>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

Brandon Taylor, left, and Arden Yundt celebrate their team’s correct answer at the La Grande Invitational Academic Bowl. Taylor and Yundt were members of La Grande High School’s Nu team. - The Observer/DICK MASON

Still, youths with the potential to ace auditions for Trebek’s popular TV quiz show were everywhere.

They were among the 80 Northeast Oregon high school students participating in the La Grande Invitational Academic Bowl Tuesday.

Flexing their cerebral muscles in La Grande High School’s commons, they often successfully tackled questions like:

• If the volume of a balloon is 2.0 liters when the temperature is 300 K, what would be its volume at 150 K?

Answer: 1.0 liter.

• Of Eli Whitney, Thomas Edison, Samuel F.B. Morse or Alexander Graham Bell, which printed a portrait titled “Marquis de Lafayette”?

Answer: Samuel F.B. Morse.

• This prolific poet from Amherst wrote:

There is a certain slant of light, Winter Afternoons that oppresses like the heft of cathedral tunes.

Name the poet.

Answer: Emily Dickinson.

Questions like these were fielded in an environment in which there were as many laughs and smiles as quizzical looks and furrowed brows.

LHS math and science teacher Pat Des Jardin, the event’s director, strived to keep the mood upbeat, spicing his questions with humor.

“If it is not fun, I’m not doing my job,’’ Des Jardin said.

In keeping things light, Des Jardin tossed in an occasional sports question. The queries were ones of general knowledge, such as, Name the top three all time Major League home run hitters.

Answer: Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth.

Teams from La Grande, Cove, Imbler, Joseph, Union, Huntington and Pendleton high schools competed in the Academic Bowl.

The La Grande High School Nu team won the overall grand championship. The team consisted of Brandon Taylor, Arden Yundt, Calvin Erickson, Jace Quebbeman, Gage Winde and Dylan Whitelock-Wolff. The team’s members were clearly excited after their triumph.

“We are stoked. It is great,’’ Yundt said.

Quebbeman seconded the sentiment.

“It is awesome. It rocks,’’ he said.

Taylor said his team never had a situation in which members were recommending different answers.

“Usually one or two of us would know the answer and everyone else would agree,’’ Taylor said.

The Observer/DICK MASON

However, it did effect the placings of several other teams. LHS’s Omega team and Pendleton High School’s Beta team were thus declared co-champions of the large school division. Both will receive first-place plaques. LHS’s Omega team was comprised of Michelle Thomas, Cathy Monahan, Ella Antell, Martha McAlister and Ruth Hovekamp.

Imbler High School’s I team and Cove High School’s C team were declared co-champs of the small school division. Cove’s C team was comprised of Katy Puckett, Hannah DelCurto, Connor Stone, Josh Hamilton and Mariah Murchison. Imbler’s I team consisted of Timmy Brown, Austin Zinzer, Chris Kee, John Gregory, Kaira Craddock and Jacob Arnzen. Both teams will receive first-place plaques.

Zinzer said competing in the academic bowl was rewarding because of his squad’s sense of camaraderie.

“Everybody on our team is good friends. We had a lot of fun all the way through it,’’ Zinzer said

This was the second straight year the academic bowl has been at LHS. From 2001 to 2006 the event was conducted at Prairie City High School, where Des Jardin was a teacher and the academic bowl director. Des Jardin took a teaching job at LHS in 2006 and decided to conduct the annual competition here.

Des Jardin does not want the academic bowl to be a means of comparing how well schools educate their students. He said luck is sometimes almost as important as knowledge in determining the outcome.

He pointed out that a major determining factor in final standings is how successfully teams make a final wager at the end of the competition. Teams can bet any portion of their point total on the final four questions.

A team betting all of its points will double its total if it answers the questions correctly but will lose everything if the answers are wrong.

Students were allowed to use calculators only for the most difficult math questions. One reason is that Des Jardin did not want students with superior calculators to have a significant advantage.

“I’m very careful not to have a technology imbalance,’’ he said. “We want to have a level playing field.’’

Outside of calculators, students are not allowed to use anything electronic during the academic bowl.

Des Jardin strives to offer questions covering a variety of subjects during the academic bowl. This gives more students opportunities to contribute correct answers. He has noticed over the years that students tend to remember the answers they got right rather than the ones they missed.

“They tell me, ‘This is the one I got.’ I would like for them to continue to have that enthusiasm,’’ Des Jardin said.

The math and science teacher said he could not put on the event without help

from student assistants who keep scores and much more.