To introduce various academic teams on campus to students, Arcadia High School’s (AHS) ASB held An Academic Review for academic teams to showcase their activities on Apr. 16. Taking place at the courtyard in front of S-Building during lunch, the event featured 15 different academic teams: AHS Academic Decathlon, Applied Engineering, Destination Imagination, Engineering Design and Development, Government Team, History Bowl, Math Team, Ocean Science Bowl, Physics Team, Quiz Bowl, Science Bowl, Science Olympiad, Speech and Debate, USA Biology Olympiad, and VEX Robotics. 

In light of academic teams’ tryout season, many teams set up posters and QR codes that lead to application forms during the event. 

Speech and Debate, an academic team featured in the event, is a team that participates in weekend competitions where students get to choose from a variety of speech or debate events. There are five debate events, each of which involves preparing and presenting arguments for and against a specific topic in front of a judge. Speech also offers a variety of events in which students can write their own speeches or perform published scripts.

“Speech is very versatile, so if you’re interested in writing a speech about the world, then maybe Original Advocacy is for you, or maybe you like to act with friends, then Duo is for you,” said junior Kylee Alexander, one of the Speech and Debate officers. “I have been on the team for three years and I have nothing but good memories because of Speech and Debate. It is definitely something I would recommend to other students because the community in Speech and Debate is very large and extremely supportive. Everyone is always cheering one another on, and we are always helping each other out.”

“It was very lovely to see Science Olympiad there since I know they’re hosting tryouts soon,” said junior Natalie-Elise Huang, an event attendee. “As well as Speech and Debate, my own team, [it’s lovely] knowing that new freshmen coming in will make up the next generation, and may even be where the current members at the event were that day,”

Engineering Design and Development (EDD) was another academic team featured in An Academic Review. They set up two tri-folds and a robot that can demonstrate tossing skills. This team competes in the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Invention Challenge and For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics Competition.

“I’ve been on the team for almost two full years and it’s helped me grow so much as an engineer,” said Assistant Captain junior Annette Chen. “I would recommend other students on campus to try out for EDD because it will be a challenge they have never experienced before!”

“It was very fun to be able to display the strengths of our team and feel connected as a big group of academic teams,” Chen added when asked about her experience at the event. “EDD had a very eye-catching display and an awesome demo of the robot! Everyone was looking at us when we drove the robot around which interested me the most.”

Attendees also had similar sentiments about the event.

“The event was very interesting, especially the robot that the Engineering Design and Development team had,” said junior Megan Wong, another event attendee. “All the academic teams in Arcadia seem very talented and I’m looking forward to seeing more of what they do in the future.”