Students put on thinking caps and win first place
By Michelle Knight
knight@theacorn.com

The team of eighth-grade Redwood Middle School students wasn’t sure whether they could win the competition or not. The boys and girls had prepared long and hard over a period of eight lunch hours for an online, computer-generated test called the Thinking Cap Quiz.

But, the work paid off as the students found out recently that they won the statewide competition by answering 89 of the 100 questions correctly.

It’s the sixth year in a row that Redwood has topped the competition.

The percentage was down several points from their usual score, but Marilyn Zick, Redwood’s Thinking Cap coach since the event began seven years ago, said the test was harder this year than in times past.

"Usually, we get a 95 percent accuracy rate and chalk up 100 points more than the 1,151 we scored," Zick said.

The quiz calls for students to gather around their school’s computer and answer questions on subjects in history, geography, math and science. The quicker they answer, the higher the points. For example, if they answer within five seconds, they received 10 points plus a 5-point bonus. But taking the entire 60 seconds to answer a question only gains the team five points.

There were 44 teams in the competition.

This was Calvin Shayer’s first time on the team. He says it taught him the value of teamwork.

"It’s nice to know more things and it’s a friendly competition; it shows what you can learn," Calvin said.

Kenneth Wang, a member of last year’s team, this time had the job of typing the group’s answers into the keyboard—a daunting task when time is running out and the pressure is on.

"You have to know what’s important that people are saying and what’s not important," Kenneth said. "You have to really know how to hear what people are saying."

Other team members included Christopher Jew, Spencer Westby, Abby Sassoon, Alyssa Peters, Stephanie Bonds, Marina Piper, Behrod Katebian, Annelise Mah, Whitney Reobertson, Shirley Wu, Ariel Downs and Brian Moon.

The seventh-grade team at Sequoia Middle School in Newbury Park took second place.