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2001 USAD Curriculum: Looking Forward: Creating the Future

I am pleased to release information on next year's Academic Decathlon curriculum. I know that many of you have been waiting for this information to organize workshops and/or to initiate your recruitment for next year - so here it is! Please forward this to coaches, coordinators, and competition managers ASAP.

WHERE WILL THE TEST QUESTIONS COME FROM? A majority of the test questions for each subject will come from the Curriculum Guide in that subject. However, a significant percentage of questions will come from other sources. Therefore, some additional research will be necessary for students to excel on the exams. Also, the tests will incorporate 10-20% "higher level thinking skills" questions that require inference, identifying cause and effect, hypothesizing, making analogies, and the like.

Next year, for the first time in the program's history, there will be a complete and integrated Academic Decathlon curriculum - a Curriculum Guide in each subject area, plus the Resource Guide, all revolving around the overarching theme, "Looking Forward: Creating the Future." All materials necessary to compete in the Academic Decathlon, including a Practice Test Booklet and FREE music tape, are included in The Curriculum Box, which is also new this year.

Once again, there will be separate tests for music and art, each 50 questions long.

Language and Literature

There will be two main pieces of literature - a novel and a play - and several poems: The novel is My Antonia by Willa Cather; the play is An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen. The Language & Literature outline is as follows (percentages approximate):

Critical Reading: 20%
Novel: 30%
Play: 25%
Poetry: 25%

Just as we did last year, U.S.A.D. is making the novel and play available at substantial discounts. Coaches will want to order the books early. It is important to get the right editions of the novel and play, as they include an introduction we want students to read.

Copies of the poems can be found in this year's Curriculum Guide: Language & Literature: Adaptations to Earth. Ten (10) copies of the guide will be included in The Curriculum Box.

Poems

• "The Mower Against Gardens" by Andrew Marvell
• "The Deserted Village" (excerpt) by Oliver Goldsmith
• "Steamboats, Viaducts, and Railways" by William Wordsworth
• "The Horses" by Edwin Muir
• "Foreclosure" by Sterling A. Brown

Super Quiz

The Super Quiz theme is Sustainable Earth. Because SQ is on a science topic, there will NOT be a separate science test given next year. The curriculum will cover the following general topics (percentages approximate): Overview: 2%
Earth Systems: 23%
History/Philosophy of Environmental Movement: 17%
Critical Regions of the World: 5%
Contemporary Challenges: 33%
Looking Forward: 20%

Ten (10) copies of the Resource Guide will be included in The Curriculum Box.

Music

The music curriculum will focus on jazz classics - 14 selections from the early- to mid-twentieth century that represent "Breakthroughs in American Jazz." Approximately 80% of the curriculum will cover the jazz selections and artists; approximately 20% will cover elements of jazz including terms, genres, instrumentation, etc. Ten (10) copies of the Curriculum Guide, All That Jazz, and 5 companion CDs will be included in The Curriculum Box.

Songs

• "St. James Infirmary" by Louis Armstrong
• "Carolina Shout" by Jelly Roll Morton, James P. Johnson, and Fats Waller
• "Take the 'A' Train" by Duke Ellington
• "Body and Soul" by Benny Goodman
• "Jumpin' at the Woodside" by Count Basie
• "Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)" by Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday
• "Night in Tunisia" by Dizzy Gillespie
• "'Round Midnight" by Thelonious Monk
• "My Funny Valentine" by Miles Davis
• "Lonely Woman" by Ornette Coleman
• "Once in a While" by Art Blakey, and Horace Silver
• "Eat That Chicken" by Charles Mingus
• "Ko Ko" by Charlie Parker
• "Giant Steps" by John Coltrane

Art

The art curriculum will feature 18 pieces that reflect "Innovations in the Fine Arts" and which cover a variety of genres. Approximately 80% of the curriculum will cover the artists, art selections, and background; approximately 20% will cover art terms and concepts. Ten (10) copies of The Art Book (with art and text) will be included in The Curriculum Box.

Pieces

• Figure of Striding Man Wearing a Kilt by an anonymous Egyptian sculptor
• Madonna and Child Enthroned with (Four Saints) by Piero di Cosimo
• Capriccio: An Island in the Lagoon by Canaletto
• Empire Chair by Benjamin Latrobe
• Port-en-Bessin by Georges Seurat
• The Fairman Rogers Four-in-Hand by Thomas Eakins
• Dining Chair by Frank Lloyd Wright
• The Dream by Max Beckmann
• Composition of Red and White by Piet Mondrian
• Plate by Maria Martinez
• White Lily by Alexander Calder
• New Continent by Louise Nevelson
• The Intimacy of Water by Romare Bearden
• Goldfish Bowl II by Roy Lichtenstein
• Burning Rods by Anselm Kiefer
• Charm of Subsistence by Martin Puryear
• Tanabata (Star Festival) by Kayama Matazó
• Untitled by Alan Saret.

Mathematics

The Math Curriculum Guide, Mathematics in a Dynamic World, will cover the following topics (percentages approximate):

Fundamentals (Solving Equations, Sequences, etc.): 30%
Fractal Geometry and Chaotic Dynamics: 10%
Statistics and Demographics: 30%
General Applications: 30%

Ten (10) copies of the Math Curriculum Guide will be included in The Curriculum Box.

Social Science

The Social Science Guide will cover Infrastructures Around the Globe according to the following outline (percentages approximate):

Global Infrastructure Concepts 5%
Ancient Examples 10%
Modern Examples 60%
Current Projects 20%
Future Implications 5%

Ten (10) copies of the Social Science Curriculum Guide will be included in The Curriculum Box.

Topics

• Suez Canal
• Transmerican Railroad
• Panama Canal
• Alaska Pipeline
• Channel Tunnel
• Glen Canyon Dam
• Three Gorges Dam
• International Space Station

Economics

The economics curriculum will focus on Economics and the Environment according to the following outline (percentages approximate):

Fundamentals of Economics: 28%
Microeconomics: 36%
Environmental Economics: 36%