The San Bernardino County Academic Decathlon competition will be held at a new site this year over two weekend dates - Jan. 26 and Feb. 2 - at Los Osos High School.
About 450 high school students have signed up to compete in this year's 36 annual competition that features 46 teams representing 24 high schools. Both weekends of the competition will take place at Los Osos High, located at 6001 Milliken Ave. in Rancho Cucamonga.
There are 10 academic events for students to compete, including written tests in the areas of math, economics, music, art, language/literature, science and social science. Students also write an essay, face a panel of interviewers and give impromptu and prepared speeches.
For the final event on Feb. 2, teams compete in a Super Quiz, a college bowl-style event consisting of multiple-choice questions. This year's overall competition theme is the 1960s, a transformational decade. Chaffey High School from the Chaffey Joint Union High School District is the seven-time defending county champion of Academic Decathlon.
Teams consist of nine students, three from each grade-point category: "A" (Honors), "B" (Scholastic) and "C" (Varsity). Students compete for individual and team awards.
This year's participating high schools and their districts are: Alta Loma High, Chaffey High, Colony High, Etiwanda High, Los Osos High, Montclair High, Ontario High and Rancho Cucamonga High, Chaffey Joint Union High; Chino Hills High and Don Lugo High, Chino Valley Unified; Kaiser High and Summit High, Fontana Unified; Citrus Valley High, Redlands East Valley High and Redlands High, Redlands Unified; Eisenhower High and Rialto High, Rialto Unified; Arroyo Valley High, San Bernardino High and San Gorgonio High, San Bernardino City Unified; and Cobalt Institute of Math and Science, Lakeview Leadership Academy and Victor Valley High, Victor Valley Union High. Aquinas High School, a private school, also is participating.
Winners and finalists from the Academic Decathlon will be announced at an awards banquet in February. The winning team and possible other qualifiers will represent the county at the statewide Academic Decathlon competition in March.