In a grueling battle of knowledge, the National Honor Society (NHS) Brain Brawl team has won the Broward County championship for the second year in a row. The Brain Brawl team consists of seven members: junior Michael Treacy, and seniors Matthew Soree, Andrew Klauber, Phillip Gaddy, Francisco Rivera, Samir Khan and Kwesi Levy.
Brain Brawl is a competition between the different NHS delegations throughout the county. Subjects of the questions range from history to music to math to science and beyond. Teams earn points for answering questions correctly, faster than their opponents.
The north and south Broward County Brain Brawl champions went head to head at Stranahan High School Wednesday evening after each had won their area championships last month. Each of the teams had previously won over the 11-12 other school NHS teams in their area.
The competition was close at the end. With a final score of 175-150, the team achieved victory. The match came down to the last question. If the opposing team had answered the last question correctly and received all the bonus points, it could have won. The final question which could have turned the tide of the match was, “What is the smallest positive integer x such that f(x) is not prime if f(x)=x2+x+11?” However, the other team answered the question incorrectly resulting in an AHS victory.
“The questions are unbelievably tough. I’m amazed at the questions and then shocked when they know the answers,” said NHS advisor Ms. Diana Adams. “I am so proud of them, but not just because they answer the questions and win the matches. I’m proud of their attitudes. They have fun doing this, and while they are competitive, they don’t act like it’s a disaster if they miss a question. They laugh at their mistakes and move on. They’re fun to watch.”
