Daily Pioneer News

PLATTEVILLE-Academic Quadrathlon Contest is a four-part competition including a written exam, an oral presentation, a lab practicum and a quiz bowl in which UW-Platteville and UW-Madison students, with interest in animal science and agriculture, compete in every year. This contest has been going on for several years. Results from the combined four-part contest are used to rank the teams based on overall performance. The two winning teams, one from UWP and the other from UW-Madison, will each compete with teams from other universities in the nation at the regional Academic Quadrathlon Contest during the Mid-West American Society of Animal Science and the American Society of Dairy Science meetings in Des Moines, Iowa, in the spring.

Academic Quadrathlon attracts students from all majors in agriculture, but it is particularly intriguing to students currently enrolled in or who have taken some animal science courses. Academic Quadrathlon calls for teamwork skills in order to complete the four parts of the contest.

"This encourages students to develop abilities for teamwork in problem solving," said UWP Academic Quadrathlon faculty coordinator John Tembei. "Through Academic Quadrathlon contests every year, students in the School of Agriculture here at UWP are able to meet and interact with students in the same area of studies from UW-Madison and also have the opportunity to visit the different animal science facilities on both campuses."

There were a total of seven teams (four members per team) competing in the Academic Quadrathlon contest this fall (two teams from UWP and five teams from UW-Madison). The two teams from Platteville were comprised of the following team members: The two teams from Platteville comprised of the following team members: Team A - Harrison Hundt (West Salem), Chris Lee (Darien), Matt Akins (Sussex), Mackenzie Hellert (Dubuque, Iowa), & Nate Henrichs (Burlington); Team B - Traci Palzkill (Ridgeway), Cindy Ross (Salem), Melissa Rumpf (Rochester) and Katie Jacobson (Franksville). Jon Woolever (Wonewoc) and Craig Jentz (Fennimore) also attended the contest and helped with handling the livestock at the lab practicum part of the contest in Madison.

Two parts-the written exam and the oral presentation-of the contest were held here at UWP and the other two parts- the lab practicum and quiz bowl-were held at UW-Madison. UWP animal science faculty were polled for questions that test the teams' knowledge of concepts, principles and understanding of various aspects of animal agriculture for the written examination. For the oral presentation part of the contest, selected recent "hot" topics in the area of animal agriculture were asked.

Platteville's two teams placed fourth and sixth overall. Platteville's Team A placed second in the written and oral sections of the contest, and third in both the lab practicum and quiz bowl sections. Platteville's Team A and Madison's Team G qualified to compete in the regional contest in Des Moines on March 14 and 15.

"Thanks a lot to the students who participated in the contest this year and special thanks to Dr. Nusbaum and David Heimerdinger who listened to and graded the oral presentation part of the contest," Tembei said. "The Academic Quadrathlon contest went well this year because of great animal science faculty and staff involvement both at UWP and UW-Madison. The students who participated learned a lot from their experiences."