AGazine, January 2016 – Academic Games Leagues of America

The Online Magazine of the Academic Games Leagues of America

News & Notes

Down Memory Lane

Past AGazines

News and Notes

Presidents Questions for Nationals

AGLOA is in need of Presidents question writers for the 2016 National Tournament in Atlanta.

The guidelines for writing questions, as listed in the Presidents Tournament Rules, are as follows.

6-point clue	This statement should be relatively obscure, yet specific enough to limit the answer to just one possible president. It should require intensive knowledge of American History and/or personal facts about the president.
4-point clue	This statement should give more information, perhaps including more history and/or personal facts. The Presidents Chart often might be used to help narrow the range but not uniquely identify the President. For 2015-16, in Elementary and Middle Divisions, the four point or two point clues may contain something about Presidential Quotes. In the Junior and Senior Divisions, the four or two point statement may contain something about Presidential Quotes and/or Occupations and Posts and/or one of the special U.S. Leaders.
2-point clue	This statement should make the choice obvious. It should include something unique from the Presidents Chart or something in the president’s era that is obvious or a very well-known fact about the president.

Also, for Junior/Senior Divisions #1-24 only, clues may contain information about U. S. Leaders Group 3: Henry Clay, Benjamin Franklin, William Lloyd Garrison, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, John Marshall, Daniel Webster

Here’s an example of a bad 6-point clue for presidents 1-12.
"I was born in the North. The president who succeeded me was from a different party from me."
That clue allows players to limit the answer to John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and Martin Van Buren. But it does not contain enough information to describe just one president.
Adding "I served as Secretary of State before becoming president" eliminates John Adams but leaves the other two. However, "I served as both Secretary of State and Vice President before becoming president" uniquely describes Van Buren within the range 1-12.

Upcoming Academic Games Events

January

19	Palm Beach Academic Games League (PBAGL) Social Studies Tournament Round 3 (Current Events, Theme) New Orleans Academic Games League (NOAGL) Presidents Tournament Jr/Sr #25-4
20	Deadline for leagues to submit estimated numbers for nationals NOAGL Presidents Tournament El/Mid #13-24
21	Beaver County Academic Games League (BCAGL) World Events Tournament – all divisions
26	PBAGL Social Studies Tournament Round 3 (Current Events, Theme)
27	Western Pennsylvania Academic Games League (WPAGL) LinguiSHTIK Tournament Midwest Intermediate Unit 4 (PA) Presidents Tournament Grades 5-8
28	NOAGL Presidents Awards Ceremony at World War II Museum
29	St. Bernard Parish Tournament El/Mid – Presidents 1-12, Equations

February

1	EQUATIONS AND ON-SETS JUDGES TESTS AVAILABLE
2	PBAGL Social Studies Tournament Round 4 (World Events Theme0 BCAGL Equations Tournament – All Divisions
3	Midwest Intermediate Unit 4 (PA) Equations Tournament 7-12
10	Midwest Intermediate Unit 4 (PA) Equations Tournament 3-6
13	Charlotte Mecklinburg Academic Games Regional Tournament – Presidents 1-14, Propaganda Sections A and B, World Events Round 1, Equations Rounds 1-2-3
14	Charlotte Mecklinburg Academic Games Regional Tournament – Presidents 15-24, Propaganda Sections C and F, World Events Round 2, Equations Round 4
16	BCAGL LinguiSHTIK Tournament – All Divisions

If you do not see your league’s events above, please send your calendar.

Down Memory Lane

I Think, Therefore … I Play: Celebrating 50 Years of Academic Games, prepared by Stu White for the 2015 tournament in Orlando, is a treasure trove of memories. Here’s one of the many stories in this magnificent publication.

Jennifer Jacobs Agosti won an Outstanding Senior Award at the national tournament at Rock Eagle, GA, in 1988. Here is part of her tribute to Academic Games that she wrote for the 50th Anniversary.

I graduated from Nova High School (Fort Lauderdale, FL) in 1988 and went off to Yale University where I got my B.A. in Political Science and then to the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard to get my Masters in Public Policy where I fortunately met my future husband. (Mike grew up in Michigan,south of Detroit, and was fascinated to know how much I seemed to know about Detroit Renaissance and Cass Tech.) …

I certainly would never think of myself as any sort of AG star, just a gal who loved the challenge, camaraderie, competition, and fun that came with AG. Highlights for me include sleeping in the luggage rack on the bus to Georgia, the last-stop Waffle House before arriving at Rock Eagle, and facing those ham hocks and hockey pucks, the wooded path with pine cones, our pale blue Broward County jackets, coaching the middle school team and a legendary finals LinguiSHTIK match where I faced off against Eric Cox, my closest friend in the games. Eric and I traded positions all year long at regional competitions so it was fitting that we would end up together at finals. We agreed that we just wanted to tie. We were told we couldn’t decide that, we’d actually have to play. So we played. And we simply made sure that we tied. We traded back and forth, a little challenge thrown in for good merit, but we made sure that the score would be even at the end. It was just perfect. Competition to the end—but all in the spirit of friendship.

My thinkers are sitting next to me at this moment—bookends on my office bookshelf. The kids love to imitate them. They’re still just as beautiful as they were when I first got them.

Jennifer Jacobs (left) with the other 1988 Outstanding Seniors, Chad Hood (center left), and Kevin Crawford (far right) and Bro. Neal Golden (center right)