Six members of the varsity MasterMinds Team from Hoosick Falls Central School traveled to Schenectady, New York to tape a competition for an upcoming television broadcast. The taping was at Proctors Theater and the show will air in early 2016.
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The varsity MasterMinds team has 15 members, and for the taping any member that was interested could go, although teams for the television taping were limited to eight members.
The television program is a 30-minute show that features 27 schools from around the region, pitting them against one another to see which will win the title of MasterMinds.
Technology and Science teacher Tony Malikowski has been coaching the team for six years and explains MasterMinds as “like team Jeopardy, but answering questions instead of giving questions as answers.”
Mr. Malikowski explained the importance of having such a team. “This is one of the few things which is an academic competition and therefore it serves a very underserved group of students who may not be interested in sports, and that are usually good students.”
The experience itself is also challenging. Malikowski explained, “The other big benefit is that everything you learn in these walls (at HFCS) is fair game for questions; it’s not just science or art – you can have pop culture and current events. It also gives you two other things – one, you’re rewarded for good listening skills. Two, there is something about holding a buzzer, getting ready to answer questions, and then getting one right – that is an experience unto itself.”
The MasterMinds team is part of a seven team league and has six matches a year. Hoosick Falls High School is in Albany League #5, which is a mix of public and parochial schools.
Junior Emma Ganger Spivak was one of the students who competed and she was impressed with the experience. “Attending the TV Masterminds match at Proctors was a really interesting experience. Not only did we get a chance to compete in a more professional atmosphere with mics, game-show style lights and all, but we also were able to witness firsthand the process of making a television show.”
Senior Bernie DeVito was another student who competed and she said, “I joined Masterminds exclusively as a literature buff – and while I still feel that I am most knowledgeable in that subject area, I would now consider myself to be well acquainted with a plethora of topics. Masterminds not only challenges me to recall what I have already learned – but continues to introduce me to new subject matter that excites me.”
In addition to Spivak and Devito, other students who competed were Matthew Bulson, Bernard Davock, Katie Shultz, and Daniel Suite.
The team they played against for the television taping was from Burnt-Hills Ballston Lake High School. So far this year the HFCS team has 1 win, 1 loss with a total of 240 points, placing them in 3rd place in the league.
National History Bowl is something the team tries to qualify for each year. They have been to the national championships in Washington, D.C. twice in the last five years.
Public Access Broadcaster ‘Open Stage Media’ will air Masterminds on public TV channels 16 and 1301 on Time Warner Cable, and the program will also stream on openstagemedia.org. Broadcast dates TBA. [/private]