2014 Pyramid Rules & Tips

Pyramid Contest Rules & Tips 2014

General:

·         Each team will have four members: one 8^th grader, one 9^th grader, one 10^th grader, and one 11^th grader.

·         Native English speaking volunteers are NOT allowed to help students prepare!

·         The games will be AQA, Jeopardy, and Taboo. 

·     An MP3 of the text being read by a native speaker will be available to all teams. 

·         The winner will be the team with the most overall points in all three games.

AQA:

·         AQA will be divided into two parts. One text will be for the 8^th and 9^th graders. The other text will be for the 10^th and 11^th graders. There will be only one winner from each part.

·         Students will line up. Each student will be given three stars. Each student will be asked a question. It will not be translated into Mongolian, however if the student doesn’t understand, we will ask the question in a variety of ways.

·         The student will have one minute to answer the question. If the answer is correct they move to the back of the line. If the answer is incorrect, the student must give us one star.

·         When the student has no more stars left, that student is out.

·         If a student answers a question incorrectly, we continue asking that question until someone answers correctly. If no student answers that question correctly, we will move on to a different question.

·         All questions will come from the text. There will be no outside research necessary.

Jeopardy:

·         Jeopardy is played as a team with all four students participating.

·         There will be five categories relating to a text (the third text that wasn’t in AQA), with five questions for each category, worth 100-500 points.

·         100 point questions are the easiest, and 500 point questions are the hardest.

·         Students will have 30 seconds to write down an answer on a sheet of paper. After 30 seconds, all teams must hold up their answers at the same time. Any team who does not hold up their answer will receive no points.

·         If the answer is correct, the team receives the amount of points that the question was worth. If the answer is incorrect, the team receives no points.

·         Teams will take turns choosing which question they would like.

Taboo:

·         Each team will choose one member to be the “speaker.” The speaker will receive a list of 30 English words.

·         The speaker must describe the word without actually saying the word (if the word is father, they may not say ‘father.’ If the word is ‘rainbow’ they may not say ‘rain’). If the speaker says the word, they will receive no points for it.

·         The other three team members must guess the word. If they guess correctly, they receive a point for that word.

·         Each team has three minutes to guess as many words as possible.

·         The speaker does not need to go in order. He/she may skip around to whichever ones they want.

Tips for Helping Students:

·         Create a list of words and have your students practice taboo. Find out which student is more comfortable describing them beforehand.

·         After reading the AQA texts, create practice questions so that you can quiz your students.

·         Use the MP3s of the text to carefully listen to the pronunciation of names and places. This will help students understand the questions when a native speaker asks.

·         After reading the Jeopardy text, create questions for students to practice with. Make some easy, and make some very difficult.

2014 Pyramid Competition - 8th/9th/10th/11th Grade JEOPARDY text "Benjamin Franklin"

Benjamin Franklin

     Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706 in Boston, Massachusetts. His family was too poor to pay for his education, so he only went to school for two years. When he was 12 he became an apprentice to his older brother James, a printer. When James discovered young Franklin writing letters to the newspaper pretending to be an old woman, he was very angry. So Franklin ran away to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1723.

     In Philadelphia Franklin worked for several newspapers. In 1729 he became the publisher of the newspaper The Pennsylvania Gazette. He wrote his own stories, which he published in his newspaper, and he also used the Gazette to criticize British policy in the American colonies. Through the Gazette, Franklin quickly became famous. In 1730, he began living with Deborah Read. Deborah’s first husband John had taken Deborah’s money and fled to Barbados, where he disappeared.

     Franklin became even more important in 1733 when he began writing and publishing Poor Richard’s Almanack. He used this to spread his knowledge and advice about living. Even today, many sayings that Franklin composed are still quoted frequently as proverbs. For example:

• A penny saved is a penny earned.
• No pain, no gain.
• Fish and visitors stink after three days.
• Time is money.

     In 1747, Franklin retired from printing and focused on scientific research. He is most famous for proving that lightning was electricity by conducting a dangerous experiment - flying a kite in a storm, with a metal key attached to the kite. He was shocked several times during his experiments. He used his electrical discoveries to invent the lightning rod. Franklin also invented the glass harmonica (a musical instrument), the rocking chair, an improved stove, bifocal lenses, and the urinary catheter.

     He also entered politics in 1748. He served in the Pennsylvania assembly, as the president of Pennsylvania, and the deputy postmaster general of North Amrica. In 1757 the Pennsylvania Assembly sent him to England to represent its interests to the British government. In 1764 it sent him to England again. In England he became the leading spokesman for the interests of the American colonists. In 1765 England created the Stamp Act. This law was very unpopular in America. Franklin helped get it repealed. He wrote many essays in support of the American colonies. In 1773, he discovered secret letters by the colonial governors of Massachusetts indicating their intent to suppress American colonists’ rights. Franklin sent the letters to America, and the colonists became absolutely furious at British rule.

     When he returned to America in May 1775, the American Revolution had already begun. In June 1776 he was part of the committee of five men who wrote the Declaration of Independence. The Revolution was also a private issue for Franklin. The war divided America and Britain, but it also divided Franklin’s family. Franklin’s son William was the governor of New Jersey. Even though Franklin supported the revolution, William opposed it, and supported England. After the revolution, William went to England, and father and son never talked again.

     In 1776, after signing the declaration, the colonies sent Franklin to France as their representative. At the time, Franz Mesmer’s theory of “animal magnetism” was popular. Mesmer claimed that all living things, including humans, produced a kind of energy, and that Mesmer had the power to feel this energy and use it to cure disease. Franklin was famous as a scientist even in Europe, so the French king appointed Franklin and a team of French scientists to investigate animal magnetism. Their experiments proved that Mesmer’s claims were false. Humiliated, Mesmer left France. Franklin also wrote a humorous essay called “Fart Proudly,” in which he described scientific research on farting.

     In 1785 he returned to America. Franklin opposed the decision to make the bald eagle America’s national animal. He favored the turkey, and called the bald eagle a bird of “bad moral character.” He also became the president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, which was dedicated to banning slavery.

     Franklin died on April 17, 1790, but his reputation is still great. Because of his role in American independence, Franklin is called one of the “Founding Fathers” of America. Some people joke that he was “the only president of the United States who never became the president of the United States.” He had a major influence on the political thought of the early United States, and made many scientific discoveries and inventions. For these reasons, modern Americans have put his face on the American one-hundred dollar bill. His famous quote, “Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom, and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech” still represents the ideal of liberty for every person.

2014 Pyramid Competition - 10th/11th Grade text "The National Park Service"

The National Park Service

The National Park Service, which is also known as the NPS, is an agency of the United States federal government within the Department of the Interior. The NPS manages all U.S. national parks, many American national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties.  It was established on August 25, 1916 by Congress through the National Park Service Organic Act.

It is argued that Yosemite was the first national park in the United States, but Yosemite National Park began as a state park; the land for the park was donated by the federal government to the state of California in 1864 for perpetual conservation. Yellowstone was managed by the federal government prior to Yosemite. Yellowstone National Park was established in 1872, and due to the fact that Wyoming wasn't yet a state, it couldn't be left as a state park. Therefore, the federal government assumed control, making it the first national park of the United States.

National parks and national monuments in the United States were originally individually managed under the auspices of the Department of the Interior. There were inconsistencies and irregularities between the various parks and each was being managed with various degrees of success. The movement for an independent agency to oversee these federal lands was spearheaded by business magnate and conservationist Stephen Mather, as well as J. Horace McFarland. With the help of journalist Robert Sterling Yard, Mather ran a publicity campaign for the Department of the Interior. They wrote numerous articles that praised the scenic qualities of the parks and their possibilities for educational, inspirational, and recreational benefits. This campaign resulted in the creation of a National Park Service. On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill that mandated the agency "to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and wildlife therein, and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations." This later became the management principle for the NPS. Mather became the first director of the newly formed NPS and reported directly to the Secretary of the Interior.

On March 3, 1933, President Herbert Hoover signed the Reorganization Act of 1933. The act allowed the President to reorganize the executive branch of the United States government. It wasn't until later that summer when the new President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, made use of this power. Deputy Director Horace M. Albright had suggested to President Roosevelt that the historic sites from the American Civil War should be managed by the National Park Service, rather than the War Department. President Roosevelt agreed and issued two Executive orders to make it happen. These two executive orders not only transferred to the National Park Service all the War Department historic sites, but also the national monuments managed by the Department of Agriculture and the parks in and around the capital, which had been run by an independent office.

In 1951, Conrad Wirth became director of the National Park Service and went to work on bringing park facilities up to the standards that the public expected. The demand for parks after the end of World War II had left the parks overburdened with demands that could not be met. In 1952, with the support of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, he began Mission 66, a ten-year effort to upgrade and expand park facilities for the 50th anniversary of the Park Service. New parks were added to preserve unique resources and existing park facilities were upgraded and expanded.

Initially, the primary employee was the Park Ranger, who did everything that was needed in the parks. Now, the National Park Service employees 22,000 people who have various jobs and specialties they focus on. A few of the current jobs include law enforcement, dispatchers, interpretive rangers, carpenters, historians, firefighters, and scientists. During the summer, seasonal employees are hired to help with the increase of visitors who travel and visit these protected areas. The summer season is considered the peak season, as most parks are visited between April and September. The title or designation of a unit need not include the term park, in fact; only 59 units are designated national parks. The NPS manages 401 units with over 20 different titles. On top of their federal protection, 16 of the 19 World Heritage Sites in the United States are NPS managed lands. A World Heritage Site has enough universally recognized natural and cultural features that they are considered to merit the protection of all the peoples in the world.

The System as a whole is considered to be a national treasure of the United States, and some of the more famous national parks and monuments are sometimes referred to metaphorically as "crown jewels". The system encompasses approximately 84.4 million acres (338,000 km²).The largest unit is Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve located in southeast Alaska. At 13,200,000 acres (53,000 km²), it is over 16 percent of the entire system. Wrangell-St. Elias is abutted to Kluane National Park in Canada, which is approximately 11 million acres (44,550km²). Combined, these two parks make up the largest area of protected land in the world. On the other side of the spectrum, the smallest unit of the NPS is Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial in Pennsylvania and is only 0.02 acre (80 m²). The National Park System receives over 280,000,000 visits each year throughout the 401 units. The ten most visited units of the National Park System handle 30% of the visits to all of units. The top ten percent of parks (40) handle 61.2% of all visits, leaving the remaining 361 units to deal with 38.8% of visits. Visitors go to the various units managed by the NPS for all sorts of reasons. Some of the reasons they visit the bigger parks in the western states are to go backpacking, hiking, camping, take photos, view wildlife, and get the restorative effects of spending time in the Wilderness. People also visit parks to learn about the nation’s history and may go to the Civil War battlefields or the nation’s capital for school field-trips.

Ideally, the parks will remain unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations as mandated in the National Park Service Organic Act by President Wilson. 

2014 Pyramid Competition - 8th/9th Grade text "FIFA World Cup"

FIFA World Cup

Football, often called “the beautiful game,” is the world’s most popular sport.  The peak of this global game occurs every four years and is called the World Cup.  Organized by FIFA, the sports event has an eighty-four year history with hundreds of countries competing for a chance to participate.  The modern World Cup has changed from the first Cup held in Uruguay in 1934, but the objectives are still the same.  It requires cooperation and friendliness between countries and facilitates cultural exchange among hundreds of millions of football fans. 

The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) is the organization that is responsible for organizing all of the world’s football tournaments.  Established in 1904, FIFA manages 209 countries’ football affairs from their headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.  FIFA’s most important role is organizing the World Cup, which is the world’s largest sports competition and occurs every four years.  This year, the prestigious event will be held in Brazil.

            The first World Cup was held in Uruguay in July 1930.  Thirteen men’s national football teams from Europe, North America, and South America participated in the event.  500,000 people watched the thirteen football matches in the month of June, but hundreds of thousands more listened to the games on the radio and on television in their homes.  Every match was held in Montevideo, Uruguay’s capital city, unlike modern World Cups which requires many cities for the dozens of matches.  Uruguay’s Men’s National Football Team won the 1930 World Cup, which was held in their home country.  Only four other teams have won while their countries hosted the competition (England 1966, Germany 1974, Argentina 1978, and France 1998).  From the first World Cup in 1930, the competition has occurred every four years except in 1942 and 1946 because of World War II.

            Today, the Cup consists of thirty-two teams, but before the global event begins all countries can compete for a spot for the month long competition.  For the 2010 World Cup, 204 countries fought for the thirty-two places that played in South Africa.  The football games played prior to the World Cup is called the “preliminary competition.” These ‘qualifying’ matches begin two years before the main event, however all thirty-two teams have been selected for this year’s competition.  The teams competing consist of four countries from North America, six from South America, thirteen from Europe, five from Africa, and four from Asia.  

Beginning in June of this year, the World Cup will be hosted in Brazil.  The center of the event will be held in the country’s second largest city, Rio de Janeiro.  Other matches will be held in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city as well as Brasilia, Brazil’s capital city, and nine other cities throughout the South American country.  Although millions of people will visit the country for the sporting event, many believe that due to Brazil’s poor infrastructure and high crime rates, this year’s World Cup may be a catastrophe.  With that said, this bad news has not stopped the excitement of the world’s most important sports competition.