ACADEMIC COMPETITION 2011-12

We are pleased to announce the details of Academic Competition for 2011-12. This is the 5^th year of these competitions being organized by the HTCC, Madrid Hindu Temple, Iowa. In the previous 4 years the participation from the Ames-Des Moines Indian community was overwhelming. Here are the details with dates of the events for this year.

·         Fee (all money goes towards organizing the event and to temple donation):

·         Kids registered for Bala-Vihar & SAT Classes – $5 per competition per kid

·         All other kids – $10 per competition per kid.

 

Here are the 6 competitions with date and time:

 

1) Nov 13^th, 2011 - Speech (Extempore) - 1pm to 4pm (1 hr preparation before the competition)

2) Nov 20^th, 2011 - Essay (Extempore) - 1pm to 3pm

3) Dec 4^th, 2011 - Spelling Bee (partial list of words provided) - 1pm to 4pm

4) Dec 11^th, 2011 - Geography Bee (partial list of questions provided) - 1pm to 3pm

5) Dec 18^th, 2011 - Math Bee - 1pm to 3pm

6) Jan 8^th, 2012 - I Got Talent - 1pm to 5pm

Age Groups for the kids:

·         For Speech, Essay, Spelling Bee and I Got Talent, the following 3 age groups are defined.

 

·         Sub-Junior – Kids in 2^nd grade or lower

·         Junior – Kids in 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th grades

·         Senior – Kids in 6^th grade and up

 

·         For Math Bee, the following 4 age groups are defined.

 

·         Sub-Junior – Kids in 2^nd grade or lower

·         Junior – Kids in 3^rd and 4^th grades

·         Senior1 – Kids in 5^th and 6^th grades

·         Senior2 – Kids in 7^th grade and up

 

·         For Geography Bee, the following 2 age groups are defined.

 

·         Senior1 – Kids in 5^th and 6^th grades

·         Senior2 – Kids in 7^th grade and up

 

GENERAL RULES:

1) All competitions are open to qualified participants per the age group defined above.

2) All the competitions will be held at the Madrid Temple.

3) First, Second and Third prizes will be given in each age group of each competition. All participants will get a medal.

4) All competitions will be judged by independent panel of judges and their decision will be final and irrefutable.

5) Irrespective of winning or losing, the kids are encouraged to participate and learn to handle stage fear and competitive pressure.

6) The medals and trophies will be distributed in an Award Ceremony on Saturday January 28th 2012. The location is Grimes Dallas Center High School Auditorium and chief guest will be Prof. Prem Paul, Provost at University of Nebraska.

 

SPEECH COMPETITION RULES:

 

 

The Speech Competition is extempore. Here are the rules.

 

·         There will be 3 age groups as defined above.

·         The topic for each age group will be given at 12 noon (1 hr before the competition).

·         Kids are required to prepare their speech during this time and may use one flash card provided by us to organize their thoughts without any help from anyone.

·         Kids may be disqualified if they seek or are provided any outside help.

·         The competition will start at 1 pm. The kids may use the flash card during their speech.

·         All participants will have 5 minutes to speak.

·         There will be a common topic for each age group.

 

Here are some of the feedbacks from the last year’s competition:

 

"I just wanted to let you know what my daughter Aneisha did at the Speech contest today.

She had prepared the topic "Three little pigs" for the speech contest today. Apparently another child before her had spoken about the same topic, so she switched her topic on the spot to "Arthur". I could not be there today as I had to work. I looked at her paper that she had written today, and it was indeed about "Three little pigs". I could not believe that she had the courage to switch like that at the very last minute.

I am writing this to you because I want to thank you for giving our children the opportunity to find their strengths, so that they can continue to build on their confidence. Public speaking and presentation is challenging, and thanks for letting our children start early. Much appreciation, Sharmini Suriar"

"Kids spoke from heart rather than by heart - Prithvi's Dad"

"Thank you for easing the tension of preparation on the parents due to the extempore format - Swathi's Dad"

SPELLING BEE COMPETITION RULES:

 

·         There will be 3 age groups for this competition as defined above

·         The format of this competition will be in line with State/National Spelling Bee Competitions.

·         A sample spelling list for Sub-Junior, Junior and Senior participants will be sent out. On exhausting this sample list, the coordinator will use dictionary for further conducting the rounds.

 

ESSAY COMPETITION RULES:

 

The Essay Competition is extempore. Here are the rules.

 

·         There will be 3 age groups for this competition as defined above.

·         The topic for each age group will be given on spot at the start of the competition at 1 pm. There will be a common topic for each age group. The participants will have 2 hours to write their essays without any outside help.

·         Paper will be provided. The participants are requested to get pencils, erasers and writing board with them.

 

MATH-BEE COMPETITION RULES:

 

·         There will be 4 age groups for this competition as defined above.

·         The Math-Bee competition will be conducted in various knock-out rounds just like the spelling-bee.

·         Common questions will be asked to participants of a particular age group and all answering correctly will go to the next round. The competition will be of double elimination format meaning the participants will not progress after making 2 mistakes. The questions will be asked in increasing difficulty as the rounds progress.

 

GEOGRAPHY-BEE COMPETITION RULES:

 

·         There will be 2 age groups for this competition as defined above.

·         The Geography-Bee competition will be conducted in various knock-out rounds just like the math-bee.

·         The questions will be limited to North America and Indian Sub-Continent. The topics covered will be countries, states, capitals, rivers, mountains, boundaries, languages, people, maps and religion.

·         Common questions will be asked to participants of a particular age group and all answering correctly will go to the next round. The competition will be of double elimination format meaning the participants will not progress after making 2 mistakes. The questions will be asked in increasing difficulty as the rounds progress.

 

I GOT TALENT COMPETITION RULES:

 

·         This competition will be conducted in a totally free format. The participants can perform any talent such as dance, singing, comedy, mimicry and so on.

·         A panel of 2 to 4 judges will grade the performance using common criteria. The scores will be averaged.