Earlier this month, three Grade 8 students competed at the World Scholar’s Cup (WSC) in Vancouver, representing Meadowridge School. Brian Z., Andy G., and Wilson H. earned fourth place overall in the team division, amongst over 100 teams, in addition to winning second place in the Bowl Team category. We sat down with these three students to learn more about their amazing accomplishments.
What inspired you to enter this competition?
One of our classmates entered last year, and I (Brian) heard about it and knew I wanted to enter. I recruited my friends Wilson and Andy, and we formed our team.
How did you prepare for this competition?
We started preparing at the end of February. We attended debate classes, writing workshops, and a lot of in-person review sessions structured around themes. For the World Scholar’s Cup, there are four main events: Scholar’s Bowl, Collaborative Writing, Scholar’s Challenge, and Team Debate.
Scholar’s Bowl is where every team is in the theatre, with a clicker and works together with their team members to solve analytical questions and multimedia challenges before the clock runs out.
Collaborative Writing gives teams six prompts, from each of the six subject areas, ranging from creative scenarios to explore persuasive arguments to make. As a team, students only need to write three of the six, but each team member needs to answer a different prompt.
Scholar’s Challenge looks like any other multiple-choice test but with a twist: you can mark more than one answer per question and if you’re right, can earn more points.
Team Debate allows each team to debate three times, on motions across all subjects, from policy to poetry. Debate is the chance to apply all the learnings to make the most persuasive case students can.
Tell us about the event, what was it like?
The event was held at Mulgrave School, where we met our coaches from WSC. The event was huge, and we were surprised how many people and teams were there. We were so excited to win not just one, but two awards and advance to the Global Round.
What’s next? What is the next round?
We are still deciding where we want to compete for the Global round, but we are going to either Qatar, Korea, or Thailand. During the Global Rounds, there are more activities to participate in fun events, as there are cultural fairs and scavenger hunts that don’t contribute towards medals or trophies. There are bigger prizes, and we are on to bigger and better things. We will prepare the same way as we did for this round, but we are going to study harder. We are so excited to visit another country for this next round and represent Meadowridge.