Despite the struggles of remote learning, AT students and staff were able to participate in the annual Staff Vs Student Academic Team Match this year with no problems.
Although the match is usually held in person, this year the annual competition was held on zoom as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and remote learning. “This event is so important because it celebrates the end of our season and allows staff and students to participate in some friendly competition. It is exciting for the students to see if they can beat the staff and it is fun for the staff to school the students,” says AP Physics teacher and Academic Team sponsor Ms. Bonk who is coaching the team for her 2nd year. “The only difficulty this year was that we aren’t able to enjoy pizza and snacks together since we are not in person. However Mr. Jackson kindly arranged frozen pizza and snack pick up for the students this year so at least they can chow down on some food during the event,” she added.
This year the Staff Vs Student Academic Team Match was held on Friday, March 5th via zoom with record participation. Students and Staff took part in a jeopardy-like competition where they battled to answer questions on an array of topics like science, math, fine arts, literature, history, and social science. This year there was even greater participation than usual partly as a result of the match being held online instead of in person. While there are usually only 6 staff members this year there were more including chemistry teacher Mr. Nelson who ran the science portion of the match, math teacher Mr. Bauers, and even assistant principal Mrs. Dement. With every academic department being represented, the match provided a tough challenge for the AT Academic team who ended up losing.
“It was lots of fun,” says senior Fawzan Ali who has been a part of the Academic Team since his freshman year. “There were many times where we were neck and neck but the teachers eventually ended up winning. I’m sure both the teachers and the students would have preferred to have it in person, but I am glad we were able to have a competition at all. Especially with this being the last Staff vs Students for seniors like me on the team, it was very special for all of us and we are all grateful for the opportunity to hold the match even if we ended up losing.”
Overall the event was a success providing students and staff with some normalcy in their lives and with a final score of 310 to 260 provided the staff with bragging rights over the Academic Team.
