Annual high school event challenges students
PARTICIPATING IN the Wii dancing game are Noah Hawthorne, Kyle Weeks, Matthew McCracken and Alec Cole. (Douglas Wilks photos/Clark Fork Valley Press)
KENZIE ANGLE works on shaking ping-pong balls out of a Kleenex box that is tied around her waist during last week’s Brain Bash.
Mikenzie Blood waits for the music and lyrics to stop so she can finish the song. (Douglas Wilks/Clark Fork Valley Press)
Shayna Burgess of JMG monitored the golf putting game. (Douglas Wilks/Clark Fork Valley Press)
Jordan Plutt, the librarian at Plains school, is taking her stance at the golf ball putting game. (Douglas Wilks/Clark Fork Valley Press)
Jubal Ryan is focused on stacking and then unstacking cups during the Stack Attack game. (Douglas Wilks/Clark Fork Valley Press)
Sandy Revier participates in charades during Brain Bash. (Douglas Wilks/Clark Fork Valley Press)
Jeffrey Marshall acts as a zombie during the zombie tag game. (Douglas Wilks/Clark Fork Valley Press)
On Dec. 21, students of Plains Junior High and Plains High School participated in “Brain Bash,” an annual competitive event.
Students and teachers assembled in the Plains High School gym at 8:20 a.m. to organize into teams. The teams were named after Greek mythological gods and heroes, including Zeus, Hercules, Poseidon, Hera, and several others.
Brain Bash was started in 1994 as a way for students and teachers to have fun in a healthy competitive manner. The Jobs for Montana Graduates (JMG) class — with a total of 17 students — thinks up the theme for Brain Bash, gathers the materials, and helps organize the school wide event.
Shayna Burgess is the president of JMG, and Jeffrey Marshall is the civic coordinator. Both are very involved in Brain Bash and JMG this year.
Annawyn Griffin is the JMG advisor, and also teaches business classes at Plains High School.
“The JMG students have a great learning opportunity to practice many skills by helping organize Brain Bash,” Griffin said. “The students decide the theme, which games will be played, how scoring will be done, and gather all the materials for the games. The students can use these organization skills when they go on to college or in other places.”
This year’s event featured a variety of games, including zombie tag, golf putting, tasting foods with eyes covered, plastic cup stacking, finishing the lyrics to a song, using cork guns to hit moving targets in Mr. Benson’s classroom, Wii dancing and charades. Games had positive points that could be earned as well as points lost if students did not participate or did not follow the rules of the games.
One of the more challenging games challenged participants to hold their heads tilted back and move a cookie from their foreheads onto their faces and then into their mouths. Students often asked the students monitoring the game if other teams had accomplished the task and what was the fastest time it was done.
Burgess monitored the golf-putting game and would inform students if they were hitting the golf balls too hard or how to improve their stance, to help them putt the ball into a plastic cup taped to the carpet floor at different distances from the putting line. Louis Matthew also helped place the golf balls behind the line, which was a long strip of masking tape placed on the carpet.
Many students and teachers were seen laughing and smiling as they moved from one game to another. The students and teachers were obviously enjoying the break from their studies and teaching.
“The main goal is to have a good time and fun before the Christmas break,” Griffin said.
Brain Bash winners were announced at 1 p.m. The first place team was Aphrodite, and the prize was a large chocolate bar and gift certificates from local businesses. Taking second place was team Hades, which received gift certificates, and taking third place was team Medusa, which received a large chocolate bar.
Reporter Douglas Wilks can be reached at dwilks@vp-mi.com or 406-826-3402.