The U.S. History Bowl (USHB) and U.S. Geography Olympiad (USGO) took place at the school on Feb. 27. Directing the event was senior Bruce Lou, History Bowl captain.
The USHB and USGO are both similar to normal History Bowl in that they are buzzer based, with questions composed of hints that start out obscure and then become more obvious as more words are added.
Lou said he decided to host this competition because he had won last year, and the competition needed a Northern California host.
This allowed students from Saratoga High and other schools, such as Rio Americano from Sacramento, Milpitas High, Archbishop Mitty and Homestead, to put their U.S. history knowledge to the test. Twenty students attended, a number that exceeded Lou’s expectations.
Junior Nathan Ney won first place in the competition.
Among the students who competed was sophomore Bryant Chang, a member of the History Bowl team. He says that though the USHB is similar to History Bowl, the USHB focuses solely on U.S. history.
“While I am quite knowledgeable on subjects like historical figures and wars, I do not know as much about things such as Supreme Court cases and pieces of legislation,” said Chang.
As a sophomore, Chang had not yet taken APUSH, which he says would have given him an advantage. However, being a member of History Bowl, he was still quite prepared and given a chance to test out his self-studied American history knowledge.
Sophomore George Wang, who is also on the History Bowl team, participated in the USGO.
He finds it more familiar than normal History Bowl, which does not have such a focus on geography. Wang, who participated in written geography contests during middle school, enjoys geography, and thinks people do not fully understand why he enjoys it.
“A lot of people think that geography is just memorizing lists of places, but it’s actually learning about the world we live in,” Wang said.
Lou was impressed with the performances of Ney and Wang, and said that Wang “blew him away” with his knowledge of geography.
“The questions were pretty difficult and were all well written,” said Wang. “I got second place, but I didn’t really expect to get that, so I was pretty happy.”