Houston High School 9755 Wolf River Blvd. Germantown, TN 38139
Location
Houston High School 9755 Wolf River Blvd. Germantown, TN 38139
Cost
$5 for Registration $8 for T-Shirt (Design Below)
Tentative Schedule
7:30 – 8:00 AM Arrive at Houston High School (Cafeteria)
7:30 – 8:00 AM Art Contest Registration (Hall of Champions)
7:30 – 11:30 AM Hospitality Room for Sponsors & Chaperones (M 21)
8:05 – 8:15 AM Opening Assembly (Cafeteria)
8:20 – 9:05 AM Academic Testing (Cafeteria)
8:20 – 11:30 AM Game Room / Student Concessions (Main Lobby)
9:15 – 11:30 AM Movie (Auditorium)
9:15 – 10:30 AM Costume Contest & Airing of Grievances Contest (M33) N.B. These events will run concurrently
9:15 – 10:00 AM Mythology Spelling Bee (Study Hall)
9:15 – 10:30 AM Catapult Contest & Feats of Strength Contests (Landers Stadium) N.B. These events will run concurrently
9:30 – 10:30 AM Trigon Tournament (A-building plaza)
9:45 – 10:30 AM Escape Room (Circulation Library)
10:30 – 11:00 AM Open Certamen (Latin 1/2, 1, and 2) (Reference Library, M16, M11) N.B. For Open Certamen, there will be signup at the time of registration.
11:00 – 11:30 AM Open Certamen (Latin 3, 4, and 5) (Reference Library, M16, M11) N.B. For Open Certamen, there will be signup at the time of registration.
11:35 – 11:55 PM Awards Assembly and Dismissal (Auditorium)
N.B. There is no prior signup required for most of these events. Student should just show up at scheduled time.
Service Project We will have a book drive during the Festivus. Please bring books to donate!
Contests
I. Art Contests
Guidelines:
Participants should bring art contest submissions to the art judging area in the Hall of Champions before the start of academic testing.
Each art submission should have an index card taped to the back that has contains the following information: Student Name, school, Latin teacher.
Memes MUST be signed by teacher ensuring appropriate content.
A. “Scenes from the Aeneid” Contest: For this contest, students will depict a person, event, or other scene from the Aeneid. Students may submit any artwork from any medium (painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, etc.) that can be defined as a portrait. All media will be judged together. The subject should be any individual or group that is connected to the Classical World (historical, mythological, etc.), or a more modern reimagining of a Classical subject. Judging will consider artistic execution, originality, faithfulness to the subject matter, and theme. The top three pieces will receive awards regardless of student’s level of Latin or medium.
B. AeneidMeme Contest: Back by popular demand, students will submit memes which in some way reference something from one of the 12 books of Vergil’s Aeneid. For this contest, you might broadly characterize these memes as “humorous captions on pictures that only students of Latin would get.” This contest is meant to be light-hearted and enjoyable, so memes should avoid ad hominem attacks or touchy, controversial subject matter. The top three memes will receive awards regardless of student’s level of Latin. Each school may enter up to five memes.
II. Academic Testing
Guidelines:
We will have two separate tests this year: Vocabulary and Mythology.
All students are expected to take at least one test and are encouraged to take both.
Each test will consist of 50 multiple choice questions, scored by machine.
All students, regardless of level of Latin, will take the exact same tests.
For the purpose of awards, however, there will be three categories: Levels 1/2 and 1, Level 2, and Levels 3, 4, and 5. The top three students for each test in each level will receive awards.
A. The Vocabulary test will be based on the official TJCL list.
B. The Mythology test will cover a variety of mythological topics.
III. Mythology Spelling Bee
Guidelines:
There will be just one bee for all students; level of Latin will NOT be a factor.
Each school may enter up to five contestants.
Awards will go to the top three students overall.
All spellings of Greek and Roman mythological characters will be based on the index of Morford’s Classical Mythology. The moderator will pronounce the character’s name and give a brief description of the character. The speller may request for this information to be repeated, but word etymology and contextual examples will not be provided. The speller must complete the word within 30 seconds. If a speller stops, he/she may start over from the beginning, but verbal blunders may NOT be corrected. (For example, “Aphrodite. A-P-R – I mean, A-P-H-R . . .” would NOT be acceptable.) Spellers may not use pencil, paper, or electronic devices. Spellers will be lined up in random order, and words will be called out according to a predetermined random sequence. If a student spells the word correctly, he/she advances to the next round. If a student spells the word incorrectly, he/she is eliminated from the competition. In general, words will be arranged according to both familiarity and difficulty. As the competition goes along, words will become progressively more obscure and/or difficult. If need be, the moderator will go to a list of provincial names, Roman historical figures, and Roman authors for tiebreakers.
Students should dress up in a costume of classical relevance (mythological figure, historical figure, inhabitant of the ancient world, etc.).
Each contestant will be expected to say a few words about who they are and to explain any relevant features of their costume. There is no spending limit per se, but costumes should be, as much as is possible, homemade.
Judging will be based on originality, accuracy, and the quality of the verbal presentation. Level of Latin will NOT be a factor in this contest.
Each school may enter up to five contestants. Awards will go to the top three students.
V. Airing of Grievances Contest
In this contest, students will speak in the voice of one classical character, and they will “air grievances” towards another character who has somehow done them wrong. NEW THIS YEAR: we will focus on characters from the Aeneid in our invective (Think about Iarbus, Turnus, Dido, Juno, etc.)
Students should assume the character of the wronged party and deliver a first person monologue, directly addressing the speech to the person who has wronged them.
Before starting, the student should tell judges who the characters are (e.g., “I am Dido, and I will be airing grievances at Aeneas”) and then begin the presentation.
Presentations should be in English and should be three to five minutes in length. Students may not use any notes.
Students should base their presentations on classical sources but should speak in their own words. They should not, for example, recite one of Dido’s speeches that they have memorized from a translation of the Aeneid.
Students may use costumes and/or props if they choose, but they are not required to do so.
Judging will be based on accuracy, level of detail, creativity, and the emotional impact of the airing of grievances. Level of Latin will NOT be a factor in this competition.
Two students from each school may participate. Awards will go to the top three students overall.
VI. Feats of Strength Contest (weather and field conditions permitting)
A. Discus (Frisbee) Throw: The objective is to throw a frisbee as far as possible. Distance will be marked from the spot of first contact with the ground (and not after bouncing, rolling, etc.). Each contestant will receive two throws. Students may not bring their own specialized frisbees.
B. Javelin (Pool Noodle) Throw: The objective is to throw a pool noodle as far as possible. Distance is measured from the final position furthest from the starting line. Each participant receives two throws.
Guidelines:
For the throwing events, boys and girls will compete separately.
Each school may enter up to five contestants. Coed schools may enter up to five boys and five girls.
Level of Latin will NOT be a factor in this event. Awards will go to top three boys and the top three girls for each event.
C. TrigonTournament: Back by popular demand, MUS has graciously offered to organize a tournament of ancient Roman game of trigon. To learn more about this eternal game and the rules, see this video. Each school may enter up to three contestants. Level of Latin and gender will NOT be a factor in this event. Awards will go to the final three contestants.
VII. Catapult Contest (weather and field conditions permitting) Catapults must be reasonably authentic to the Roman era and must be operative. They should be of the onager or mangonel variety.
Categories: A. Small – No more than 12 inches tall B. Medium – No more than 3 feet tall C. Large – More than 3 feet tall
Winners will be determined by the distance of the catapulted item. Each catapult with have three chances to shoot. Small catapults will shoot marshmallows; medium and large catapults will shoot tennis balls. No more than three catapults per school per category. Students may work on the catapults as individuals or in groups (of up to three people). Awards will be given to the top three catapults in each category. Level of Latin will NOT be a factor in this competition.
VIII. Escape Room
Guidelines:
Students need to sign up in advance, as they will be randomly assigned to teams before the competition
Additional students may sign up on the morning of the competition as space allows.
Sponsors may pre-register four participants regardless of level of Latin on the registration form.
No awards will be given, but much fun will be had!
Students are members of the Praetorian Guard, an elite group of soldiers who serve as protectors to The Emperor and, as such, hold the fate of the Roman Empire in their hands. A mysterious threat has been made against the emperor’s life, and to ensure his safety and the future of the empire, students must follow a trail of clues which has accidentally been left to find the enemy’s battle plans. If the soldiers are able to foil the plot before the belligerents arrive, they can protect their leader and successfully return to the time of Pax Romana.
IX. Open Certamen
Two levels of competition: Lower Level (½, 1, and 2) and Upper Level (3, 4, and 5)
Students will not compete as a school team. Instead, students will be assigned to random teams with students from other schools. The reason for doing it like this is (1) for students to interact with students from other schools in a positive fashion and (2) to create a kinder, gentler Certamen experience for everyone. This will not be a tournament format. Each team will play one round of Certamen. The three highest-scoring teams in each level will receive awards at the assembly. Each school may pre-register up to five contestants per level (i.e., five for Lower Level and five for Upper Level). Schools may enter additional contestants on the morning of the competition as space allows.
General Certamen rules and procedures (via TJCL):
A Certamen round consists of twenty toss-up questions (worth ten points each) and two bonus questions (worth five points each) after each toss-up.
As the moderator is reading a toss-up question, any person on any of the competing teams may signal, indicating a desire to answer the question.
If a player interrupts the reading of a toss-up question by signaling, the moderator will stop reading the question at that moment.
After being recognized verbally by the Certamen machine operator, the person who signals must give an answer promptly (within a couple of seconds) without receiving any assistance from teammates and without asking for the question to be repeated or for any word(s) to be spelled.
If the person who signals first on a toss-up question gives an unacceptable answer, no other member of the same team may signal and give an answer to that toss-up question.
If no other team has signaled after the incorrect answer, the moderator will repeat the question for the other team(s) until another team signals or the moderator has read the toss-up question twice.
If no team answers the toss-up question correctly, the moderator will move to the next toss-up question, and the procedure begins again.
At no time during the reading of a toss-up question may any player communicate with his or her teammates in any way. Such communication will result in the disqualification of that team for that toss-up question.
Each correctly answered toss-up question earns that team two bonus questions. Team members are allowed to discuss bonus questions before answering. There will be a fifteen-second time limit for bonus questions.
Answers to bonus questions should be given by a previously-determined team captain or by a designee of the captain.
Certamen questions generally cover Latin language, derivatives, classical mythology, Roman history, Roman life, and in the advanced level of competition, classical literature.
If the moderator does not understand a player's pronunciation of a specific word or name, they may ask the player to spell. The player must then spell the word exactly if it is a Latin form, and nearly exactly if it is a proper noun.
Players may always elect to spell a word rather than pronounce it, but the same rule applies.
Players are allowed to use paper and pencil during competition, but this will not be provided by the moderator.