Quiz Bowl Rules

A student Quiz Bowl will be conducted during the Society of American Foresters (SAF) National Convention. The goal is to provide a spirited competition between schools and allowing both the participants and the audience to gain a better knowledge of forestry trivia.
Each school may only have one team with a maximum of four student members currently enrolled at the school. Teams consisting of less than four members will be allowed to participate. Graduate students from the school may participate as members of the team, but only one graduate student is allowed for each team.
Schools that wish to participate must register. Teams may register online at the SAF website.
Only a limited number of teams will be allowed to compete due to time constraints. If more teams register than time allows for the competition, a testing procedure will be implemented to select the most qualified teams.
Questions for the Quiz Bowl are housed at the SAF National Office. The National Office will work with SAF Working Groups to revise and/or create new questions. These questions will be divided into categories such as forest measurements, wood technology, forest fire, etc. A complete list of categories may be found in Rule 16.
Questions will be phrased in an open-ended manner. There will not be any true/false questions. Questions will be asked in a way that the answer is clear.
The competition will be single elimination. Teams will be arranged in a random order without regard to past performance or type of school. The field will be narrowed to two teams that will compete in the final round.
Each match will last for a predetermined amount of time.
The moderators can be student members of the host student chapter. The National Office will assist in locating volunteers to serve as judges.
Each team will have an equal chance to answer the question within 10 seconds using an electronic buzzer provided. Teams will need to “buzz in” as instructed when they know the answer to the question asked by the moderator. If neither team signals within the time constraint, the moderator will announce that time has run out and will move on to the next question. The team that signals first will be allowed 20 seconds to answer the question. The team captain must report the answer within the allotted time. If the team’s answer is correct, they will earn 5 points. If the answer is incorrect, the team will lose 5 points, and the second team will be given the chance to answer the question. The second team will have the option to hear the question again, and will be given 5 seconds to signal after the question is read and 10 seconds to answer. If the second team answers correctly, they will gain 5 points; however if they answer incorrectly, they will be penalized 5 points. Should the first team signal in before the question has been completed, the moderator will not complete the question, and the team must answer within 20 seconds. Should the team answer incorrectly, the entire question will be repeated for the second team; they will be given 10 seconds to signal after the question has been read, and 20 seconds to answer
Discussion is allowed between team members only after they have initially signaled. Deliberation between team members is not permitted before “buzzing in.” No discussion between different teams or their advisers will be allowed. The moderators and judges will help keep background and audience noise to a minimum during each round.
The team captain must address the moderator within the time limit or the team will lose 5 points. Each team must designate a team captain before the competition begins.
At the end of the time period, the team with the most points will be the winner of the match and will move on to the next round. The winner of the final match wins the Student Quiz Bowl Competition.
In the event of a tie for any match, the teams will enter a rapid-fire session, which will last no more than 2 minutes. In this session, the signaling time is reduced to 5 seconds, and the answering time is reduced to 10 seconds. (If the signal interrupts the moderator when asking the question, the moderator will discontinue asking the question.) Only the first team to signal after each question is read will be allowed to answer in the rapid-fire session. Point values are the same as for the regular round. Additional 2 minute-long rapid-fire sessions will be held until there is a winner.
The hosting chapter reserves the right to award a “bye” to the winner from the previous year should there be no opponent for a round in the Quiz Bowl. The team receiving the bye would advance to the next round. The hosting chapter cannot register a team for the Quiz Bowl. If the hosting chapter is last year’s winning team and if a bye becomes necessary, a random drawing will take place to determine the team who advances to the next round. Except in the case of a bye, all teams will be randomly matched during the first round of competition, as stated in Rule 7. The final format for the competition will be available the day of the competition. (Early registration of the teams is encouraged. This will reduce the problem of rearranging the competition format for late registering teams.)
The categories are as follows:

Remote Sensing/Photogrammetry/GIS Fire
Biometrics Economics, Policy, and Law
Urban and Community Forestry Hydrology
Forest and Range Ecology Soils
Philosophy and History of Forestry Ethics
Silviculture
International Forestry
Genetics and Tree Improvement Recreation
Wildlife and Fish Ecology Mixed Bag
Land Use, Planning, and Land Management
Agroforestry
Forest Pathology and Entomology Dendrology
Forest Production and Utilization