The Academic Games team traveled to Washington, D.C., to compete in the national tournament hosted by the Academic Games Leagues of America. Sophomore Cruz Ledet and pre-freshman James Wever-Edmondson competed on the junior high New Orleans conglomerate team, which placed first in Propaganda, second in Presidents, and fourth overall in Sweepstakes. Junior Ethan Nguyen represented the senior high New Orleans team, earning first place in Propaganda. Freshman Yousef Fallaha finished third individually in On-Sets, and pre-freshman Thatcher Slaughter also qualified and competed with enthusiasm.

In addition to three days of competition, the Blue Jays toured the White House and the U.S. Capitol. Wever-Edmondson even emerged from a “secret tunnel” in Representative Steve Scalise’s office—originally used to slip out of the Capitol to evade the press but now sealed by the Secret Service for security reasons.

The Academic Games Leagues of America is a non-profit organization which encourages and conducts academic competitions at local and national levels. The local league—the New Orleans Academic Games League—plays four of the seven national games: Equations, ON-SETS, Propaganda, Presidents. Propaganda and Equations are played in the fall; Presidents and On-Sets in the spring. In addition, Jesuit chooses to compete in Current Events on their own.

A little about each game…

Presidents is a social studies game. Players learn how presidents developed personally and professionally, how they reacted to or changed the times in which they served, what types of families they came from, and how they were affected by the political climate surrounding them. Players also learn about other major events that may have happened during a presidential term. They learn to assimilate all of these different facts into a unified whole for a better understanding of how the United States government has worked in different historical times.

On-Sets is a mathematics game. This game is very valuable in teaching about spatial relationships. The mathematical content of the game is Set Theory. Players learn to create and describe sets of colored objects using Union, Intersection, Set Difference, Set Complement, the Universe, and the Null Set. Players are challenged to use their mathematical knowledge and skills in increasingly creative ways and usually learn more from applying their knowledge in the competition than they do in their normal classroom studies.

Propaganda is a language arts game. Players learn to recognize techniques of persuasion that are often used by advertisers, politicians, editorial writers, and in normal human interaction. Players on each team spend time studying together and exchanging ideas and notes as part of their learning experience. Actual play of the game is simple. A central moderator reads one or more sentences, and the player must decide which—if any—technique of propaganda is used.

Equations is a mathematics game. It is often referred to as The Game of Creative Mathematics.  All grade levels play with the same set of procedural rules, but each division level of competition introduces increasingly more difficult mathematical concepts for the players to use. Players are challenged to use their mathematical knowledge and ability and to develop new skills in progressively more competitive ways. Players usually learn more from applying their knowledge in the competition than they do in their normal classroom studies. Students who compete in Equations are often times more prepared to do well in their classroom math classes than their peers.

Current Events is a social studies game. While preparing for and playing Current Events, players learn about the major political and cultural events of the most recent calendar year. They learn to be aware of what is happening to them, their country, and their world. The knowledge gained from playing Current Events leads to more informed and responsible future citizens.