“Brain Brawl in the duval ”
Duval County’s Academic Challenge
www.duvalschools.org/acadcomp
Brain Brawlers!
I hope you and your teams have had a great week and are looking forward to a restful holiday season. I have been busy trying to find a location and production crew and facilities and here is our long-awaited update…
Location
The matches for the month of January will be held at the Duval County Public Schools Building at 1701 Prudential Dr on the 5th floor in Room 513D. This is the larger conference room on the floor and should accommodate both teams and a few spectators quite comfortably. There is also a cafeteria with vending machines and comfortable seating where teams can congregate and await their matches. The central location and ease of parking now that the adjacent overflow lot is open make it accessible to all our Brain Brawlers.
Schedule
I have received and heard of a few requests for changes of dates and times as we go forward. Essentially, the schedule does not work perfectly for any school’s calendar and bell schedule; however, all proposed changes to benefit one seem to bother another. In the interest of fairness, we will keep the dates and times we agreed upon and as dictated by the draw and bracket. Suggestions for next year’s general revision of Brain Brawl format are welcome at anytime.
Taping/Broadcast
I have had talks with Douglas Anderson, F.H. Peterson and WJCT. Everyone has been very receptive, though it is difficult putting all the pieces together with our late start. WJCT is very interested in taping Brain Brawl and are willing to have us in their studio once renovations are complete in late February/early March or to send a production truck and crew to another location. Douglas Anderson’s focus has switched to film and their upper level students are not prepared to work on Brain Brawl, though they may be able to allow a WJCT production crew to tape in their studio. F.H. Peterson is very interested in hosting Brain Brawl again, but their students are not prepared to do the work and they need some studio upgrades. So it seems our best option is to hold the January matches without taping and work on the options for February.
Rosters
Please remember that beginning January 7, there can be no additions to your team’s roster. If necessary please send in your updated roster as soon as possible.
Questions
Remember we will be using new questions beginning in January. Certainly with something different and new, there will be some challenges to work around, but the age and over-use of our old questions make this a definite improvement!
Thanks for making Brain Brawl a “Competition with High IQ: Integrity and Quality!”
Clay Austin
Supervisor, Social Studies
Duval County Public Schools
1701 Prudential Dr.
Jacksonville, FL 32207
904.390.2675
"Teaching is... a process of directing students in the harnessing of their emotions to provide the energy both to train their behaviour and to educate their awareness." John Mason