by Donna Iadipaolo
A TEAM OF 22 Ann Arbor sixth graders placed third in the nation out of 100 teams at the National competition this school year.
The Forsythe Middle School 6th grade team scored a total of 1215 points out of 1500 points possible at their last competition. First place went to Lesher Middle School, Ft. Collins, CO, with a score of 1237. Central Middle School, Cape Girardeau, MO, placed second with 1221 points.
Thinking Cap is a nationwide academic contest that tests teams’ ability to answer questions quickly and accurately. The questions are subject areas including sports, art, popular culture, current events and music, as well as academic subjects such as math, social science, English, and science. The questions range from easy to quite difficult.
In a similar fashion, the team of 36 Forsythe 7th and 8th graders finished 9th out of 109 teams in the Thinking Cap Quiz Bowl America. The 7th/8th grade team scored 1168 out of a possible 1500 points. First place went to Chamblee Middle School, Dunwoody, GA, with a score of 1302.
Thinking Cap is a middle school club open to all Forsythe students. Science teacher Dan Ezekiel is the coach, and technology teacher Mike Shaw is the assistant coach.
Ezekiel said he’s been a Thinking Bowl coach, in some form or another, for more than 30 years. He started a similar trivia club called Knowledge Master Open back at the beginning of his teaching career in the 80s. When Knowledge Master went out of business, he switched to Thinking Cap.
Ezekiel said he would have loved to have been involved in Thinking Cap Quiz Bowl had it been available when he was growing up.
“If they would have had it when I was a kid, I would have been good at it and I would have really liked it,” said Ezekiel. “I was a little guy. And, I liked sports, but I wasn’t much good at the school sports because I was too small….I just think this is a great opportunity for kids to try something on a team that’s different, that’s not a physical sport.”
Ezekiel started teaching in Wisconsin in 1983 and has been teaching at Forsythe Middle School since 1987. He teaches 6th grade Earth Science and 8th grade Physical Science.
One of most fascinating parts of the Thinking Cap Quiz Bowl competition is that each team never physically sees the other team. They collaborate with their own teams in person and then one person types the answer to each question via computer.
“There is a two-week window for everyone to take the test. And everyone takes the same test,” explained Ezekiel. “It is 100 questions. And you get points for being right and you get points for speed. And when it is all done, they send out the ranking.”
Coaching for the team each week is quite a challenge as well.
“It is a really interesting event to coach because obviously we don’t know what questions we are going to see,” said Ezekiel. “We can be pretty sure that certain topics are going to come up because they alway do, like the parts of speech, pronouns, adverbs and all that. We go over that, Roman numerals, all that kind of stuff. We can talk about it and practice for it, but mostly what we do is practice a strategy.…There is only one kid typing at the keyboard giving the answer (for the competition). What we mostly work on is when to talk, what you should say, how sure are you, how much do you know, if what you are going to say is going to help the team to process the question quickly. So we practice those routines over and over.”
There are questions from the trivia organization that Ezekiel was previously affiliated with that students practice with.
“I did Knowledge Master for 30 years and several times groups got the opportunity to buy a big data base from them. I have 45,000 Knowledge Master Open questions,” said Ezekiel. “So the kids can practice; they can access that database….”
Not only are there benefits for the students involved in Thinking Cap, the coach said he receives rewards as well.
“I enjoy interacting with these bright kids,” said Ezekiel. “I mean, they don’t have to do this. They come after school, after a long school day to learn more, and get ready for an academic competition. They are so bright and they are so much fun to coach.”
Students are learning and enjoying themselves at the same time.
“I think they (the students) like the challenge,” said Ezekiel. “I think they like the social aspect. They enjoy the competition. But its kinda cool, because like I said, they don’t see the other team, so really what they experience is a lot of cooperation.”
But students are learning important cooperative skills, as well.
“I think some bright kids learn to dread working in a group,” said Ezekiel. “They may have had a bad experience working in a group….But…this competition rewards teamwork and sportsmanship. The score just goes up the more the team hangs together and cooperates. And it really punishes selfishness. I can show the kids directly, if you stick to our strategy, just watch your score climb. And if you start bickering with each other and being selfish, watch what happens to our score. Those are some of the kind of lessons that you learn in a team sport, and some of these kids don’t play a team sport. This is an opportunity for them to learn some of those excellent lessons that they can learn in a team sport.”
The coach added that most of the kids who join the club stay in the program for all three years of middle school.
“Academically-oriented kids should be able to compete and get the same kind of prestige that athletic kids get,” said Ezekiel. “Not more, but the same.”
The coaches and team parent have worked hard to create a hospitable environment for learning.
“It is a safe place to be smart, and not to try to be cool,” said Ezekiel.
He started Thinking Cap last year and has had eight competitions thus far for all the grades, and the kids have won trophies five times. His teams have also won dozens of state championships.
The coach said the team couldn’t do it without the help of Mary Edwards, the team parent.
“I heard about Thinking Cap through the weekly notes that are sent to all parents by the principal of Forsythe,” said Edwards. “I also was aware of the club through friends who had children that had participated and enjoyed the program….”
Edwards said she saw a need to step up and help and approached Ezekiel.
“I volunteered to help Mr. Ezekiel when I saw him at registration this past Fall. I thought he was in need of a parent helper. My main job is to coordinate the food for practices and competitions. Providing food for the practices and competitions is how we parents help support Mr. Ezekiel in running the club,” said Edwards. “We want to do our part as parents to take the load off of Mr. Ezekiel in organizing the after school snacks and the breakfast before the competitions. I also set up the donated food for the breakfasts before the competitions.”
She added that the club is a great way to get students involved in an academic team.
“…This club allows kids who are interested in using the knowledge they have in a variety of subjects to put that knowledge out there together as a team in a question-and-answer format. Mr. Ezekiel does a wonderful job, with the help of Mr. Shaw to create an environment where these kids respectfully work together as they participate in the program.”
She added, “I think kids who tend to participate in this program come to it with an interest in their academics, so the program is a wonderful way of supporting their academic pursuits.”
Students are making advances in their teams and learning as well.
“I’m very happy with their progress as they seem to do very well in relation to the other teams, and more importantly they are using the knowledge they have and working as a group to compete in a healthy way,” said Edwards.
Students also use their weekly preparation time as a way to make friends and enjoy the love of learning.
“Meeting weekly is great. I definitely think they have camaraderie, and I think the two teams (6th grade and the 7th/8th grade team) support each other and are happy for each others’ successes,” said Edwards. “At the competitions, they wear Forsythe shirts and take a group picture each time holding the awards and banners that have been made through the years, there is a real team spirit going on.”
Edwards’s daughter, 7th grader Laura Edwards, is also on the team. She joined the team, in part, because of word of mouth.
“I heard about Thinking Cap from my friend’s siblings, who enjoyed it,” said Laura Edwards. “I wanted to join because many of my friends were interested, as well, and I liked the idea of competing as a team and working with my peers cooperatively to find the answer to a question.”
Laura added that she has stuck with the team since she began middle school because she has always liked being part of the team.
“I have been involved since 6th grade, and I have just finished my second year in the club,” Laura said. “I’ve stayed with the club because it has been a great way to meet new people and learn new things, while also sharing what I know with other people. I look forward to the weekly meetings.”
She added there is a lot of support between students on the team.
“I enjoy the team aspect of the club, because we can all work together and learn new things while still having fun,” said Laura.
Students are encouraged to support and collaborate with one another.
“…I think people are learning to cooperate with one another,” said Laura. “When we are faced with a question, we all have to learn to listen and connect our ideas with others’ ideas to get the answer. We also learn how to be good sports. We have a team ‘kata,’ and our kata says that we always say “good job” when the team get an answer right, ‘nice try’ when the team gets an answer wrong.”
“Kata” is a Japanese word for teaching and training methods for a person or group to engage in a systematic approach to their learning.
Laura said she likes that technological aspect of the competition.
“I enjoy the fact that it is on the computer. This way, we have no idea what we are up against and can simply do our best without worrying about how well the other team is doing. It relieves pressure,” said Laura.
Students have a challenging day in middle school, so the more laid back atmosphere of Thinking Cap allows students to remain academically focused, without a lot of pressure.
“After the school day, it’s nice to go to a place that’s not as structured as a classroom, but where you are still working your mind and learning new things,” said Laura.
She believes that Thinking Cap also helps her with her school work.
“I think being apart of the team makes kids more interested in school,” said Laura. “We learn so many new things every time we go to the club and the new things we hear from the club may have us more interested in the things we are learning in the school day.”
In our society, our youth are bombarded with images of celebrities, such as professional athletes and movie stars, to look up to. Sometimes, this kind of admiration also trickles down in middle school. Clubs such as Thinking Cap give more academically-minded students a chance to shine.
“I believe academic clubs should be held up to equal esteem as team sports,” said Laura. “Often times more than not, students on academic teams work just as hard as students on sports teams, but just in different ways. In Thinking Cap, we go to practices weekly, we practice with our team, we compete in competitions, just as people on sports teams do.”
You also don’t have to “make the cut” in Thinking Cap. Everyone can contribute and therefore everyone has a place.
“Thinking Cap is a great club, and anyone can join. One of the greatest thing about it is the idea that everyone has something to contribute,” said Laura Edwards. “It doesn’t matter how much you know, all that matters is the cooperation and effort that goes into it.”
