By Peter Yu

The Classics Conference is a province wide competition for high schools. It is attended by many high schools and is held in May each year. There are many different competitions that schools can compete in. For many years, MDHS has been a participant at the Classics Conference. All students taking classics courses, including Latin, Greek and Classics, are encouraged to attend the conference and test their mettle against students from other schools.

Last year, we did very well at the conference. We placed 2nd overall at the competition. This year, we will strive to become victorious. Already, members of the Classics Club are preparing for the Conference. Here's a bit about the competitions.

You can also get a complete listing of all competitions and see which ones you're interested in. Also, here are the results for MDHS at the conference, starting with 2001.

Academic

There are several academic competitions at the conference. There are the Cursus contests, which are multiple choice tests in the areas of Latin Vocabulary, Latin Derivatives, Roman Life, Roman History and Mythology. There are sight translation contests for Greek and Latin, differentiated into 3 levels: junior, intermediate and senior. There are also written Roman History and Greek History tests. In addition, there is the Quarite Summa contest, in which students compete to answer the questions asked. As well, there is also the Oral Mythology contest. There must be a few more Academic contests that we've missed, but we're going to put the full list up here very soon.

Athletic

There are many types of athletic contests. These include running, jumping and swimming. Also, there are contests for Frisbee throw and slinging. There's also the chariot race in which students must race with the chariot.

Creative

An assortment of contests require creativity and much preparation. The Fashion Show is a contest that allows students to create classically related fashion. The show is narrated by one person from each school, no other people can speak. The show can be a story or it can be an inane presentation, but since it's a competition, quality is always recommended. There's also the Skit, which is another staged presentation. It's a skit that must adhere to the theme and the judges evaluate it very carefully. There is also the school display contest, in which student's projects are displayed. There is a Chariot Design contest, which means designing and decorating a chariot, which is to be pulled by students later. There is also the Classics Club Scrap Book contest, where a scrap book of Classics club events are recorded and presented for scrutiny. As well, there are also computer contests, which involves designing a computer project and the audio-visual contest. The AV contest is usually a movie of some sort. There's also an archeological dig contest, in which students excavate a site and try to identify what the site is.