Social Science Honor Society, better known as Rho Kappa, has expanded its horizons. From quarterly History Bowls to debates and now Quiz Bowls, Rho Kappa members are well-rounded in the competitive sphere.
This school year, the club’s sponsor and Miami Palmetto Senior High history Honors teacher Kaylee Almonte has introduced a new aspect to the club’s curriculum: Quiz Bowl.
“Quiz Bowl is run by NAQT, which is the National Association for Quiz Tournaments,” Almonte said. “And essentially, what they do is they run a tournament that has local competitions, where they ask questions relating to a lot of different categories.”
According to Almonte, Quiz Bowl questions have a vast range of possible topics, from science to pop culture, sports or even music. With this new addition to Rho Kappa, the club will be able to include students with many interests beyond the world of history. A round can see questions from Taylor Swift to facts about football and everything in between.
“They range from sports, math, chemistry, popular culture and more. The questions had nothing to do with each other, so each was an exciting twist,” senior and Rho Kappa president Madison Williams said. “Each round consisted of 22 toss-up questions, and the team who answered them right got 3 additional bonus questions to answer by themselves before going to the next toss-up.”
Williams, an adept history student, found Quiz Bowl to be a different, yet endearing addition to competitions. With this new aspect, Williams and Almonte hope to diversify students within the club.
“History Bowl is specific to history, and so while a lot of people do prefer doing that when they enter into Rho Kappa, Quiz Bowl allows people who may not be as strong in history to join in. We also can recruit from Science National Honor Society or other places to get people who are stronger in literature and science, for example,” Almonte said. “Since we do have our History Bowl team, it’s nice to allow people to kind of step out of that zone and speak about topics that they’re also interested in.”
Despite MPSH’s recent introduction into the competition, many schools have been competing for seasons. The November competition included schools from across Florida such as Ransom Everglades, Community School of Naples, De Soto and Mason Classical Academy. Surrounded by high-caliber schools, MPSH’s Quiz Bowl teams shined.
“Palmetto B’s biggest competitors were Community School of Naples A and Ransom A. We still made it to quarterfinals, but lost that round,” Williams said.
As a club sponsor, Almonte has continuously worked to further the club’s ambitions, and adding Quiz Bowl has been one step in this plan.
“Right now they’re only hosting at Ransom’s site, and it is only once per year, but we are looking at expanding and maybe having some additional ones. If we were to qualify at a higher ranking, we would have to go somewhere in North Florida to compete later on,” Almonte said.
Almonte sees this addition to the club as something for every competitor to enjoy and take away a learning moment.
“[The tournament] helps you to think on your feet. So I think that after the tournament’s over, we realize how much knowledge we have at our disposal, and how quick we have to be to switch from one topic to another, and just to have fun,” Almonte said.
Regardless of winning or losing, the dream was reached: students were able to have fun, learn and succeed. While it was a different environment for History Bowl competitors, each player walked away satisfied.
