For the first time in Nottingham History, this year’s Consumer Bowl team took first place in the Mercer County Tournament, taking down Hightstown High School: the seven-year defending champion.
The Consumer Bowl Tournament is an educational competition for high school students across the state. It was established in 1997 to educate young adults on a variety of consumer issues ranging from Identity Theft to Toy Safety. There are three rounds to the competition: Individual, Team, and Lightning. Only four people can compete at a time with substitutions allowed after each round is over. In the individual round, each student from each team is asked a question worth 5 points in a multiple-choice format and has ten seconds to answer. In the team round, the entire team works together to give an open-ended answer to the asked question, which is worth 5 points, with only ten seconds to think. However, after each team is asked a question, there is an additional bonus question asked which anyone can answer and is worth 10 points. In the lightning round, anyone from any team can answer the open-ended question which is worth 10 points. Answering a question before the question has finished being announced can result in a 10-point penalty if the correct answer is not provided.
Nottingham and Hightstown both tied after the first round with twenty points each, thus getting no question wrong. However, during the team round, things went downhill for our Northstars. Hightstown answered all the team questions correctly and won all the possible bonus points, but the Northstars were only able to answer two of the three questions correctly, making the score 30 to 65 and giving Hightstown a 35-point lead.
Yet, the Northstars were not going to back down without a fight! During the lightning round, Nottingham made an epic comeback! Right off the abt, NHS took the first four questions easily, and after a hard-earned battle, won the tournament with a 15-point lead. Congratulations Northstars and we wish you the best of luck as you go on to compete at the regional level in April!