TAG at Robert Gray

  • International Academic Competitions!

    Greetings Parents, Teachers, Students, and Friends of International Academic Competitions!

     

    We hope that you had a great summer and that the new academic year has started well for you and your family. With everyone back now in school or homeschool classes, IAC is delighted to announce the start of this year’s National History Bee, National Geography Bee, and National Science Bee! Both our Online Regional Qualifying Exams (the first stage for each of these competitions for students in grades K-8) and the Regional Finals that have been scheduled so far are now open for registration. Please read further for a number of important things to keep in mind regarding this year’s events:

     

    Registration System

    This year, we have a new registration system for our Elementary & Middle School Divisions. The registration system will allow you to keep track of your student(s) and what competitions they have been registered for as well as update/change those registrations. The system will save your information in your account for easy registration for our events. A link to the registration system can be found here. The process for using the registration system is below:

    • Visit the IAC Registration Page
    • Click “Sign up here” - found just below the Login button
    • Once you have created your account, click “Students.”
    • Click “Register a new student” button and fill this out for each student you wish to be able to register for a Regional Final 
    • Once you have registered your student(s), you can click “Tournaments.”
    • On the Tournaments tab you can select the tournament you wish to register for by clicking the blue hyperlink
    • At the top of the page there is a “Student” drop down box. Select the student you want to register and then fill out the requested contact information
    • Select which events you wish to register for
    • Click “Continue” and you will be taken to the screen to submit payment for the registration fees

     

    Study Guides Available

    Study Guides for our first set of questions, the Red Set, are now available on our resource page. 

     

    Change to our Divisions

    Where the numbers allow, we will be splitting the 4th grade and under division in two: 4th grade & 3rd Grade and Younger. This will be done on a case by case basis as not every tournament will have a sufficient number of 4th graders to create their own division. We can guarantee that at Nationals, however, there will be a separate 3rd Grade and Younger Division, and students in 3rd Grade and younger now only need to finish in the top 50% of students at any Regional who are in 3rd Grade and younger, even if playing in a combined division with 4th graders at Regionals.

     

    Hosting for In-Person Tournaments

    We are always on the lookout for and welcome new host site locations for our in-person tournaments! We normally run tournaments on a Saturday or Sunday. To run a competition at your school, we would need access to at least 10 to 15 classrooms throughout the day and a larger gathering area like a cafeteria or auditorium for check-in and announcements. Our typical daily schedule runs from approximately 8am - 6pm to run a full tournament including all of our bees.

     

    We need someone on site to open the door and be on site for any issues that would be site related. Typically we provide all the staff for the tournament which includes a Tournament Director, an Assistant Tournament Director, and Moderators/Readers (These are all paid positions). If you have folks interested in being moderators/readers we can happily run them through our reader evaluation process. We will also provide buzzers, questions, and awards. Host schools also receive a stipend for hosting that is commensurate with the total number of competing students. 

     

    If you are interested in hosting an in-person tournament please fill out this form and we will be in touch with more information.

     

    Elementary & Middle School Bowl Teams at Varsity/Junior Varsity Events

    Middle and Elementary students who are interested in our team event, the National History Bowl will have the opportunity to participate in this event at our Varsity/JV Regional competitions. Bowl teams can be made up of between one and 6 students, with up to 4 competing at any one time. Elementary and Middle School students can participate in any of the Varsity and JV History Bowl events.  Some of our events, including our online tournaments, will have a designated Middle School Division. Where there is not a separate division, Middle and Elementary School teams will be able to compete in the JV Division.