Academic Challenge Rescheduled For February 12

Academic Challenge Rescheduled For February 12

January 28, 2020 |

The Academic Challenge at East Central College will be rescheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 12, due to weather concerns.

ECC is anticipating more than 175 high school students from the area for the regional Academic Challenge. The event had been planned for Wednesday Feb. 5 but the date was changed due to the possibility of winter weather.

Students from Union, Washington, St. Francis Borgia Regional High School, St. Clair, Sullivan, Warrenton, Linn, Houston, Hallsville and Chamois will participate.

The Academic Challenge is a competition designed to challenge the best and brightest high school students, and involves a battery of tests in seven subject areas: math, biology, chemistry, physics, English, computer science and engineering graphics.

The tests are taken individually and prizes are awarded for top individual scores in each subject area and for top team scores.

Linda Arrington, Academic Advisor/Instructional for engineering at East Central College, noted that the tests are written by university faculty and are designed to present a challenge to the brightest students.

“The material is drawn from senior high school and freshman level college curriculum so as to present a bridge between secondary and higher education,” she said.

The Academic Challenge is in Missouri with about 40 to 50 high schools participating, but over 6,000 students from 400 high schools in Illinois participate in the annual event. This is the 21st year ECC has hosted the regional challenge. In addition to the tests the students will take part in a trivia competition in the theater and be treated to dinner prior to the evening awards ceremony.

The Challenge is divided into large and small school categories, with the top team and individual winners from the competition at ECC advancing to the sectional competition held at Missouri S&T in March.

For information about the Academic Challenge at ECC, call 636-584-6677. General information about Academic Challenge can be found at: https://castle.eiu.edu/academic_challenge/Start1.php.