Student Competitions

 

 

History Day in California is an exciting, history-based learning experience, for students in grades 4 through 12, who not only learn about issues, ideas, people and events in history, but they apply what they have learned through creative and original productions. Beyond simply memorizing names and dates and reporting on historical events, History Day students develop invaluable research and analytical skills as they process the information gathered through intensive research and draw their own conclusions about their topic’s significance in history.

 

Participating in historical research can be like solving a mystery. You have an initial question that you must find evidence regarding and interpret findings so you can determine the answer. History Day is an opportunity to take a topic of your choice and create an original project that combines your research and creativity. Students become historians and experts!

 

The Kern County Oral Language Festival is an opportunity to share quality children’s literature and feature students’ abilities to interpret the literature in an oral format for a community audience. Students memorize and present their interpretation of a published literary work written by a known author. Presentations are 3-5 minutes in length with grades 4-6 and grades 7-8 competing separately. Categories of competition are Verse Choir, Humorous Interpretation Solo, Humorous Interpretation Duo, Serious Interpretation Solo and Serious Interpretation Duo.

 

A spelling bee is a competition in which contestants are asked to spell a broad selection of words, with a varying degree of difficulty. Competitions are held at every site in our district and top scoring students progress to additional competitions. To compete, contestants must memorize the spellings of words as written in dictionaries, and recite them accordingly when asked.

 

Students are invited to become a scientist and use the scientific method to make new and wonderful discoveries. Upon completion of their project, students are interviewed to demonstrate understanding of their display, log book and their hypothesis. Entries are judged on scientific thought/engineering goals, creativity, organization, completeness, clarity, effort and motivation. Top students move on from school competition to the county level. Hundreds of 4th through 12th graders annually participate in the Kern County Science Fair for a chance to move onto the California Science Fair. 

 

Established in 1955 for 7th and 8th graders, the Henry Greve Speech Contest offers students the opportunity to present four-and-a-half to seven-minute speeches on a given topic. The competition, sponsored by Bakersfield Toastmasters “Golden Empire” Club No. 270 and the Kern County Superintendent of Schools Office, awards trophies to first, second and third place finishers. The champion’s perpetual trophy goes on display at the winner’s school for one year.

 

Battle of the Books is a voluntary reading program intended to encourage students to read literary sound books and have fun while competing with peers. This competition exposes students to a variety of genres and authors; to books they may not normally read. The list of titles has books above, at, and below the reading level of the given grade span. This allows students of all reading abilities an opportunity to be involved. Battle of the Books asks participating 3 rd grade students to read a minimum of 12/15 titles. Students in 4 th -6 th grades are asked to read a minimum of 18/28 titles. Middle school students in grades 6th-8th read 20/28 titles. 4-6th graders are placed on mixed school teams to compete by answering questions about approved books they have read. The competition is broken up into three divisions: North, Central and South county schools. A separate event for 6-8th graders is also held. Students read from the “Standard 28 book list” which can be found on the following webpage: https://kern.org/student-events/english-language-arts/battle-of-the-books/

 

Sponsored and judged by Bank of America employees, students in grades four through six have to write an essay on the same given theme. The best essayists in preliminary competition deliver their essay as a speech in their grade levels. Bank of America’s South Sierra Valley Market and the Kern County Superintendent of Schools sponsor the competition, which awards trophies to all the finalists and Russo’s Books gift cards to the top three finishers in each grade level.