A new class at Thomas County Central High School has participants thinking outside the box and studying topics from all angles, not just a specific discipline.
TCCHS began a Georgia Academic Decathlon class this school year. In it, both the instructor and the students educate each other about curriculum topics, according to teacher Cary Riggs.
“I personally got turned on to the possibility of a GAD class because it struck me that this is what education could be…taking a topic or subject, or problem, and looking at it from all areas,” he said. “We rarely get to take that holistic approach, tending to break up ideas into math, science, art…and only looking from that perspective. It is a fascinating process to look at an issue from across the spectrum of disciplines.”
The GAD is a state level of the United States Academic Decathlon, Riggs explained. Students compete in seven academic areas – mathematics, science, literature, art, music, economics and social sciences. They also prepare speeches, do interviews and write an essay.
There is a new decathlon topic centered around these areas each year. The topic for this year is “Energy and Technology.”
“I think the major significance of such a class is letting the students see how diversified a single topic can be when looked at through the lens of various disciplines,” Riggs said. “It is indeed what we expect students to do after the fact, to somehow take all the various pieces we have taught them and work them into a workable philosophy or belief system. This course lets them study all the pieces at once leading to a smoother and, I think, better synthesis.”
Student Brandon Johnson, 17, joined the class because, along with liking Riggs as a teacher, he “felt it would be a new way to explore my academic capabilities.”
“It (the class) will likely look very good on a college application, as well as allow me to explore more academic fields more in depth,” Johnson said.
Riggs said “we are all teachers here” in the GAD class.
“Students present various segments of the curriculum to other students, each student working in his/her area of strength,” he explained. “We are a classroom of learners; my job is more one of lead learner rather than teacher. It is an exciting process.”
Annual GAD competition will be held in Athens in February.
Riggs said one of the best aspects of the GAD is how teams are constructed. Each team is made up of three sets of students and these sets are based on overall academic level.
“At competition students compete individually only against students of their own level,” Riggs said. “The team competition combines all three levels. This lets more students participate and helps make the experience of this kind of study available to a broad spectrum of students.”
Johnson said, so far, he’s enjoying the class. Topics he’s already tackled include electricity and oil, physics, as well as various economic concepts and the math pertaining to those concepts, he said.
“It has been an experience working with new people and learning all of the new material together, and co-teaching the class with my peers,” Johnson said. “So far, the class has been a good and enlightening experience.”
