As they have for the past eight years, Clark Lane Middle School hosted a Trivia Night for a serious cause.
This time the cavalcade of questions and answers raised close to $1,300 for the Foundation for Children with Cancer.
“This is for a really good cause,” Principal Michael Lovetere, the evening’s quiz master, said from the stage of the cafetorium.
This year 114 CLMS students, along with teachers and community members, divided into 37 teams.
And it seemed coming up with colorful names, complete with T-shirts, was part of the fun.
Competing this year were Polymath Redux, Sweet Tarts, and Pink Ladies, as well as the more droll Unknowns and the Generic Team Name.
One team called themselves the Politicians, because they counted Kathy Steward, the first selectman’s wife, in their ranks.
Rafka Hage, 14, and her friends decided to go with The Archuletas, after one of the contestants on American Idol.
“This is our first time doing the quiz,” she said. “It seemed like fun.”
“The quiz really has grown tremendously,” organizer and CLMS science teacher Tracy Bosco said. “The first year we had only six teams.”
Each team had four or five students along with two adults from the school and the community at large, with First Selectman Dan Steward among them.
The competition was organized in the manner of a pub quiz.
Each team had to answer 12 questions that were projected onto a movie screen above the stage over the course of three rounds.
Topics ranged from stuff only CLMS students would know, to current events, a little math, some history, and a dollop of popular culture.
The students had a head start on the questions, as they were posted on the walls in the halls at the school throughout the week. Plus, the school sponsored a mini-competition between homerooms in the week leading up to Trivia Night.
“There was some good-natured trash talking,” Bosco said.
Bosco, who before organizing this year’s competition used to participate in the quiz, missed some of the jitters that came along with it.
“I miss the suspense when they read off the answers,” she said.
And while The Unknowns came from behind to win, with 30 out of 36 correct besting Pistachios and Polymath Redux, Trivia Night was a unifying experience for Clark Lane.
Gerri Brander, a mathematics teacher at the school, said many of her students were enthusiastic throughout the week.
“It is a good thing for the school community,” she said.
1. Name all the teams at Clark Lane.
2. An exclamation point after a number means you multiply that number by every number below it all the way to one. What is this symbol called?
3. Name the three categories rocks can be classified as.
4. Which movie won Best Picture at the 2008 Oscars?
5. What are the six official languages spoken at the United Nations?
6. What is the highest grossing movie of all time?
7. What is the second lightest element?
8. How many prime numbers are between 50 and 70?
9. When was the American Civil War fought?
10. Who is the author of the novel Boy?
11. What is the three-word motto of the Olympic games, in English or Latin.
12. During whose presidency did man first walk on the moon?
13. In the following sentence, name the part of speech represented by “Mr. Lovetere”: The principal of our school, Mr. Lovetere, was once a student at Clark Lane Junior High.
14. Which two bones in the human body extend from the elbow to the wrist?
15. How many points would “trivia” score in Scrabble?
16. What major English city is closest to Sherwood Forest?
17. Name all the symbols that are used to make Roman numerals.
18. What is Connecticut’s state bird?
19. Name the child actor who starred in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Arthur and the Invisibles, and The Spiderwick Chronicles.
20. In which continent is the largest desert located?
21. Who was named most valuable player in Super Bowl XLII?
22. Who was the first African-American player in Major League Baseball?
23. What is the process of painting on fabric with wax on areas not to be dyed?
24. SpongeBob Squarepants is a fan of what superhero duo?
25. Who is on the $2 bill?
26. What is the second full moon in a calendar month called?
27. Name all the American states that begin with “M.”
28. Who has appeared on the Wheaties box more than any other athlete?
29. What is the largest lake in the United States?
30. What original color of M&Ms was removed between 1976 and 1987?
31. If you have 1,000 pennies, 1,000 nickels, 1,000 dimes, 1,000 quarters and 1,000 half dollars, how much money do you have?
32. What is the world’s second highest peak?
33. What organization has won the most Nobel Peace Prizes?
34. Madame Tussaud’s created wax figures of the Beatles in 1964. Who was the second pop group to be created in wax?
35. What does B.C.E. stand for?
36. Horton Hears a Who is the second film based on a Dr. Seuss book that starred Jim Carrey. What was the first?
Answers
1. Red, Yellow, Purple, Indigo, Tangerine, Silver, Crimson, Coral, Green 2. A Factorial 3. Igneous, Sedimentary, Metamorphic 4. No Country For Old Men 5. Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish 6. Titanic 7. Helium 8. Four (53, 59, 61, 67) 9. April 1861-April 1865 10. Roald Dahl 11. Citius, Altius, Fortius (Faster, Higher, Stronger) 12. Richard Nixon 13. Appositive 14. Radius
and ulna 15. Nine 16. Nottingham 17. I, V, X, L, C, D, M 18. Robin
19. Freddie Highmore 20. Antarctica 21. Eli Manning 22. Jackie Robinson 23. Batik 24. Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy 25. Thomas Jefferson 26. Blue moon 27. Michigan, Missouri, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Maryland, Montana, Massachusetts 28. Michael Jordan
29. Lake Superior 30. Red 31. $910 32. K2 (Mount Godwin-Austen) 33. International Red Cross 34. Spice Girls 35. Before Common Era
36. How The Grinch Stole Christmas