On your mark...get set...solve!

Teaching Pre K-8, Jan 1999 by Gonzalez, Jay

Presenting Hexathlon, a day of math, science, racing and cheers

The first day after Spring break was a different sort of day for the sixth and seventh graders at Berkeley Hall, an independent, traditional school in Los Angeles. Instead of a long day in the classroom, they found themselves huddled around tables, racing to complete a series of math word problems and cheering runners as they sprinted to the judges.

Later, groups puzzled over cardboard boxes filled with an unusual assortment of objects and debated with each other about what kind of society produced the artifacts. The events were part of an Academic Hexathlon (so named because there were six events), created by junior high and intermediate teachers to engage and challenge students in a unique learning adventure.

The idea originated as I watched a rainy-day gym class having a good time playing a team version of the vocabulary game, "Hangman." Students were completely engrossed in the activity as they helped each other with suggestions, raced answers to the board, cheered and worked collaboratively to solve the problems and support their team. It was an exciting event to watch.

I shared my observations with other teachers and together we formulated a rough idea for a pilot program based on what I'd seen. Drawing on their own experiences, the junior high teachers developed an original outline for a day-long event to incorporate English, math, social studies and science.

The teachers decided on a pilot program for the sixth and seventh grades which would give intermediate and junior high teachers an opportunity to work together. The program would also provide a way to introduce younger students to junior high.

The day included a combination of physical and mental activities designed to promote critical thinking, creativity and cooperative learning. Students were organized into cross-grade teams of four and presented with a series of math, science, English and social studies events. The ninth grade was asked to help set up and monitor the events and to judge several competitions.

The mathematics and science sections were divided into question-and-answer events and a separate problem-solving session that required cooperative teamwork.

Math paths. The math section opened with a series of written word problems that each team had to solve. Once a team had the answer to a problem, a runner would race with it, around a prescribed course, to the judges who declared the response correct or not. The runner would then obtain the next problem from the judge and race back to the team to solve it.

There was a 30-minute time limit in which to solve as many problems as possible. Each right answer scored one point. Then teams were presented with a problem to be solved through a team approach. Science Bowl. The first part of the science section of Hexathlon was a Science Bowl event. Teams were presented with a series of questions; the first team giving the correct answer scored a point.

Another hands-on problem-solving session followed. Teams were asked to build a paper tower out of two sheets of 81/2" x 11" paper. The only tools allowed were a pair of scissors, three paper clips and a ruler to measure progress. The winning tower was over four feet tall!

For the social studies event, teams were presented with a cardboard box containing artifacts purportedly belonging to an unknown cvi-- lization. In the box were shards of pottery, a small bunch of wild grass, a cassette tape of music, paper with unusual writing (some pieces of an Arabic newspaper), a safety pin, a brick, some obviously religious drawings, a small figurine and one or two other items. Each team was asked to evaluate the various artifacts and create a profile of the civilization that produced them.

The students had to describe the culture in terms of its religion, economics, environment and social life. The teams had about 45 minutes to evaluate the artifacts and prepare an oral presentation of their profile before a group of judges.

The English section utilized ideas from the social studies presentations to form a debate topic. The premise of the debate stated, "Only a society that can adapt and take the best from other cultures can survive."

Formal debate. There was a formal debate structure, complete with opening statements, formal arguments, rebuttal and concluding statements. Teams were then divided arbitrarily into opposing sides and a series of elimination debates were held, ending with two victorious teams, who went head-to-head in front of the entire junior high. The winner was chosen by a panel of ninth grade judges.

Total points for the day were tallied and, much to our surprise, we discovered that four teams were tied for first place. The teachers decided to have a sudden-death Science Bowl to determine the overall winner. A brief awards ceremony followed at the end of the day, in which teams were given certificates and school-wide recognition.

Positive response. Feedback from both teachers and students was overwhelmingly positive. Comments ranged from, "Wouldn't it be great if we could teach like this all the time?" to "We had so much fun playing the games, and then we realized how much we'd learned."