Academic Bowl Practice Questions & Resources
last updated 11/4/09
National Parks
English
- Grammar: English Club
- Parts of Speech: Interlink Language Center
Geography
- CIA - The World Factbook (courtesy of our own U.S. Central Intelligence Agency)
- Maps and other information from the United Nations Website (un.org)
- Test your geographic knowledge of different places (Lizardpoint.com)
- Interactive On-Line Maps and Large Maps (Owl & Mouse Educational Software)
- World Geography Games Interactive Learning Games (Sheppard Software)
- Interactive maps from I like to learn (Ilike2learn.com/ilike2learn)
- Lots of Maps and Facts (WorldAtlas.com)
- All sorts of printable maps from the U.S. Government Nationalatlas.gov
- Country Profiles (BBC)
- Encarta on-line maps
- Map and sounds of china from PBS.org
Presidents (Major Focus in 2008-2009 Season but not in 2009-2010)
- Scholastic Guide to Presidents (very short summary)
- White House Website Presidents of the United States (this will probably be adequate for most of the questions about their lives and times)
- Groliers (gives you 4 choices for articles from encyclopedias- Groliers choice
- POTUS (Presidents Of The United States)
- List of all the Presidents Ben's Guide
- Election Results 1789 to present Electionatlas.org
- American President, an Online Reference Resource, reviewed by prominent scholars on each president and administration, developed by the Miller Center of the University of Virginia
- TImeline of events Hoover through Clinton PresidentialTimeline.org
- Timeline of events 1761-1880 Timeline HyperHistory.com
- For a look at the times of different decades since the 1920's from an average person’s point of view ThePeopleHistory.com
- American Memory Timeline (U.S. Government website) " 'Settlement' to 1968"
- Use the (highly authoritative) Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (If they served in Congress, they are in here)
- Presidential Lists (listed by birth state, religion, military experience, etc.) Cannot vouch for accuracy, but a good concept
- Presidential Sticks (developed by GLEC, will be handed out at practice match)
Regions
- Mesopotamia:
- Minnesota State University: Fertile Crescent
- Egypt:
- Minnesota State University: Ancient Egypt
- Greece:
- Physical Map of Greece from freeworldmaps.com
- Greece Outline Map from mapsofworld.com
- Minnesota State University: Ancient Greece
- China:
- From China Highlights:
- Several different types of maps of China from Chinapage.com
- Interactive China provinces map from Chinatownconnection.com
- Physical map of China from freeworldmaps.com
- Physical/Political map of China from johomaps.com
- Washington State University: Ancient China
- British Museum Website (see their Babylon exhibit)
Our Communities
- Information about Andover from the town's official website, andoverma.gov
- Information about Lawrence from the city's official website, ci.lawrence.ma.us
- Information about Methuen from the city's official website, ci.methuen.ma.us
- Information about North Andover, from the town's official website, townofnorthandover.com
General
- Librarians' Internet Index "Websites you can trust"
- Virtual Middle School Library
- Scrabble Multiplication Practice (from 2008 Practice Match)
- Mass. D.O.E. Curriculum Frameworks
Math
Math questions will start out easy in the first match and get progressively harder until we've covered most of these challenges.
Formulas:
- 2D Know and be able to apply all the formulas for determining area and perimeter for squares, rhombuses, rectangles, parallelograms, trapezoids, triangles, circles, etc.
- 3D Know and be able to apply the formulas for determining the volume of a cube and cylinder.
Conversions:
- Be able to freely convert fractions, percents, and decimals back and forth.
- Specifically, be able to convert in your head any fraction with a denominator of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10 (and their multiples) to a percent or decimal and vice versa. (See sports math)
Sports Math
Pythagorean Theorem:
- Be able to find the third side of any right triangle, given the lengths of the other two.
- Be able to recognize the 3-4-5 and the 5-12-13 perfect squares in their multiples.
Multiplication Tables (and square roots):
- Know the squares of all numbers up to 20, and the square of 25.
- (Now you know the square root of 121, 144, 169, 196, 225, 256, 289, 324, 361, 400 and 625.)
Distance Rate and Time (D=RT)
- Be able to calculate in your head distance, rate, or time, given the other two. Difficult Example:
- A man gets on the Mass. Turnpike at 3:50 a.m. There is hardly any traffic. He travels 120 miles and gets off at 5:20 a.m. He is immediately issued a speeding ticket by the State Police, who were waiting the whole time by the toll booth. The man argues that the ticket is bogus because the police didn't even use his radar to clock his speed and wasn't even in a patrol car. The policeman says, "I can't tell you your fastest speed, but in order to travel those 120 miles in that space of time, you had to average ____ miles per hour, which is well over the speed limit."
Two Trains
- Be able to calculate the speeds, times, or distances involving two trains which travel in the same or opposite directions, same or different times, same or different speeds. Example:
- Two trains leave the station at the same time and travel in opposite directions. The first train travels three times faster than the second. After 5 hours they are 400 miles apart. How fast is each train traveling?
Hands of a Clock Questions
- What is the angle made between the hour hand and the minute hand when the time is:
- 6:00
- 3:00
- 4:00
- 11:00
- 5:30 (difficult)
Other Skills
- Be able to measure lengths and distances accurately to within 1/16" and create maps and timelines to scale. For example, 1 cm = 10 miles, or 1" = 8 years.
- Know the American system of measurement (inches, miles, quarts, etc.) as well as the metric system
Sample Problems:
- What is the area in square inches of a triangle with a base of one foot and a height of five inches?
- What is the perimeter of a rectangle which has an area of 4 square feet and where the long side is 4 times longer than the short side?
- 5/8 = ___ percent?
- The repeating decimal 0.444.. = what fraction?
- In a certain right triangle the largest side measures 15 feet. The smallest measures 9 feet. What is the length of the other side?
- 16 x 16 = ?
- The square root of 324 is ?
- A car averaging 50 miles per hour will take how many hours to travel 600 miles?
- Two trains leave the station at the same time and travel in opposite directions. The first train averages 30 miles per hour and the second 40 miles per hour. How far apart are they after three hours?
- On a map the distance between two cities which are 120 miles apart is 8 inches. What is the distance scale of the map? 1 " = ___ miles
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Recent Top Solutions to our "Scrabble Multiplication" Problems
Parthum-Bellesini BP Trojans Squad 4's Solution from 2008-2009 Match 16: 354,294 points +10% bonus = 389,723.4 points!!!
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| Frost-Doherty Squad 2's solution from 2008-2009 match 6 . The given letters spelled "PELOPONESSUS." | Bruce-Wood Hill Squad 2's solution from 2008-2009 match 5. The given letters spelled "NEBUCHADNEZZAR." |
Page Last modified: January 22 2010 23:11:26.