24th Annual Middle SOU Youth Programs' Scavenger Hunt
Nov 29 - Dec 1 Hunt
Dec 6 & 7 In Person Adjudication
The Middle School SOU YP Scavenger Hunt is a quality competitive event promoting intellectual curiosity and academic skill.
Developed and hosted by Southern Oregon University Pre-College Youth Programs, schools and school districts in Jackson, Josephine, and Klamath counties are invited to participate in this exciting and challenging event!
Goals of the SOU YP Middle School Scavenger Hunt
- To increase knowledge of how to access and critically analyze sources of information
- To encourage team work in an academic arena, and reward intellectual curiosity
- To offer experience in constructing persuasive arguments with supporting evidence
- To emphasize the importance of organization, documentation and precision
- To promote civil discourse and respectful argumentation skills
How will the program be formatted in 2022?
We are pleased to bring Scavenger Hunt back in person in 2022!
Results & Wrap Up
23rd Annual SOU Youth Programs Middle School Scavenger Hunt
Over 200 students, representing 12 area middle schools, participated in the 2021 High School Scavenger Hunt competition. This was SOU Pre-College Youth Program’s second year in a row offering a virtual academic competition. Even with all of the changes to remote engagement, students and coaches alike agreed that they enjoyed working on the hunt once again this year, and that we are all looking forward to Scavenger Hunt returning to an in-person event on the SOU campus for fall of 2022!
We send our congratulations to all of this year’s teams on a job well done! The Hunt Director pulled together a challenging program of Scavenger Hunt questions, and once again students and coaches met each question with a plan for thorough research and there was even some very strategic defending of team answers. The judges were very impressed by the effort and excellence each team brought to this year’s competition.
A HUGE thank you to the volunteers who come out to make this event possible! At our virtual judges’ table: long-time moderator Steve Boyarsky, retired educator Bill Gabriel, and retired educator Kim Gabriel who used their sound judgment while engaging students with humor and wisdom. SOU Youth Programs’ Interim Director Katherine Gosnell executed the virtual event with the tremendous support of staff member Mary Katie Brown, who also served as a Bring-In judge. Also joining us was new staff member Nico Grin, Youth Programs Coordinator, who provided technical support for this event.
Lastly, we send huge thanks to Jim Impara, our fearless Hunt Director, who leads us through a research expedition each year challenging us with his formidable questions. Thank you, Jim!
Thank you to Lithia 4 Kids and the school districts in Jackson and Josephine counties for their support of SOU Youth Programs academic competitions!
I'm attaching our question and answer sheet in case you are curious about any of our final answers. It's a big file so please let me know if you didn't get it, and I can add to your Google Drive folder.
Best wishes to all, and (crossing fingers!) we look forward to seeing you next year in person and at SOU!
Division A
1st place: Talent Middle School (Phoenix-Talent SD)
2nd place: McLoughlin Middle School (Medford SD)
3rd place: Logos Charter School (Medford SD)
Division B
1st place: The Valley School of Southern Oregon (Medford SD)
2nd place: Scenic Middle School (Central Point SD)
3rd place: Rogue River Jr High School (Rogue River SD)
Special Recognition goes to Ashland Middle School, Eagle Point Middle School, Crater Lake Academy, Kids Unlimited, and North Middle School, for their efforts as well.
22nd Annual SOU Youth Programs Middle School Scavenger Hunt
Teams from eleven area middle schools participated in the SOU YP 2020 Middle School Scavenger Hunt competition.
SOU’s first-ever remote delivery version of this wildly popular annual academic competition broke new ground with innovative virtual prosecution and adjudication formats. While an in-person event will always be preferable when possible, students and coaches alike agreed that the virtual version exceeded their expectations, and delivered on the excitement of the Hunt!
We congratulate all of this year’s teams on a job well done! While grappling with all the other extraordinary circumstances of 2020, students and coaches still rose to the occasion with ingenuity, fortitude, and insight! Every participant deserves to be so very proud of the effort and excellence they brought to this year’s competition.
Congratulations to our 2020 placing teams:
Division A :
1st place Ashland Middle School
2nd place Logos Charter School
3rd place Hedrick Middle School
Division B:
1st place Rogue River Jr High School
2nd place Valley School of Southern Oregon
3rd place Scenic Middle School
Special Recognition goes to Talent Middle School, Hanby Middle School, Kids Unlimited, South Middle School, and Fleming Middle School, for choosing to participate during an especially challenging school year.
A HUGE thank you to the volunteers who come out to make this event possible! At our virtual judges’ table: retired attorney David Ingalls, retired educator Bill Gabriel, and our long-time moderator Steve Boyarsky, who used their sound judgment while engaging students with humor and wisdom. SOU Youth Programs’ coordinator Holly Kilpatrick executed the virtual event with the tremendous support of staff member Mary Katie Brown, who also served as a Bring-In judge. Youth Programs Assistant Director, Katherine Gosnell served as our virtual event support person and timekeeper.
Of course, we can’t go without saying a tremendous thank you to Jim Impara, our fearless Hunt Director, who leads us through a research expedition each year challenging us with his formidable questions. Thank you, Jim!
Thank you to Lithia 4 Kids and the school districts in Jackson and Josephine counties!
This year, the Bring-In portion of the hunt asked participating students to: bake a batch of cookies and calculate the nutritional value of one of the cookies; make a stop-motion film of the story of Icarus from classic Greek mythology; find or make a non-Instax series photo on Polaroid instant film featuring a pet, a car, or a birthday cake; uncover little known facts about a Time magazine person of the year; transfer as many M&Ms as they could in a minute into an empty water bottle using only chopsticks; search out a canceled stamp featuring cacti; collect the signature of a city councilperson on their school letterhead; design a sidewalkchalk mural featuring a quote and prove it's authorship with citations; and much more!
21st annual Middle School State of Jefferson Scavenger Hunt
Over 275 students, representing thirteen middle schools participated in the 2019 Middle School Scavenger Hunt competition, with over 250 participating the two days of adjudication on SOU campus.
Division A packed the Rogue River Room on Wednesday December 11th. What intense competition we witnessed in Division A this year, with very slim margins between the scores of our top three schools!
Congratulations to Logos Charter School for their first place win with 249 points, out of a possible 259 total!
Ashland Middle School was “hot on their heels” with a 2 point spread in second place with 247 points.
Talent Middle School came in third place with 234 points.
Special recognition to Willow Wind and Valley Schools, our runners up in 4th & 5th places.
Wednesday 1st Place Team: Logos Charter School
Wednesday 2nd Place Team: Ashland Middle School
Wednesday 3rd Place Team: Talent Middle School
We congratulate all the teams this year on a job well done! Your devotion to seeking out the answers and your formidable competitive spirits really shone this year.
Division B kicked off our adjudication days on Tuesday December 10th. Six schools practiced their civil argumentation skills and presented their research throughout a fun day of competition.
Congratulations to Scenic Middle School for their first place win with 154 points, out of a possible 259 total!
Hanby Middle School placed second with only a 4 point spread with 150 points.
Eagle Point Middle School came in a close third place with 142 points.
Special recognition to Rogue River Middle School and North Middle School, our runners up in 4th & 5th places. And, a very warm welcome to Kid’s Unlimited who worked hard in their first year participating.
Tuesday's 1st Place Team: Scenic Middle School
Tuesday 2nd Place Team: Hanby Middle School
Tuesday 3rd Place Team: Eagle Point Middle School
A tremendous thank you to our volunteers who make this event possible: Steve Boyarsky, our long-time moderator who engages the students with humor and wisdom. At our judges’ table: retired attorneys David Ingalls and Tim Egan, and retired teacher Bill Gabriel use their sound judgment to help settle disputes. Our scorekeepers Kim Gabriel and Carryl Breon, both retired teachers, provide accurate and timely updates on our mounting scores throughout the day.
SOU Youth Programs coordinator Holly Kilpatrick executed the event with the tremendous support of staff members: Youth Programs Assistant Director, Katherine Gosnell, Office Specialist Mary Katie Brown, who also served as our Bring-In judge extraordinaire, and our Student Office Assistants Karma Mills-Morrow and Cayley Busenkell who served as our event support staff. Thank you to Lithia 4 Kids and the school districts in Jackson and Josephine counties who financially support this program!
Of course, we can’t go without saying a HUGE THANK YOU to Jim Impara, our fearless Hunt Director, who leads us through a research expedition each year challenging us with his fascinating questions. Thank you, Jim!
