CAMARILLO : Knowledge Bowl Begins Competition

Students from 10 Ventura County high schools squared off against each other this week in the annual Knowledge Bowl competition that is modeled after the “Jeopardy!” TV gameshow.

Sponsored by the Camarillo branch of the American Assn. of University Women, the Knowledge Bowl held its first meet of the year Wednesday at Camarillo High School and will have two more competitions this month. Buena High School in Ventura and Rio Mesa High in Camarillo were tied for first place after the initial competition.

As on “Jeopardy!,” students in the Knowledge Bowl compete to answer questions on a wide range of topics, hitting buzzers to signal when they think they have the correct responses.

But there is one difference: Knowledge Bowl participants are not allowed to choose the topics of the questions.

Instead, the AAUW members who moderate the event fire off questions randomly from six subject areas: math, English, history, current events, geography and, to a lesser extent, sports.

Other schools participating in this year’s bowl are St. Bonaventure High School and Ventura High in Ventura; Oxnard High, Hueneme High and Channel Islands High in Oxnard; Camarillo High in Camarillo; Santa Paula High School in Santa Paula, and Simi Valley High School.

Last year’s Knowledge Bowl champion was Buena High, which has won the contest in 12 of the 14 years it has been held.

The Knowledge Bowl will have its next meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Channel Islands High School and its final competition of the year on March 16 at Buena High School.

The winning team will get to take back to its school the Knowledge Bowl trophy. Each member of the winning team will get a prize, such as an atlas or thesaurus.