the team included:
Lorna B.
Allie C.
Luke C.
Caleb G.
Andrew G.
Ann J.
Hokyun K.
Shalini L.
Daniel L.
Kathy P.
Izzy S.
Alan X.
Kevin Y.
Chelsea Y.
Renee Z.

Congratulations to all of the students who participated in the tournament.Our next saturday tournament will be December 12 at Amerman Elementary School in Northville. Please note that this is a change in location from what was announced at the start of the year.

Students need to attend at least three saturday tournaments to be eligible for the State tournament in March.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Equations Worksheets

Equations worksheets are linked on the right. There is a packet for Elementary players (6th graders) and one for Middle players (7th and 8th grade). We will not be printing out the worksheets this year, so it is up to each student to print them out on their own. Worksheets are due before Thanksgiving break. For every page completed, students will get one point added to their Friday tournament score, regardless of the number of problems they get correct. The idea is to reward effort. Students are encourage to bring their worksheet packet with them to all practices, as we will often have times when they can work on them with other students. 6th and 7th grade students can get a maximum of 20 points from the worksheets, while 8th grade students can get points for the worksheets that deal with variations that are new this year (exponent, AB+, number of factors, percent, decimal point)

Monday, October 26, 2009

Saturday Tournament Results

Over the weekend we had our second tournament at Huron High School. 52 students competed for Clague against 250 students from other schools in Ann Arbor, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Jackson and Lincoln. The team finished first in Top Five (100 out of a possible 100) and first in average (16.35 per student, 20 is perfect), a point and a half over second place.

Top scorers (18 points or higher) for the team included: Lorna B., Yuxuan C., Luke C., Andrew G., Simon K., Justin K., Rohan K., Natsume O., Conrad P., Kathy P.,Shwetha R., Orion S., Matthew S., Hannah S., Michael V., Richard W., Topher W., Anthony W., Chelsea Y., Victor Z., Boyu Z., and Sherry Z.

Congratulations to all of the students who participated in the tournament.Our next saturday tournament will be November 21st at Bates Academy in Detroit.

Students need to attend at least three saturday tournaments to be eligible for the State tournament in March.

Friday Tournament results, Oct 23

Please note that the No Names finally have a name. They are now known as the Last Good Team Name.

Team results from Friday's tournament:
The Betterers - 74 points, 4.35 average
Stupid x Stupid - 64 total points, 4.27 average
Last Good Team Name - 65 points, 4.06 average
Oompa Loompa - 45 points, 3.46 average

Overall Standings:
Last Good Team Name - 362 points, 22.42 average
Stupid x Stupid - 287 total points, 19.78 average
The Betterers - 315 points, 19.62 average
Oompa Loompas - 271 points, 19.49 average

Top players:
Topher 31 points
Orion 28
Michael V. 28
Sussane 27
Matthew 26
Luke 26
Renee 26
Kevin 25
Shwetha 25
Ann 25
Anthony 25

Monday, October 12, 2009

Equations Challenge Match

In a challenge match, the students work with their Friday tournament teams for the first half of practice. In second half, all of the students, except the captains, are matched up into games against students from the other teams. The captains are allowed to float around from game to game and help their teammates. At the end of the night, the team with the highest average over all its players wins the match, and every player on that team receives a 6.
Tonight was our Equations Challenge Match. The averages were as follows:

No Names 4.25
Oompa Loompas 4.00
Stupid x Stupid 3.91
The Betterers 3.86

So each member of the No Names who was present received a six added to their Friday tournament score. Oompa Loompa and Stupid x Stupid players all got 4, the Betterers 2.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Friday Results, 10/9

Team results from Friday's tournament:
The Betterers - 72 points, 4.50 average
No Names - 75 points, 4.41 average
Stupid x Stupid - 52 total points, 4.00 average
Oompa Loompa - 41 points, 4.10 average

Overall Standings:
The Betterers - 150 points, 9.70 average
No Names - 150 points, 9.10 average
Oompa Loompas - 116 points, 9.10 average
Stupid x Stupid - 115 total points, 8.50 average

Top players:
Topher 13 points
Dan G. 13
Matthew 12
Orion 12
Kevin 12
Kathy 12
Shwetha 12
Renee 12
Susanne 11
Anthony 11
Theodore 11
Taryn 11

Monday, September 28, 2009

Saturday Tournament Results

Over the weekend we had our first tournament at Clague.
46 students competed for Clague against students from other schools in Ann Arbor, Detroit, and Lincoln.
The team finished first in Top Five (100 out of a possible 100) and second in average (15.02 per student, 20 is perfect, first place was 15.22).
Top scorers (18 points or higher) for the team included: Caleb C., Young L., Shreya M., Richard W., Topher W., Alan X., Lorna B., Deniz G., Shivani J., Shalini L, Anthony W., and Renee Z.
Congratulations to all of the students who participated in the tournament.
Our next saturday tournament will be October 24th at Huron High School.
Students need to attend at least three saturday tournaments to be eligible for the State tournament in March.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Exponents and Captains

Monday's practice included a review of basic exponent rules for sixth graders (worksheet) and a lesson on how to deal with negative and fractional exponents for 7th and 8th graders (worksheet).
It should be noted that students in the Elementary Division (6th grade and below) are not allowed to use negative or fractional roots or exponents.
At the end of practice this year's team captains were announced. Congratulations to 8th graders Lorna, Chelsea, Richard and Andrew. The Friday tournament teams will be revealed on Friday, and the students will pick names for their teams.
Our first tournament is this Saturday at Clague. Students should be there by 8:30.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Welcome to Academic Games, 2009 - 2010

Welcome Back,
I hope everyone had an enjoyable and restful summer vacation.

Academic Games begins for all interested students this Friday after school from 3-5 pm. Our practice schedule will remain the same this year as it was last year, Mondays 7-9 pm, and Fridays after school. Our first Saturday tournament will be a week from Saturday at Clague. A complete schedule is posted to the right, and is included in the Welcome Letter than is also posted on the right.

We have a big addition to the team this year, as Vivek Thanabal will be joining us as a coach. A former AG player at Clague and Huron, Vivek is a freshman in the UofM engineering school. Vivek was quite successful as a player at Clague, having been part of a number of championship teams at the State and National levels. I know he is looking forward to the new challenges that coaching brings.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to email me at ericnelsonag@comcast.net

Look forward to seeing everyone on Friday

Eric

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Online Equations

Hey guys, Maya sent this along and I thought you might be interested in it:

Hi,
For those of you who do not know me, my name is Maya Spivak and I am the high school coach for Ann Arbor Academic Games. This summer I am working on a project with Layman Allen, the creator of Equations and WFF, an online version of Equations. We would like to test the game with middle school students. This is an excellent opportunity to get some practice and competition in over the summer. Over the summer we will be setting up tournaments once or twice a month. The game is played online against other students. A scheduler within the program helps schedule days and times of tournaments. You don't even need to be in Ann Arbor. All you need is a computer with internet access. Please let me know as soon as possible if you would be interested in participating so that we can get some tournaments started. Send me an email (mspivak@umich.edu) with your name and email address, and I will contact you soon with more information.
Thanks,
Maya

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Summer Camp info

What: Academic Games Summer Camp
When: Monday through Friday, 6-8pm or 2-4pm
Where: UofM Dennison Hall, Room 610
Who: All students, entering fourth grade or higher who have a passion for learning
How: Complete this registration form and mail it to:
Academic Games
c/o Eric Nelson
2360 Parkwood
Ann Arbor, Mi., 48104

Schedule:
Session I, June 15th – June 26th

Session II, July 6th - July 17th

Session III, July 20th – July 31st

Session IV, Aug 3rd – Aug 14th

Afternoon (2-4pm) and Evening sessions (6-8pm). Evening Session #4 is for Elementary students only, the rest of the sessions are open to all students.

Feel free to use the comments section to coordinate summer camp schedules with other students.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Everybody had a great breakfast and then went straight for two rounds of Ling at 8 am. Presidents (25-34) started at 10 am. The kids enjoyed their lunch at noon and then went for two rounds of Equations at 1 pm. They had some free time from 3 to 4:30. Some kids just chilled out in their room and some had a fun and challenging football game with a local team in the field behind the hotel. They cooled off by running through the fountains nearby. Dinner was at 5 pm. They are currently in the first two rounds of Onsets.

First day results (for rounds 1 and 2) for Elementary:

Ling -

Section A - Piece of Pi: 45 (3rd place, 9 points behind 1st place);
Section C - PPOP:45 (3rd place, 9 points behind 1st place);

Equations -

Section C - Piece of Pi: 48 (1st place, tie)
Section A - PPOP:53 (2nd place, 3 points behind the 1st);

Presidents (25 -34) - Piece of Pi: 114
PPOP: 188

First day results (for rounds 1 and 2) for Middle:

Ling -

Section A - Namewithlessthan25letters: 50 (2nd place, 10 points behind 1st)
Section B - Arrrrrrriba: 56 (1st place, tie with another Clague team: 1/2y5 Striped Elephante)
Section C - Ummmmmmmmmm: 55 (1st place, 1 point ahead)

Equations -

Section A - Arrrrrriba: 52 (1st place, 3 points ahead)
Section B - Striped Elephante: 47 (3rd place, 4 points back from 1st)
Section D - Ummmmmmm: 51 (1st place, 4 points ahead)
Section E - 25letters: 46 (4th place, 4 points behind from 1st place)

Presidents - Ummmmmm: 220, Striped Elephante: 182, Arrrrrriba: 156,
25letters: 92

We are looking forward to a busy and fun Sunday with 3rd and 4th rounds of Ling and Onsets, Prop (A & C), Ling and Onsets playoffs, and some fun activities at Market Square.

Nationals Day One: Fun Day

The ride down was uneventful. We left from Ann Arbor at 11pm, stop once in the middle of the night, and arrived in the Knoxville area around 7:00 am. After a pleasant breakfast at a delightful local eating establishment, we made our way over to the Zuma Fun Center. While at the Center, we go-karted (is that a verb?), rode bumper boats, played some mini-golf, took some swings in the batting cages, and played some video games (Dance Dance Revolution was a big hit).



After lunch we headed over to the Knoxville Convention Center, unloaded the buses and got our rooms here at the Holiday Inn Select Downtown. We walked over to the Convention Center, and took a brief tour to find the eating and playing areas. After the opening ceremonies, we went back over to the Holiday Inn, got some practicing in, played some football outside in a beautiful open field, and got some rest for the competitions starting in the morning.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Alumni Help II

Hello Everybody,

My name is Priya and you are about to learn one of the only onsets tricks in the book…
REDUCED CHARTS!!!! These chart things are quite useful to figure out which goals are a Challenge Never or not, and are just generally very useful. So here, we go…

The 1st requirement for a reduced chart is that in resources, one color isn’t rolled. For example, you are the goal setter, you rolled the cubes, and you didn’t roll any greens. You can now make a reduced chart.
If we keep going with our previous example, your chart should look like this:




As you can see, our chart does not have green on it but, instead yellow or not yellow. It’s really that simple, but it’s a huge time saver.
This is how I got four sixes at States, no joke. It’s that simple, seriously. Yeah, that’s Onsets for you!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Alumni Help

Several of our Clague AG alumni would like to share some of their tips and tricks with the team for use down at Nationals. First up is Lena J. with some Ling strategies for Middle:

Infinitive Phrase + Gerund Phrase
• Wanting to ___________ is weird.
• He likes wanting to ___________.

Infinitive Phrase + Participial Phrase
• The person wanting to _________ is weird.

Infinitive Clause + Gerund Phrase
• Wanting the person to __________ is weird.
• He like wanting the person to _____________.

Infinitive Clause + Participial Phrase
• The person wanting him to ___________ is weird.

Adjective Phrase + Adverb Phrase
• … the idea of thinking about _________ …

-Note that some of these examples don't use a clause, so they can be used in Simple or Compound sentences

Infinitive as
• Subject – To swim is weird.
• DO – I like to swim.
• Adj. Modifier – He was happy to swim.
• Adv. Modifier – He learned enough to swim.

Progressive without -ing
• He was being eaten.
• He is being eaten.
• He will be being eaten.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Presidents Assignment

On Friday at practice the students were given an assignment in Presidents that is due Friday April 17. Each student drew a president's name out of a hat (actually a game box) and needs to compile a list of facts about that president. The finished product should not be in report format, but instead should just be a listing of facts. The facts should be typed in a word document and emailed to me by the 17th. I will then compile the reports and turn it into a giant "cheat sheet" that students can use to study shortly before and on the way down to nationals. The assignment sheet is here, and the assignments are as follows:

Middle
Acer: Truman (33)
Alan: Reagan (40)
Andrew: Coolidge (30)
Anthony: Clinton (42)
Caleb: GW Bush (43)
Chelsea: T. Roosevelt (26)
Daniel: Kennedy (35)
Edith: Carter (39)
Graham: Taft (27)
Jiaao: Hoover (31)
Keeley: Nixon (37)
Lorna: Eisenhower (34)
Miheer: GHW Bush (41)
Mike: Ford (38)
Patrick: McKinley (25)
Richard: Harding (29)
Renee: Reagan (40)
Sagar: FD Roosevelt (32)
Sherry Z: Johnson (36)
Valerie: Johnson (36)
Ying: Wilson (28)

Elem
Amol: T. Roosevelt (26)
Andrew H: Clinton (42)
Benjamin: Harding (29)
Conrad: Nixon (37)
Deniz: Carter (39)
Luke: Taft (27)
Malay: Kennedy (35)
Orion: Truman (33)
Shalini: FD Roosevelt (32)
Shwetha: GHW Bush (41)
Topher: Coolidge (30)

April AG Schedule

Monday April 6 -- Parents Meeting, 7 pm -- no practice
Thursday April 9, 7-9 pm at Clague cafeteria
Friday April 10 -- No practice
Monday April 13 7-9 pm, Dominick's restaurant (812 Monroe Street), bring $5 for pizza & drinks
Friday April 17 7-9 pm, Dominick's
Monday April 20 7-9 pm at Clague cafeteria
Tuesday April 21 7-9 pm at Clague cafeteria
Wednesday April 22 7-9 pm at Clague cafeteria
Thursday April 23 Leave for Nationals, 11 pm

Monday, March 30, 2009

Scheduling Reminder

Just a quick note to remind everyone that there is no AG practice tonight, March 30. Our next practice will be Friday, when deposits for the national tournament will be due.
Also a reminder that next Monday night will be our parent meeting for the national tournament.

Friday, March 20, 2009

On-Sets State Champs!!

The On-Sets playoffs are complete, and Clague has won another state championship. Two Clague teams competed against a team from Detroit Bates for the title, and the Happy Meals won, finishing with 24 points to 20 for the Bates team, and 16 for the $1 Heart Attacks.

The students are now packing up, preparing for the trip back to Ann Arbor.
Congratulations to all the Clague team for another great State Tournament!!

Presidents Results

The results from yesterday's Presidents competition are in and Clague placed several teams among the top in the state:

$1 Heart Attacks 214 (out of 300) 2nd place, 23 points back
Parfe' 173 (Honorable Mention)
Happy Meals 164 (HM)
McDubblez 154 (HM)
Small Fries 138 (HM)
Mickey D's Sweet T 104
Triple Fives 97

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Linguishtik State Champs!!

The Linguishtik State Playoffs consisted on three teams, the $1 Heart Attacks, a team from Tappan, and a team from Bates. In the regular round, Clague and Tappan tied and Bates finished third. So Clague and Tappan played a one shake, sudden-death shake-off to beak the tie. Clague narrowly won, 26-24 to claim the state title.

In the Equations playoffs, the $1 Heart Attacks beat a Tappan team 29-21 in the semi-finals. In the other semi-finals, the Small Fries lost to a team from Bates 28-22. In the Equations final, teh team from Bates beat the $1 Heart Attacks 26-24 to win the State championship.

On-Sets playoffs will be tommorrow morning, and Presidents results will be posted then as well.

On-Sets Final Results

Divsion I
$1 Heart Attacks 111 (1st)
McDubblez 89 (t-3rd)

Division II
Mickey D's Sweet T 96 (2nd)
Small Fries 93 (3rd)
Triple Fives 76 (6th)

Division III
Happy Meals 108 (1st)
Parfe' 103 (3rd)

Equations Final Results

Division I
$1 Heart Attacks 111 (1st)
Mickey D's Sweet T 91 (4th)

Division II
Happy Meals 107 (2nd)
McDubblez 93 (3rd)

Division III
Parfe' 109 (2nd)
Triple Fives 87 (5th)

Division IV
Small Fries 113 (1st)

Linguishtik Final Results

Division I
$1 Heart Attacks 114 (1st place)
Small Fries 94 (3rd)
Triple Five 82 (5th)

Division II
Parfe' 100 (2nd)
McDubblez 84 (5th)

Division III
Happy Meals 108 (2nd)
Mickey D's Sweet T 86 (3rd)

The $1 Heart Attacks will advance on to the State Championship playoff, to be held this afternoon.

Wff Results, Day One

Regular Wff
Double Cheesburgers 47 (3rd)
Apple Pies 45 (4th)

Basic Wff
Division I
McChickens 39 (4th)

Division II
Side Salads 52 (2nd, 3 points back)

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

1st Day On-Sets Results

Division I
$1 Heart Attacks 60 (1st place, seven points up)
McDubblez 46 (4th place, 3 points back of third)

Division II
Small Fries 50 (2nd place, nine points back)
Mickey D's Sweet T 47 (3rd)
Triple Fives 39 (4th place)

Division III
Happy Meals 56 (1st place, 2 points up)
Parfe' 53 (3rd)

Ling Results

Division I
$1 Heart Attacks 60 (1st, 3 points up)
Small Fries 48 (3rd)
Triple Five 28 (8th)

Division II
Mcdubblez 46 (3rd)
Parfe' 42 (4th)

Divison III
Happy Meals 57 (2nd, 1 point back)
Micky D's Sweet T 39 (4th, 9 points back of third)

Equations Two Round Results

Results from the first two rounds of EQ this afternoon:

Division I
$1 Heart Attacks 59 (1st, up by 8 points)
Mickey D's Sweet T 42 (4th)

Division II
Happy Meals 53 (1st, 3 points)
McDubblez 43 (4th)

Division III
Parfe' 56 (1st, 1 point)
Triple Five 38 (5th)

Division IV
Small Fries 53 (1st, 1 point)

Ling results coming up later.

Middle Propaganda Results

The kids have arrived and completed the first event, Propaganada. The results are as follows:

#1 Heart Attacks 76 (2nd in state, one point back)
Parfe' 75 (3rd)
Micky D's Sweet T 67 (Honorable Mention)
Small Fries 65 (HM)
McDubblez 63 (HM)
Happy Meals 59 (HM)
Triple Five 45

They are playing the first two rounds of Equations now, followed by Linguishtik, with two rounds of On-Sets after dinner. I will post more results as they come in.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Linguishtik State Champs!!

All playoffs are done now, and the kids are eating some pizza and cupcakes at a birthday party for Shalini.

In the On-Sets semi-finals, Fruit Loops played a team from Grand Rapids CA Frost and a team from Detroit Bates. The lost to the CA Frost team (the eventual state champion) 23-19 (Bates got 18).

In the Linguishtik final, they played that same team from Bates, and a team from Detroit Winterhalter. After a 30 minute round, the Fruit Loops and Bates were tied 24-24 with 12 for Winterhalter. Bates and the Fruit Loops went to a sudden death single shake playoff, where we won 4-1 to capture the Linguishtik State Championship.

Tommorrow morning we have Presidents and then will board the bus for home.

Congrats to all of our kids for a great tournament so far!

Equations State Champs!!!

In the Equations semi-finals, The Fruit Loops played a team from Detroit Bates and won 28-22. In the other semi-final, The Rice Krispies played two teams, one from Tappan, and one from Jackson. They finished with 20 points, which place them 2nd, 4 points behind Jackson, but four points ahead of Tappan.

In the State final, the Fruit Loops beat the Jackson team 27-23 to capture the state title in elementary adventurous equations.

On-Sets semifinals are going on now, Linguishtik will follow after that.

On-Sets Final Results

Division II
Rice Krispies 101 (2nd place)

Division III
Lucky Charms 88 (4th place)

Division IV
Fruit Loops 109 (1st place)

Division V
Snap, Crackle, & Pop 89 (3rd place)

Fruit advances to the playoffs, to be held after Equations playoffs.

Equations Final Results

Division I
Snap, Crackle, & Pop 83 (4th place)

Division II
Lucky Charms 81 (tied for 4th)

Division III
Fruit Loops 120 (perfect score, 1st place)

Divsion IV
Rice Krispies 113 (1st place)

The Fruit Loops and Rice Krispies will move on to the playoffs to be held later today.

Linguishtik Final Results

Division I
Fruit Loops 111 (1st in division)
Snap, Crackle, & Pop 90 (3rd place)

Division II
Rice Krispies 101 (2nd in division)

Divsion II
Lucky Charms 67 (7th in division)

The Fruit Loops now advance on to the playoffs, one round to determine the State Champion. That will be played around 4pm today.

The kids are now playing rounds three and four of Equations and will complete On-Sets after lunch.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

On-Sets Rounds 1 & 2

Our last game of the day was On-Sets.

Division II
Rice Krispies 52 (tied for 1st)

Division III
Lucky Charms 43 (5th, four pts behind third)

Division IV
Fruit Loops 53 (2nd, five points behind)

Division V
Snap, Crackle, & Pop 44 (5th, one point behind third)

More results Thursday

Linguishtik Rounds 1 & 2

Results from today's Ling rounds:

Division I
Fruit Loops 51 (1st place, two points ahead)
Snap, Crackle & Pop 38 (5th palce, ten points back of third)

Division II
Rice Krispies 45 (2nd, nine points back)

Division III
Lucky Charms 35 (6th, twelve points back of 3rd)

They have finished On-Sets now and are getting ready for curfew. If we get On-Sets results tonight, we will post them.

Equations Results

The first two rounds are complete. We play two more round tomorrow, top team in each division makes the playoffs, top three teams in each division get trophies and individual medals. A perfect score for two rounds is 60.

Division I
Snap, Crackle, Pop 42 (4th place, 5 pts back of third)

Divsion II
Lucky Charms 38 (4th place, 5 points back of third)

Division III
Fruit Loops 60 (1st place, 5 points ahead)

Division IV
Rice Krispies 53 (2nd place, 1 point back)

Linguishtik and On-Sets results later

Propaganda Results

30 teams of five from througout the state competed in this morning's first event, Propaganda. Clague teams place really well, with two teams finishing 2nd and tied for 3rd in the State:

Rice Krispies 57 (2nd in State, 4 pts back of first)
Fruit Loops 54 (tied for 3rd)
Snap, Crackle, Pop 35
Lucky Charms 34

We will post more results throughout the day as we get them.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Greetings from Grand Rapids

Hello from the Crowne Plaza in Grand Rapids. I am here helping to get the hotel set up for the tournament. We hope everyone gets a good night's sleep tonight, and we will see many of you tomorrow.

Check back here for updates over the next three days.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Important News

Important News from the MLAG:

The dates of the Middle (and HS) State tournament have been changed from March 4-6th to March 18-20. The tournament dates for the 6th graders have not changed.
I will send you an email with full details as I receive them.

Eric

Monday, February 23, 2009

Presidents Clues

No more points to be had, but some things to help you study for States.

Last Week's Clues:
1) Rough Riders
2) "Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick"
3) The Panama Canal
4) Trust Buster

The answer was #26, Theodore Roosevelt.

More clues for you to look up:
1) Kitchen Debate
2) "Checkers" speech
3) Committee to Re-Elect the President (Creep)
4) First man on the moon

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Presidents Clues

Last week's presidents clues:
1) New Deal
2) Stricken by polio at the age of 39
3) Dust Bowl
4) Pearl Harbor

The correct answer was Franklin D. Roosevelt, #32.

The clues for next Friday are listed below. Remember that to earn a point, students only need to bring the presidents's name written or typed on a sheet of paper in. If they explain the clues in any manner, they get two points.

1) Rough Riders
2) "Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick"
3) The Panama Canal
4) Trust Buster

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Friday Tournament Results

We had our next to the last Friday tournament yesterday.

Friday's Tournament:
Get Smart 60 points, 4.29 average
Smurfs 63, 4.20 avg
No Names 46, 4.18 avg
Next Prime Suspects 45, 3.46 avg

Overall:
No Names 1591 points, 98.35 average
Next Prime Suspects 1576, 93.10 avg
Get Smart 1393, 89.69 avg
Smurfs 1615, 89.32 avg

Next Friday is our last Friday tournament of the year (we will continue to practice on Fridays after States), and it's a double tournament, with a round of Presidents, and a couple of rounds of Propaganda. Please note that I am going to post Presidents worksheets to the right soon, and a Propaganda Primer can be found at the MLAG website. Good luck to all and we will see you on Friday.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Presidents Clues

Last week's presidents clues:
1) U.S. invaded Grenada
2) Only president to be a president of a union
3) Fired the nation's air traffic controllers
4) Strategic Defense Initive (SDI)

The correct answer was Ronald Reagan, #40.

The clues for next Friday are listed below. Remember that to earn a point, students only need to bring the presidents's name written or typed on a sheet of paper in. If they explain the clues in any manner, they get two points.

1) New Deal
2) Stricken by polio at the age of 39
3) Dust Bowl
4) Pearl Harbor

Friday and Saturday Tournament Results

Friday's Tournament:

Smurfs 72 points, 4.24 average
Get Smart 61, 4.07 avg
No Names 64, 4.00 avg
Next Prime Suspects 63, 3.94 avg

Overall:
No Names 1536 points, 93.67 average
Next Prime Suspects 1525, 89.30 avg
Get Smart 1330, 85.22 avg
Smurfs 1546, 84.80 avg

Saturday:
27 students attended the tournament at Lincoln High School on Saturday. We finished with a 94 Top 5, and a 16.04 average, both of which were second in the tournament. For the year, we won both the Top 5 and average categories. In top 5 we finished with 484 points, 11 points ahead of second place. In average we had a 15.72, .95 better than our closest challenger.

High scorers at the tournament were:
6th graders: Amol, Malay, Andrew H.
7th + 8th graders: Chelsea, Valerie, Acer, Miheer, Jiaao, & Daniel

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Presidents Clues

Our first attempt at online presidents study was moderately successful, with about a dozen students getting points for discovering the identity of the president that matched the following clues:
1)Brown vs Board of Education
2)Polio vaccine discovered
3)Sputnik launched
4)1st president to run a TV commercial

The correct answer was Dwight Eisenhower, #34. For more information about Ike, I refer you to the Wikipedia article on him. I've also linked other articles dealing with the clues above.

The clues for Monday evening's practice are listed below. I will post more clues later in the week for Friday, so there are multiple opportunities to earn points. Reember that to earn a point, students only need to bring the presidents's name written or typed on a sheet of paper in. If they explain the clues in any manner, they get two points.

Clues for Monday:
1) U.S. invaded Grenada
2) Only president to be a president of a union
3) Fired the nation's air traffic controllers
4) Strategic Defense Initive (SDI)

Good luck!

Friday Results, 1/30

We played a mix of games at Friday's tournament, with tables split evenly amongst Ling, Equations and On-Sets. The overall results do not include points earned from the Linguishtik worksheets, which will be added later this weekend. The do include the one or two point bonuses earned from last week's President's clues.

Results:
Next Prime Suspects 76 points, 4.47 average
No Names 71, 4.44 avg
Smurfs 58, 3.87 avg
Get Smart 51, 3.64 avg

Overall Standings:
No Names 1395, 85.88 average
Next Prime Suspects 1342, 78.70 avg
Get Smart 1289, 76.40 avg
Smurfs 1193, 70.03 avg

Top Individuals:
Shwetha 114
Renee 110
Luke 105
Lorna 102
Chelsea 102
Andrew G. 102
Alan 101
Topher 101
Wendy 96
Jiaao 95
Michael 95

Friday, January 23, 2009

Presidents Clues

A quick reminder that Ling packets, Presidents questions and Prop Examples are due next Friday.

As I mentioned at practice, after each practice I will post some presidents clues. If you find out the president, type it up, and bring it to the next practice, I'll add a point to your next friday tournament. Explain the clues a little, and you'll get two points. So for example, if the clue was "The Louisiana Purchase", you'd get one point for knowing Jefferson was the president when we purchased it, and you get an additional point for knowing who we purchased it from (France), how much we paid ($15 million dollars, or less than 3 cents per acre), or what land it encompassed (part or all of 15 different states).

So the clues for next Friday, January 30:

1)Brown vs Board of Education
2)Polio vaccine discovered
3)Sputnik launched
4)1st president to run a TV commercial

Good luck, see you on Friday

Friday Results, 1/23

We played a mix of games at Friday's tournament, with tables split evenly amongst Ling, Equations and On-Sets

Team Results:
No Names 55 points, 4.23 average
Next Prime Suspects 67, 4.19 avg
Smurfs 64, 3.76 avg
Get Smart 42, 3.50 avg

Overall Standings:
No Names 1316, 81.00 average
Next Prime Suspects 1260, 73.89 avg
Get Smart 1138, 72.51 avg
Smurfs 1138, 70.03 avg

Top Ten Individuals:
Shwetha 108
Renee 103
Luke 99
Lorna 98
Alan 96
Chelsea 96
Wendy 96
Topher 95
Andrew G. 94
Jiaao 91

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Friday and Saturday Tournament Results

Friday's Ling Tournament:
Get Smart 65, 4.06 average
Next Prime Suspects 61, 4.36 avg
Smurfs 60, 4.00 avg
No Names 58, 4.14 avg

Overall:
No Names 1261, 76.77 average
Next Prime Suspects 1193, 69.42 avg
Get Smart 1096, 69.01 avg
Smurfs 1156, 66.39 avg

Saturday:
24 students braved the snow to attend the tournament at the inappropriately named Winterhalter school. We finished with a 91 Top 5, which placed us second, and a 15.33 average, which was best in the tournament. For the year, we lead top 5 by 13 points, and average by .84 points.
High scorers at the tournament were:
Topher, Andrew, Deniz, Jiaao, Graham, & Harith.

New postings:
I have posted the Elem and Middle Ling packet, along with the answer key for the On-Sets worksheets. The Ling packet will be due by January 30.