Professor Quiz Bowl 2003


The competition will be held Wednesday, May 28th, at 7 pm in the Hansen Student Center.  Currently, nine professors have indicated interest in participating:

John Ernst (Psychology)
Joan Friedman (Business/Accounting)
Sonja Fritzsche (MCLL/German and Eastern European Studies)
Carl Gillett (Philosophy)
Stephen Hoffmann (Chemistry, Environmental Studies)
Narendra Jaggi (Physics)
Sammie Robinson (Business)
Mike Theune (English)
Curtis Trout (Theatre)

This event is offered in conjunction with Student Senate.

Here are a couple of sample quiz bowl question packets to help prepare for PQB 2003:

Popular Culture ("Trash" in QB-speak)

Traditional Academic Questions

These packets are written at the approximate level of the second round we will play.  The first round will be played with high school-level questions to get everyone warmed up.

Below is a description of the format and rules for PQB 2003:

   There are two types of questions in Quiz Bowl: one is the tossup, and
the other is the bonus.  Tossups are worth ten points, and bonii, which
usually consist of multiple questions, are typically worth a total of thirty
points. The game starts as a tossup is read.  You can't talk to your
teammates during or after the reading of the tossup.  When you think you
know the answer, you buzz in and answer.  You can buzz in any time during
the reading of the tossup or within five seconds after its finish.  After
buzzing in, you have three seconds in which to begin your answer.
    If you get the question wrong and buzzed in during the question, your
team loses 5 points, and no one else on the team can attempt to answer the
question.  The reading of the question is then finished for the opposing
team, whose players receive no penalty for answering incorrectly during the
question.  If you miss the question after the reading is over, you don't
lose any points, but no one on your team can make any more guesses, and the
opposing team has five seconds in which to answer the question.  If you get
the question right, your team gets a chance at the bonus question.
    During the reading of a bonus question, you can confer with your
teammates.  You will usually need to be conferring during the question,
because your team must answer within three seconds after the completion of
the question.  One member of the team is designated as the captain, and
delivers the answer for the bonus; however, if one member of the team has
special expertise in the question topic (can pronounce the answer properly,
for instance), the captain may designate that person to answer.  There is no
penalty for incorrect answers to bonii.  Most bonii consist of several
interrelated questions totalling thirty points, but the 30-20-10 (or its
variants) consists of a series of clues.  If you get the answer after the
first clue, you get thirty points; if you get it after the second, you get
twenty; etc.  Only the team which correctly answered the associated tossup
question will have an opportunity to answer the bonus.  After the bonus is
completed, another tossup is begun.
    To make the game a bit more interesting, we'll also be playing with one
non-standard rule: the "punt."  If, after listening to the first question of
a bonus (or the first clue of a 30-20-10),  you don't think that you can
answer any of the bonus parts very well, you can punt it to the other team.
Then, they have to answer each part of the bonus.  They receive no points
for this effort, but your team receives all of the points out of thirty that
they missed.  For instance, if your team punts a bonus with three ten point
questions and the opponents answer one part correctly, you receive twenty
points.  Your team may punt once per match.
    At the end of the game, the team with the higher score wins.  In case of
a tie, we will use a sudden-death tossup tiebreaker.  Extra tossups will be
read one by one, and the team that answers correctly first will win.
    We'll play with matches of 25 tossups each; the number of bonii read
will depend on your tossup performance.  There will be a loose distribution
of topics as follows: (Tossup/Bonus)  4/4 Science and Math, 4/4 History, 3/3
Other Social Sciences, 4/4 Literature, 3/3 Music, Visual Art, and Dance, 3/3
Religion, Mythology, and Philosophy, and 4/4 Popular Culture.

Questions or comments? Direct them to Joe Binder.