Jon took 4 days off this past weekend to geek it up from one side of Missouri to the other.
First he headed to Kansas City with his Physics Club to compete in a Science Knowledge Bowl at Rockhurst University. Although they won all 5 of their rounds, they didn’t place as well as they had hoped (placing determined by percentage method rather than win/loss), placing 32nd out of 90. He did get a trip to the Science Museum and a cool new t-shirt out of the deal so all was not lost.
Then he headed to Jefferson City for a couple of days to compete in the state We The People Hearings.
Jon’s Constitution Team consists of six groups of 4 students each that specialize in different areas of the constitution. Jon’s group specialized in Unit 4: How Have the Protections of the Bill of Rights Been Developed and Expanded?
Teams spend the day discussing historical and current constitutional issues in mock congressional hearings. During each round of the competition, the team has to be ready to respond to a variety of questions having to do with American government.
For example, one set of questions addressed by Jon’s unit this year was: A political scientist argues that we have made all the constitutional changes necessary to expand suffrage. What we need to do now is to foster the civic norms that increase citizen participation. Do you agree or disagree with that argument? Why?
• What are the major constitutional changes that have expanded the right to vote? Are
more needed?
• What are civic norms that increase participation and how can they be encouraged?
Judges for the competition are drawn from lawyers and judges from the state of Missouri and have included the Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice, state and federal appeals court judges and the like in previous years. Jon couldn’t remember who was on the panel this year. I imagine he was focused on remembering other stuff.
Judges rate each unit/team’s responses and select the:
BEST UNIT from each High School Team: Joplin High School Unit IV (Jon’s unit)
BEST UNIT for each focus area: Joplin High School won Best Unit IV overall (Jon’s unit)
BEST TEAM overall: Joplin High School placed 2nd beaten out by Westminster Christian Academy who has won for the past humpteen-gazillion years.
Woot! Go Jon!
…Braggity McBragger signing off…
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