National History Bee and Bowl
The National History Bee and Bowl is an history focused academic competition directed by David Madden. It consists of the National History Bowl, a four-player team event played on pyramidal questions in a four-quarter format, and the National History Bee, an individual elimination-style event. Teams qualify for Nationals by placing above a certain threshold at state Bowls; all sites also have a Varsity and JV division. In addition to the History Bee and Bowl, NHBB also organizes a number of other events, including the US History Bee and US Geography Olympiad.
For the 2010-11 school year, the local events were written by NHBB staff and Nationals were written by HSAPQ; until 2014, HSAPQ wrote for all History Bowl events, before that task fell to teams led by Matt Weiner in 2015 (but see here) and Brad Fischer in 2016 and beyond.
National History Bee and Bowl also incorporates middle and elementary school divisions. In February 2016, the running of the elementary and middle school division was transferred to ACE.
History Bowl Format
A History Bowl game consists of 4 quarters, and the number of questions in each quarter is not standardized. The first quarter features tossups worth 10 points each. The second quarter features tossups and one-part bonuses, worth 10 points. The third quarter, known as the Lightning Round, gives teams 60 seconds to answer a series of increasingly difficult short questions on a particular theme. Questions missed by one team "bounceback" to the other team. Finally, the fourth quarter features powermarked tossups worth 30, 20, or 10 points.
History Bee Format
In local competitions, history bee questions are simply a series of 30-tossups, worth 1 point each. However, students who obtain 7 (this number used to be 8 until recently) are said to "exit" the round, and gain a number of bonus points based on where they exit (for a total score ranging from 8 to 15).
At nationals, the history bee uses the 6-5-4-3-2-1 scoring system. Tossups are powermarked, and based on where a student buzzes they can earn either 6,5,4, or 3 points if they are correct. If they are incorrect, they suffer a -2 penalty if they buzzed before the end of the tossup, and a -1 penalty otherwise.
In both local bees and national bees, 3 incorrect interrupts "kill" the question.
Past Champions and Results
Bowl
| Year | Bowl Champion | Bowl Runner-Up | JV Bowl Champion | JV Bowl Runner-up | Field size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Maggie Walker | Parkersburg High | Wilmington Charter | Bellarmine | 98 (72 Varsity + 26 JV) |
| 2012 | Hunter | Bellarmine | Northmont | Chattahoochee | 161 (113 Varsity + 48 JV) |
| 2013 | Bellarmine | LASA | Northmont | Centennial | 198 (132 Varsity + 66 JV) |
| 2014 | LASA | Saratoga | Westview | Farragut | 216 (132 Varsity + 84 JV) |
| 2015 | Saratoga | LASA | Hunter | Saratoga | 246 (156 Varsity + 90 JV) |
| 2016 | LASA | Lexington | James E. Taylor | Thomas Jefferson | 263 (161 Varsity + 102 JV) |
| 2017 | Westview | Thomas Jefferson | Beavercreek | Trinity Prep | 252 (144 Varsity + 108 JV) |
| 2018 | Thomas Jefferson | Richard Montgomery | Stevenson | George Washington | 252 (144 Varsity + 108 JV) |
| 2019 | Beavercreek | Millburn | Hunter College A | Team Coldhug (CT) | 240 (144 Varsity + 96 JV) |
| 2020 | Stevenson | Saratoga | Team MB A | 84 (36 Varsity + 48 JV) | |
| 2021 | Hunter | Thomas Jefferson HSST | Wakeland | Ransom Everglades | 101 (66 Varsity + 35 JV) |