- North South Foundation
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The NSF is made up of Indian participants. They have various contests:
Contents
Spelling Bee
The spelling bee has two divisions, junior and senior. Both divisions have the same rules. In the regional stages, there is a written round (25 questions for each contestant) and an oral round (6 questions for each contestant). The contestants in the oral round will have 30 seconds to spell their word. In the finals for 2010, there is a written round( 30 words per contestant), a oral round ( 3 words per contestant),and a final elimination round based on scores from the first two rounds, which is similar to the Scripps Spelling Bee. The winner is the last one standing.[1]
Math Bee
There are 3 divisions based on education level. In the regionals, all contestants get a question-paper with 25(as of 2010) questions which must be completed in 45 minutes. In the finals, it is the same, but in addition, 5 extra questions are added strictly as a tie breaker and also, there is a written lightning round with 20 questions where the contestants get 45 seconds to do each question.[2]
Vocabulary Bee
There are 3 divisions of vocabulary bee. The rounds are exactly the same as the spelling bee, but in the oral round, each contestant gets 8 questions, not 6.[3]
Geography Bee
There are two divisions of Geography Bee. There is a written phase with 25 questions for which contestants get 25 minutes and an oral phase where contestants get 5 questions. At Nationals, there are 30 questions written and 3 oral questions. The top 10 cumulative scores are added to the Final Round. The Geography Bee at North South Foundation is substantially harder[citation needed] than the National Geographic Bee. The main reason is the fact that there is a lack of hints in the questions[citation needed]. Winning this bee has a lot of prestige to it[citation needed], though Geography is one of the least talked about subject at NSF. See Below:
Year Location of Finals Winner's Name State 2nd and 3rd Place Winners 4th, 5th and 6th Place Winners 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th Place Winners Other Notes 2006 Evanston, Illinois Suneil Iyer Kansas 2nd Place: Shyam Vasudevan, 3rd Place: Rahul Eanuga 4th Place: Hema Karunakaram, Sandeep Subramanian, Vivek Hansalia, Nikhil Desai 8th Place: Narayan Gopinathan, Devi Swamy, Nitin Krishna There was a 4-way tie for 4th Place and a 3-way tie for 8th Place 2007 Columbus, Ohio Vivek Hansalia Georgia 2nd Place: Nitin Krishna, 3rd Place: Zaroug Jaleel 4th Place: Keval Yerigeri, 5th Place: Akanshu Srivastav, 6th Place: Nikhil Desai 7th Place: Shyam Vasudevan, 8th Place: Parth Parihar, 9th Place: Arjun Kandeswamy, 10th Place: Jaysel Shah 2008 Cambridge, Massachusetts Arjun Kandeswamy Oregon 2nd Place: Nitin Krishna, 3rd Place: Abhinav Kurada 4th Place: Narayan Gopinathan, 5th Place: Shantan Krovvidi (undisclosed) Only ranks 1 through 5 were disclosed 2009 College Park, Maryland Vansh Jain Wisconsin 2nd Place: Smitha Gundavajhala, 3rd Place: Omkar Shende 4th Place: Abhinav Kurada, 5th Place: Anup Arun Hiremath, 6th Place: Nitin Krishna 7th Place: Vasant Iyer, Shyam Vasudevan, Siva Gangavarapu, 10th Place: Tarun Maddali There was a 3-way tie for 7th Place. Also, on the website, only ranks 1-5 were disclosed 2010 Glassboro, New Jersey Anirudh Kumar California 2nd Place: Omkar Shende, 3rd Place: Pradyuta Pramanabhan 4th Place: Tarun Maddali, 5th Place: Abhimanyu Singhal, 6th Place: Arjun Venkataraman 7th Place: Abhinav Kurada, 8th Place: Siddharth Kurella, 9th Place: Adithya Ronanki, 10th Place: Ramya Muthukrishnan 2011 San Jose, California Karthik Karnik Massachusetts 2nd Place: Asha Jain, 3rd Place: Varun Mahadevan 4th Place: Neha Middela, 5th Place: Satwik Karnik, 6th Place: Rohith Rajiv 7th Place: Harish Palani, 8th Place: Tarun Maddali, 9th Place: Nikhil Palanki, 10th Place: Vibha Vijayakumar Essay Writing Bee
In Essay Bee, there is a level 1, a level 2, and a level 3. In finals and regionals contestants get 10 minutes after the topic is announced to plan it. They then get 60 minutes to write the essay. Judges score them and then average the scores and announce the winners.
Public Speaking Bee
There are two levels, Level 1, and Level 2. Contestants get 30 minutes to plan, and up to 3.5 minutes to say their speech before points are deducted. Just like Essay Writing, judges give scores, then average them, and announce winners.[4]
Brain Bee
There is one level, 8-12 grade. The competition is only in the finals, and anyone can go. There are as many rounds as needed, as it is a three strike basis (contestant gets a strike when answer is incorrect). When there are five players, the remaining players' strikes are wiped off. The winner will go to the National Brain Bee (not conducted by the foundation) and the winner of that can go to the International Brain Bee (again, not conducted by the foundation.).
Science Bee
The Science Bee contest is introduced in the year 2010 and is aimed at nurturing the interest and understanding of Science among children in grades 1 through 8. Science bee is split into 3 levels based on grade. The grade eligibility is determined as of February 1.
Finals
The winners of the above contests, and people who make a certain cutoff score in the regionals will go to the finals. It is conducted in a different place every year (with the exception of 2005 and 2006; both were at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, in addition to 2003 and 2009; both were at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland), and it is always a university. In 2009, the finals was held at the University of Maryland, College Park. In 2010, the finals was held in Rowan University, Glassboro, New Jersey. For 2011, the finals will be held at San Jose State University, San Jose, California.
Past Locations
- Tempe, Arizona - Arizona State University (2005)
- Evanston, Illinois - Northwestern University (2006)
- Columbus, Ohio - Ohio State University (2007)
- Cambridge, Massachusetts - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2008)
- College Park, Maryland - University of Maryland, College Park (2009)
- Glassboro, New Jersey - Rowan University (2010)
- San Jose, California - San Jose State University (2011)
Scholarship Program
Northsouth has an active scholarship program in India. All profits from the contests go to the scholarship program.[5] As of 2007, the foundation has awarded 2,000 scholarships to kids in India. As said above, they usually select poor students with high academic talent.
References
External links
- Official site
- Aim-for-A Tutoring helps students preparing for educational contests conducted by NSF.
Categories:- Non-profit organizations based in the United States
- Indian American history
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