Academics & Competitions

A Quest for Answers
Offered for both middle and high school groups, the Scavenger Hunt is a three-day “hunt” where students search for answers to clues provided by community member contributors. A week later, the students gather for the one or two-day Adjudication portion (resolving a dispute or deciding a case in a civil and legal way) on the Southern Oregon University campus.

The Scavenger Hunt also engages students through “Bring Ins”. This is a task or action that results in something that they bring to the adjudication to present to the judges. For example, the “Bring In” list from the 2023 middle school competition included this task: Find a dinosaur or extinct creature that lived in this area and make a recreation of it using crafts, food, or costumes. Include a few paragraphs of information about it, such as the common and scientific name, when it lived and died, and what we know about its life.

The middle and high school teams with the most points at the end of the competition are declared the winners and awarded a traveling trophy. Competitions take place annually in November and December.

The Scavenger Hunt provides an opportunity for students to practice skills in the following areas:

• Accessing and critically analyze sources of information
• Supporting teamwork in an academic arena
• Fostering their intellectual curiosity
• Practicing precision organization and documentation
• Engaging in civil discourse and respectful argumentation skills