STEM Academy has begun an academic decathlon team that English teacher Iva Hodges feels will be impactful.
Hodges and history teacher Nicole Olivas were awarded $5,100 for an Education Foundation grant titled Decathlon Dreams: Empowering Minds Through Academic Excellence & Rigor.
Hodges said the team is meant to last throughout the years. It’s not just a one and done.
“We don’t really have a lot of extracurriculars, so this was an opportunity to pull in an extracurricular activity for our kids to do that we could also compete,” Hodges said.
They are under the district’s Advanced Academics Services office, headed by Director of Advanced Academic Services Kristen Vesely.
Hodges said the students really have to want to be in decathlon.
“I went around last year, talking to every one of these students and many, many others, because we’re so small that I know all the students in high school. I announced it. I went to classes and talked to people. I started talking to different types of students, because it’s not just your top students. You have to have different levels … You have to have your A students, your B students, your C students, and it’s based on GPA,” Hodges said.
The A students want to do everything, but kids at the C level don’t necessarily want to do that.
“It’s a good social opportunity. We also get to compete. If we compete and we do well, we have the opportunity for kiddos to get scholarships at the state level, which is really exciting. I think we can be competitive enough in region to maybe go to state,” Hodges said.
She believes in her students, though.
“Our kids have the knowledge to do it. … They’re very good at using common sense to answer questions if they have a foundation,” Hodges said.
The program is starting with 22 students in 10th through 12th grade. They will have a practice meet Sept. 21 at Permian High School, then one at Odessa High School and then a district meet at George H.W. Bush New Tech Odessa in December. The regional meet is in January.
Hodges said they compete in the small school category. Last year, there were 35 small schools that competed in decathlon.
“The top six go to state, so that’s why it makes it kind of difficult … If we make it, that is fantastic. I’m super excited. But if we don’t, it will be something to build on and goals for the following year. One of the things I tell my students all the time is that I’m not so concerned with the results as I am their effort,” Hodges said.
“I just believe that our best effort will be competitive. I work with these kids every day,” she added.
This is Hodges’ sixth year at STEM Academy and she is always impressed with the students’ dedication and willingness to try new things, even those you wouldn’t expect. She’s nervous and excited about their decathlon journey, but the students jumped into it with her; they’re excited and want to help.
She had sessions over the summer and had at least 18 out of the 22 students attend. If they didn’t show up, she knew exactly where they were because they just wanted to tell her.
The students get class credit for decathlon and it’s classified as an independent English course, which is an elective credit for most of them. Students in English 4, it can count as their credit for English 4. For everyone else, it’s a weighted elective.
The more established programs at Odessa and Permian high schools, New Tech, Odessa Collegiate Academy have had “massive” success, so it’s intimidating, she said. But her fellow coaches have been very welcoming.
“Even though we compete against each other … we want the program to be successful in the district, so there’s no animosity between schools when it comes to decathlon. We all want to help each other out, and we all want to be successful,” Hodges said
When you compete, there are a total of 10 events over seven subjects — art, literature, music, economics, science, social science and math. The other three events are essay, speech and an interview where they have to write an academic resume. The judge asks them questions that are academically based.
The last event is Super Quiz, which is kind of like a game show where everybody on their team comes in, is asked questions and they score points based on whether they got the answer right.
The national decathlon’s topic this year is “Our Changing Climate.”
“So everything revolves around environmental science-type things, climate change-type things. A book we’re reading is Solar Storms, which deals with indigenous people and them wanting to build a dam over their land. It’s a fictional story based on real events,” Hodges said.
She noted that a lot of the students are in STEM’s career prep and practicum courses, which means they all have jobs or internships in addition to decathlon. They have after-school practices during the week and they review everything.
“I’ve very much enjoyed it so far. I have learned quite a bit,” Hodges said.
She added that the Education Foundation is such a huge resource because it funds things they might not be able to do otherwise. Last year, she started podcasting and they submit to the New York Times student podcasting contest.
“We have a better chance of actually winning that contest with better quality,” Hodges said.
Seventeen-year-old seniors Maci Jo Baker and Elise Jones were curious about decathlon.
“I’ve heard about it from other schools and so I wanted to learn what it was about,” Jones said. “It honestly helped with credits and stuff, with graduating.”
Baker said she had learned about decathlon growing up.
“And then Miss Hodges had a killer speech about joining decathlon. She was really great about this is why you should do it and I just fell right in,” Baker said.
They both said decathlon helps in other academics at school.
“We do a lot on campus, both Elise and I, and so it definitely helps,” Baker said.
On a recent Thursday, they were going over different literature sections. Each different group of students was given a section to talk about. They spent about a week going through it for a class presentation. That’s what they were doing Aug. 29.
“For our future competitions, I feel like this will help with analyzing anything that we need … If they have a hard essay topic, then it’ll be easier to dissect it and understand it,” Jones said.