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Eleven students huddled over scratch paper and calculators, furiously scribbling to determine the number of vertices in a Star of David and the Washington Monument.

Six and nine, respectively.

The "Jeopardy!"-style math competition was one of four events Saturday in the first Scholastic Olympics, an academic contest for high school students, held in Upper Marlboro's Watkins Regional Park.

"We wanted to tangibly value the students who are academically talented, almost like we do our athletes," said event founder Emanuel Williams, a real estate agent from Upper Marlboro.

Students represented high schools across Prince George's County in a spelling bee and competitions developed by county teachers and college students that focused on American history, public speaking and math.

"We decided on categories that we thought should be a focus in the community," said Tamara Henry of Upper Marlboro, who helped Williams organize the event in partnership with the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission.

"We want the kids to be prepared to go out and speak in public."

Turayo Tijani, a senior at Charles H. Flowers High School in Springdale, won the first round of the American history showdown by answering questions about the 13 original colonies and amendments to the Constitution. She was preparing to give a four- to seven-minute speech on why studying black history is important.

"The United States has come a long, long way," said Tijani, of Largo. "For it to be able to look away from race and elect an African-American president, it's momentous. It's a feeling of ‘wow.'"

One judge in the speech contest, Barbranda Walls, of Alexandria, Va., said she would evaluate students on their delivery, the evidence they used to make their case, and their adherence to the time constraints.

Stephanie Cheung, a senior at Elizabeth Seton High School in Bladensburg, and two teammates won the first round of the math competition. They continued on to play a second team round and then an individual round.

Cheung, who will attend Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in the fall, said one reason she participated in the Scholastic Olympics because it counted for some of the 15 community service hours she needs to earn this semester. Another was because she is "a bit of a geek," said Cheung, of Bowie.

"Competitions like this in high school mirror what you'll experience later in life in the workforce," she said.

Turnout was low — fewer than 20 students participated — despite organizers' efforts to draw 300 students through school visits, emails and radio advertisements, said Henry, an adjunct journalism professor at the University of Maryland. But she and Williams would like to continue the Scholastic Olympics, she said, as a way to highlight the positive side of education in Prince George's County.

"We wanted to come up with something positive about our county and show we have people excelling in academics," Henry said.

The first-, second- and third-place finishers in each event received cash prizes starting at $300. Other prizes included baseball tickets and books.

Representatives from Prince George's Community College and Howard University in Washington, D.C., among others, spoke with students about opportunities for post-secondary study.

abrownback@gazette.net