|
 |
This page
contains essays written by student competitors during the course of the 2009 Alaska Academic Decathlon
competition.
The essays posted here are selected to represent the high quality of
writing and the impressive thinking that AAD competitors display.
The high school students on the Decathlon
teams write these essays in a very limited time period, and base them on
essay "prompts" given to them immediately before they begin
writing.
The students are given an extensive list
of reference materials to read in advance, but they write and submit their
competition essays in a short period of time with no idea, in advance, what specific subjects they will be expected to
address in their essays. |
Bronze Medal Honors Essay 2009
[click for full text]
"Yet
if evolution happens by regulation, how could Tiktalik's hox genes regulate a
change in code to one that did not yet exist?"
Patricia Gerdes
Lathrop High School
Gold Medal Scholastic essay 2009
[click for full text]
"Being
a young boy, his mind is malleable and can easily be shaped, if there is only
one artist shaping it."
Damian Cox
Lathrop High School
Silver Medal Honors Essay 2009
[click for full text]
"The
evolutionary benefits of being able to access land were, of course, tremendous;
now, the organism in question could retreat to a predator-free spot at any
time."
Peter Sullivan
West Valley High School
Gold Medal Varsity Essay
2009 [click for full text]
"Growing
into a person is a tedious and breath-taking process. We must each take our own
experiences, decisions, and outward influences, and with that clay mold
ourselves (or in some cases, the reverse occurs, and the clay molds us) into a
true individual."
Stefan Contreras
IDEA Team I
Gold Medal Honors Essay 2009 [click for full text]
"By
talking with his father, Tony comes to the conclusion that he can combine the
three traditions that influence him, creating something new by drawing on
Catholicism, curandera tradition, and the pagan belief in the Golden Carp."
Ethan Fifield
Klawock
| 
