Acton-Boxborough Captures Academic Decathlon State Championship ... Again

Acton-Boxborough Regional High School is known to be among the top schools in Massachusetts academically.

And after competing in the 2013 Massachusetts Academic Decathlon, there's no doubt why.

The Acton-Boxborough Academic Decathlon team claimed first place in the tournament, which was held at St. John’s High School, on March 2, winning the state championship for the 13th year in a row. The A-B team, co-coached by English teacher Andrew Crick, will now compete at the National Championship in Minneapolis in April.

"There are a number of aspects that have contributed to the success of the Acton-Boxborough Regional High School's Academic Decathlon Team," Crick told Acton Patch. "Most importantly, many students in our school are interested in pursuing academic interests outside the traditional classroom. As a result, our academic teams are able to recruit highly motivated students who enjoy learning for the sake of learning, but who are also galvanized by a healthy sense of competition. They embrace the tradition of academic excellence established by previous squads, and they take seriously the opportunity to continue that level of success.

The Academic Decathlon is a 10-event scholastic competition for high school students. Each participating high school enters a team of nine students — three each in the Honors, Scholastic, and Varsity divisions — based on grade point average (GPA). The students take tests in Art, Economics, Literature, Social Science, Mathematics, Science and Music. Each student also writes an essay, gives a speech, is interviewed, and participates in the Super-Quiz.

Along with its 13th consecutive win, A-B has also won 21 of the past 22 tournaments.

Sixteen qualifying high schools, finalists from 35 schools who competed earlier in the year, met at St. Johh’s High School in Shrewsbury this past Saturday for the day–long event. The final event was the Super-Quiz. In front of hundreds of cheering spectators and supporters, each team member went up against one person from each other high school to answer six questions on Russia, this year’s theme and the focus of the Super-Quiz topic.

"In order to prepare for competitions, students must master about 100 pages of information and analysis on each of 10 (hence decathlon) different subjects," Crick said. "That means the entire curriculum for a season can be over 1,000 pages. Each season has its own organizing theme, and the material for each subject is informed by and focused on that theme. This year's theme is Russia. As a result, students have been spending the entire year studying about Russian and Soviet culture and achievement in economics, art, music, science, literature, social science and mathematics."

All nine A-B team members placed well for their overall individual performances out of 48 competitors within their respective divisions:

Honors

• Steven Jin, 1^st
• Nihal Gowravaram, 2^nd
• Mason Liu, 3^rd

Scholastic

• Richard Ding, 1^st
• Maggie Yuan, 2^nd
• Linda Cui, 3^rd

Varsity

• Robert Ringwall, 1^st
• Ian Lin, 2^nd. 

Steven Jin was the top scorer in the entire competition.

The team also collected 46 subject-level medals out of a possible 72 for individuals who finished in the top three out of the 48 competitors in each division.

Anyone interested in making a contribution should send a check payable to “ABRHS–Academic Decathlon” to Andrew Crick, ABRHS, 36 Charter Road, Acton, MA 01720.

The Science Olympiad team, coached by Brian Dempsey, won its state championship and will go to Dayton, Ohio, on May 18.

"As the team grew in popularity I decided to organize the team into two tiers - a Regional Team and a State Team," Dempsey said. "The Regional Team competes in the West Suburban Science League (WSSL), an affiliation of about20  schools in the Greater Boston and Metro West Region. Once a month, from October to February, 32 students in the Regional Team compete at a Meet (hosted by a WSSL school) in events ranging from robotics to rocks and minerals."

This year's National Science Olympiad events are as follows:

Life, Personal & Social Science

• Anatomy and Physiology (Nervous, Excretory, Digestive)
• Disease Detectives (Environmental Quality)
• Forestry
• Designer Genes
• Water Quality

Earth & Space Science

• Astronomy
• Dynamic Planet (Glaciers)
• Remote Sensing (Earth's Hydrosphere)
• Rocks and Minerals

Physical Science & Chemistry

• MagLev
• Circuit Lab
• Thermodynamics
• Chem Lab
• Forensics
• Materials Science

Technology & Engineering

• Gravity Vehicle
• Boomilever
• Robot Arm
• Elastic Launched Glider

Inquiry & Nature of Science

• Experimental Design
• Fermi Questions
• Technical Problem Solving
• Write It Do It