The Great American Challenge?

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RexSueciae
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The Great American Challenge?

Post by RexSueciae »

[Note: Please exercise caution when Googling "The Great American Challenge." Take my word for it, the top results are completely different from what I'm about to talk about. I explain why later in this post.]

When I was in 4th and 5th grade, I participated in an academic competition called "The Great American Challenge" and it occurred to me that I should probably ask around--did anyone else on these forums do this when they were younger? The contest focused on American history (predominantly Virginia history, and I think most if not all of its participating schools were from the state of Virginia) and consisted of a written test followed by an event where the top X% of test scorers went up on stage and were individually asked short questions about history.

I know that this was extant between the years of 2006 and 2007 (because I participated during those years), and I have found online records of a Great American Challenge Inc registered in Bristol, VA in 2002, and which may no longer exist (financial records not available past 2007). I have also found occasional reference to it on various school webpages but apparently the people who ran the Great American Challenge never bothered to officially post results online, nor was it extensively covered in news publications. Additionally, I discovered that "The Great American Challenge" is also the name of what may politely be described as a gargantuan marital aid, complicating my search as most of my results ended up being completely unrelated to my intended query.

The Great American Challenge that I attended also probably has nothing to do with the "American Bible Challenge," which apparently was a gameshow that tested one's knowledge of the Judeo-Christian Bible.

Anyways--did anyone else in the quizbowl community, especially quizbowl players from the state of Virginia, attend this event? It seems like the kind of thing that young quizbowl players might have been exposed to, and there were a fair number of people in attendance (most of them from isolated rural elementary schools or homeschool collectives, now that I think about it; I can't remember hearing about any schools that attend quizbowl middle school events today). I just started thinking about it again fairly recently, and it's been bugging me ever since.
Vasa Clarke

Maggie Walker '14
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William and Mary '21
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Kouign Amann
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Re: The Great American Challenge?

Post by Kouign Amann »

As someone who also went to a public elementary school Virginia, I don't think I've ever heard of this, though Fairfax County is far from rural. Hey MattBo or TJ kids, we didn't have this, right?
Aidan Mehigan
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t-bar
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Re: The Great American Challenge?

Post by t-bar »

I was unaware of either meaning of this term until Vasa enlightened me.
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UlyssesInvictus
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Re: The Great American Challenge?

Post by UlyssesInvictus »

t-bar wrote:I was unaware of either meaning of this term until Vasa enlightened me.
Same. By the years you give, I'm guessing this is a 6th-8th grade thing?
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RexSueciae
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Re: The Great American Challenge?

Post by RexSueciae »

UlyssesInvictus wrote:
t-bar wrote:I was unaware of either meaning of this term until Vasa enlightened me.
Same. By the years you give, I'm guessing this is a 6th-8th grade thing?
4th-5th grade.

Also, I distinctly remember that the 2007 iteration (the one that I attended while in 5th grade) took place in Williamsburg, near the colonial section. (Any William and Mary veterans remember anything like that happening in 2007?) I can't remember where the 2006 Great American Challenge was held, but I think it was in a hotel in, like, northern Virginia.
Vasa Clarke

Maggie Walker '14
Virginia '18
William and Mary '21
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