BISHOP Gibson High School is winner of the inaugural inter-high school information technology (IT) quiz, put on by the Computer Hardware and Processing Specialists Club (CHIPS) of Northern Caribbean University (NCU).

Dubbed ‘CHIPS Challenge 2007′, the competition was held at NCU’s Field View conference room on March 20. CHIPS’ president and quizmaster Henry Osborne gave the welcome, and informed the teams and audience of the rules of the competition.

The quiz was conducted in a manner well received by the participants. It was a fusion of America’s favourite quiz show Jeopardy and TVJ’s Schools’ Challenge Quiz. The quizzes were team-based and comprised two rounds with five categories, each based on a unit of the Secondary Education Certificate Examinations (SECE) IT syllabus, as well as developments in the field of IT.

In the moments leading up to the first match, each team could be seen nervously revising IT concepts. It kicked off with deCarteret College facing off with May Day High School. Questions were selected, answers were given and the quizmaster had to remind the audience on a number of occasions to refrain from answering. Everyone was engaged.

At the end of round one, the audience sat patiently, awaiting the announcement of who would advance to the finals. It was deCarteret College and Bishop Gibson High School for Girls. One would have thought it got easier from there, but it didn’t. The members of the teams displayed clear signs of nervousness. It was, after all, the match that would decide the winner.

Questions alternated and the teams hesitantly responded. Not many questions were answered, and round one ended with Bishop Gibson on 1,100 points and deCarteret on 800. The teams were even more hesitant in round two, as an incorrect response could see points lost.

The final scores at the end of the match were Bishop Gibson on 3,700 and deCarteret College on 1,000. At the declaration of the scores, Bishop Gibson supporters went wild. The team beamed with delight while the deCarteret team quietly consoled each other. Kerry-Ann Miller, teacher of the Bishop Gibson team, said it was a truly enjoyable experience.

CHIPS Challenge is a community outreach project of CHIPS that is aimed at assisting high school students prepare for IT in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) Examinations. CHIPS Challenge was made possible through help from the Department of Computer and Information Sciences (NCU), Jamaica National Building Society, Optimal Computer Systems and Manchester Co-operative Credit Union.