Quizzes during Quarantine: Community in a time of COVID
Authored by Sundara Bhandaram (MEM Candidate, Class of 2020)
Last Thursday, FESers from across the world got together for a virtual trivia session hosted by the FES Student Affairs Committee!
Trivia was co-hosted by the delightful Andie Creel, MESc Class of 2021, and the lovely Regina Harlig, MEM Class of 2020! The two ladies quizzed fellow peers, staff and faculty members about their knowledge of world politics, pop culture, environmental topics, FES history, and music.
There were 13 teams made of students, staff and faculty members with clever team names including “Razzmatazz”, “Murder Hornets”, “The Woods!”, “Shakshuka on Fridays”, “Kareem’s Dream Team”, “Emerald Ash Borer Destroyers”, “Cruz Control”, and “69 Unread WhatsApp Messages”. Plus the “Bidet of Reckoning” and “Totally Wearing Pants rn” who won extra points for creativity!
Round one covered “World Politics” included which country has the highest number of women in Cabinet positions (Answer: Spain with 11 out of 17 positions held by women) and which country recently celebrated 26 years since the end of institutionalized racial segregation (Answer: South Africa’s Apartheid).
The second
round focused on “Popular Culture”. Where questions ranged from the Star Wars episode Jar Jar Binks first appears in (Answer: Star Wars Episode I – The Phantom Menace) , who were in the original Avengers (Answer: Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Ant Man & the Wasp), the age of the next Bachelorette (Answer: 38), and what Vernon Dursley’s company produced in Harry Potter (Answer: Grunnings made drills).
Round three focused on “FES Questions” where questions included naming as many of the Student Interest Groups as possible (Answer: there are over 37 and you can find out more about them here), what year the Forestry School accepted women (Answer: 1966), and what year the Greely Laboratory was completed (Answer: 1959).
Round four was “International” questions and asked students how many hectares of the Amazon Rainforest we lost in the 2019 fires (Answer: 906,000 hectares), which country Jacob’s Creek wine is from (Answer: Australia), and the four largest (both by volume and length) rivers in the world (Answer: the Nile, Amazon, Yangtze and Mississippi).
Round five focused on “Music” and asked the what was the most expensive musical instrument sold and how much did it sell for (Answer: Lady Blunt’s Stradivarius violin for $15,875,800 dollars). Students also had to name the most popular song on YouTube (Answer: Despacito by Luis Fonsi Featuring Daddy Yankee), and had to guess the name, singer and title of the famous Portuguese song “Ai Se Eu Te Pego” by Michel Teló.
The night was full of raucous laughter and everyone’s best guesses. At the end of round five the competition was stiff, the final winner was “ADHD+2” followed by “Carol Baskins Last Stand” and rounding out third was “Staff Disfinfect(ion)”.
As the Spring semester comes to a close, this was delightful and fun way to stay connected with the FES community!
