Trivial Pursuit Challenge

The Viking Challenge, in which high school students compete in a game of Trivial Pursuit, was held on Apr. 10 at the BTC.

“I think it went very well, the process went very smoothly this year, the kids were answering a lot more questions…and the kids really enjoyed it as well,” said Suzanne Brownrigg, Director of School Programs and Educational Outreach.

Prizes included a ThinkPad Android Tablet, $500 scholarships to Hudson Valley, computer software, and scientific multifunction calculators.

The coordinators and judges for this year’s Viking Challenge were Brownrigg, James Zubrick, Professor of Chemistry, Scott Hathaway, Associate Professor of English, Mark Petersen, Instructional Designer, Chris Helwig, Associate Dean Educational Outreach and Academic Services, and Sue Agan, Technical Assistant, School Programs.

Raffle prizes were also given out, which consisted of mugs, shirts, notebooks, sling bags, hoodies, sweaters, and Frisbees bought from the HVCC bookstore with donations from the Faculty Student Association.

There was food during breaks. Participants had a choice of pizza, cookies, vegetables, and other refreshments.

There were two rounds, an elimination session and a final round. There were five categories for this year’s contest: People and Places, History, Science and Nature, Sports and Leisure, and Arts and Entertainment.

The Wild Card category has been eliminated but questions from that category were incorporated into the game. A total of six teams were eliminated after the elimination round, and the winners of the first round moved on to the final round.

This year, a total of twelve schools participated in the Viking Challenge.

The winning teams were Maple Hill in first place, Troy High in second place, and Colonie High in third place.