Quiz Bowl as an actual high school class

[Standard-winged Nightjar]

Was just browsing the Ac Dec vs. Quiz Bowl thread and saw David Reinstein's post referencing schools offering Ac Dec as a class. Question: is there any school out there that offers Quiz Bowl / Academic Team / It's Academic / etc. as an actual class? Are there forward-thinking enough schools that would ever consider giving course credit to kids who wanted to do an "independent study" to prepare for Quiz Bowl? Did I just plant a seed in the mind of some high schooler who's now going to go into school tomorrow and ask their administration about the possibility of this?
I hope so.

[DrCongo]

At Detroit Catholic Central, we have a homeroom period in the middle of the day where we basically just sit and do homework in a classroom for 25 minutes after lunch. Guys on the quiz bowl team go to our coach's room and have buzzer practice or study pages during homeroom.

[Matthew D]

I had one in the middle of the day last year but not this year, teaching AP chem during that period now.

[bsmith]

In the 1970s, Ken Kowalski coached a Reach for the Top team at a school in Barrhead, Alberta:

Kowalski offered RFTT as a credit course in Barrhead. Students spent the class researching and writing out possible game questions. In all, 100,000 questions were compiled. Players were selected not because of their grades, but through a noon-hour house league program.

The school got so far into Reach that a set was built in a classroom, complete with a buzzer. Slides and cassettes were acquired to help with the art and music questions. Out of the house leagues, Kowalski assembled an all-star team to represent Barrhead at the provincial level. He chose four students who were not only gifted academically, but who were compatible, had complementary strengths so they were covered in all subject areas, and were real team players.

They won the national championship in 1973, and qualified for nationals a further six consecutive years.

[Nun's puffs]

Kings Park has an 80 minute long seminar that the team used for practice semi-often, almost exclusively for Challenge preparation.

[Masked Canadian History Bandit]

In all, 100,000 questions were compiled.

And did they ever hold a house-written tournament?

[CSQuizJags]

Was just browsing the Ac Dec vs. Quiz Bowl thread and saw David Reinstein's post referencing schools offering Ac Dec as a class. Question: is there any school out there that offers Quiz Bowl / Academic Team / It's Academic / etc. as an actual class? Are there forward-thinking enough schools that would ever consider giving course credit to kids who wanted to do an "independent study" to prepare for Quiz Bowl? Did I just plant a seed in the mind of some high schooler who's now going to go into school tomorrow and ask their administration about the possibility of this?
I hope so.

Dave,
We now have "Jag Time" during the day similar to what was mentioned above. Starting next week, clubs can meet and our team will use that learning the basic information (especially for the freshmen who've been thrown into the mix after being held hostage for four weeks in advisement learning how to learn). That's seven 30 minute classes on top of the 90 minute after school practice. I want to say Elliot Rountree at Chattahoochee has an "independent study" class that's also for his team. I think. With all the other activities students do on top of the game, having time during school sounds like a great idea.

[wareagle]

This will be my third year teaching a 12 week elective class, open to 9th-12th graders, called Interdisciplinary Academic Studies. At first, I used it to recruit students for the team. Now I am finally able to fill it (all seven of them this year!) with students already on the team. So, starting this year, I am able to provide material (e.g. question sets) and have students write questions, all within a "major" (the arts, social studies, science, or PRM). Most of the class time is spent on independent research in that major as they develop a filter for what academically minded individuals should know about a particular topic.

The purpose of the class is larger than just quiz bowl prep, though, in that their midterm and finals have the students choose a concept or idea that has been expressed across the disciplines and attempt to answer the question, What is it about this concept that has so grasped the human imagination that we have expressed it in the arts, in our actions, and in how we percieve, and relate to, the natural world? It is based on primary source materials.

Marist also has an Activity Period every Thursday for an hour, which is designated time for clubs to meet.

These options are especially helpful for those students involved in 28 other activities and sports and student gov...

[RountreeCHS]

I want to say Elliott Rountree at Chattahoochee has an "independent study" class that's also for his team. I think.

This is kinda true. What he have in Fulton County is a "Directed Study" option for students in the Gifted Program. Juniors and seniors who have an open period in their schedule can choose to take a Directed Study if they wish. We have had a handful of quizbowl players - maybe 5 or 6 - over the last 4 years choose take a Directed Study and learn about areas of knowledge which they were interested in. The "catch" is that the students must create a written syllabus that they follow and actually produce 12 gradable assignments in the class. It's a pretty cool idea, but the quality of the work and the results have varied greatly in my opinion.

Like others, we have also had a 25-minute Homeroom time in the past that we used for quizbowl preparation, but that was taken away a few years ago.