Academic Competitions

The Geography Bee is a national contest sponsored by the National Geographic Society. Students compete in classrooms with social studies teachers to advance to the school level contest. Topics include political, physical, and economic topics about locations all around the world. The winning school level winner will then take a written test. The top scores will advance to the state contest in Indianapolis. If qualifying, the winner will compete at the national level in Washington, D.C.

Sponsor:  Mrs. Cox

The Geography Bowl is a contest sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Terre Haute.  It is continent/area themed each year and consists of questions about the physical, political, and some economic topics based on the continent or bodies of water decided as the area of focus for the year.

Sponsor:  Mrs. Cox

The Indiana Math League is a contest held in the spring and involves 35 multiple choice nontraditional problems.  The contest also has an emphasis on problem solving.

Sponsor:  Mr. Fischer

The Mathcounts National Program uses NCTM standards with an emphasis on problem solving skills.  The program has school, chapter, state, and national levels of competition.

Sponsor:  Mr. Downs, Mr. Fischer, Mr. Nail

The National Current Events League consists of  four meets(contests) held in the social studies classes at Honey Creek Middle School during the school year.  Each meet consists of thirty multiple choice questions based on current events at certain time frames during the school year .  This contest has been in existence for over thirty years all over the United States.  In past years, Honey Creek Middle School teams have placed several times in the top three in the nation! HCMS students have placed in the top three and received the rank of National Student Leaders.

Sponsors:  TBA

The Noetic Math Contest is held in the fall and spring and has an open ended format.  It has twenty problems which will challenge all levels of students.

Sponsor:  Mr. Fischer

Each year more than 125,000 students in grades 6-8 enter the VFW’s Patriot’s Pen youth essay contest. The first-place winner from each state competes for national awards totaling $50,000, with each first-place state winner receiving a minimum of $500 at the national level. The national first-place winner wins $5,000 and an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., in March.

The essay contest encourages young minds to examine America’s history, along with their own experiences in modern American society, by drafting a 300- to 400-word essay, expressing their views based on a patriotic theme chosen by the VFW Commander-in-Chief.

Sponsor:  TBA

Every year many Honey Creek Middle School students participate in the Science Fair.  They choose a project question that interests them and then spend weeks investigating their question.  When done, they present their work formally which is then judged.

Sponsor:  Mr. Wilkinson

The purpose of the Scripps Spelling Bee is to help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts, and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives.  Students compete at the school level with the winner moving on to the regional competition.  The winner of the regional spelling bee moves on to the national level in the spring.

Sponsor:  Mrs. Webb

The Vigo County School Corporation 5th & 6th Grade Math Contest is conducted for all 5th grade elementary students and 6th grade middle school students. Students compete in the General Ed and GT divisions.

Sponsor:  Mr. Fischer, Mrs. Hyland