Register Your Team for the Fundraiser (March 13) Support the Students Competing
Academic WorldQuest is a Flagship Program of the world affairs council system. The game was invented by the Charlotte Council and is now widely played at the adult and high school levels around the country. It is a team game testing competitors’ knowledge of international affairs, geography, history, and culture. The World Affairs Councils of America started the national competition in Washington, DC in March 2003. Participants come from high schools that work with the World Affairs Council network.
It is unique to the world affairs council system and has no direct competitor among K-12 knowledge-based competitions in the US or abroad.
WHY ACADEMIC WORLDQUEST IS IMPORTANT
With funding for school programs other than “basics” falling away, the opportunities for high school students to learn geography, world history, and world affairs have dwindled to almost nothing in American high schools while globalization and interdependence continues to knit the world more closely together each passing day and year.
The World Affairs Council system does a lot to counter this isolationist pedagogical trend already through the making of curriculum units for high schools, the organizing of teachers’ workshops, and the sending abroad of teachers and students. We want to build on our already existing and successful programs that seek to reverse this unfortunate and counterproductive educational trend.
ABOUT THE COMPETITION
The competition is played between 4-person teams who answer rounds of questions projected by PowerPoint onto a screen. The questions test their knowledge of current affairs, world leaders, geography, recent history, flags, international organizations, countries, regions, the world economy, culture, religion, and more. A full competition is 100 questions, 10 rounds of 10 questions per round. The winning team is the team with the highest number of right answers.
A team consists of four students. They can be freshman, sophomores, juniors, or seniors. Unlike previous years, we will not be able to accept any alternates or substitutes during the competition unless there is an emergency.
ORGANIZING LOCAL TEAMS
There are 43 local competitions around the country. The winners of local competitions are invited to compete at the national competition, held in Washington, DC each spring. Since 2007, all teams must win a local competition in order to qualify for the national competition.
Local councils support their teams in a variety of ways, including contributing towards travel expenses to the national competition.
If you are a student or teacher and would like more information about getting involved in Academic WorldQuest, Contact Us, or call 407.321.1136 to speak to a WACCFL staff member.
