HARLINGEN — “In what mountainous area did Rip Van Winkle fall asleep?”
“Most of the sun is composed of what element?”
These are the kinds of questions challenging the young Masterminds team at the Harlingen School of Health Professions, and their answers keep moving them to the next round.
“It’s about general knowledge and trivia,” said Jaime Ramirez, 18. “I think a lot of it is review of what we learned.”
Jaime, a senior, is one of three HSHP students in the school’s Masterminds team. This is the first year the school has had a team.
“The first two rounds we did really well,” Jaime said. “We’re having fun.”
On Monday they competed in their third round and seemed to think they performed well judging by their looks of satisfaction.
“Last night we played Medical Academy and they wore their scrubs,” said Matthew Garcia, 17, a junior.
“We wore our scrubs and lab coats.”
Other than that they couldn’t say much because it hasn’t aired but they were looking forward to the next round.
“I’m a freshman and it’s a really good experience,” said Isaac Newman, 14.
“I get to learn new things,” he said. “It challenges my general knowledge.”
He especially enjoys the time Instructor Aaron Chila spends preparing them.
“He makes these big quizzes and develops questions that we are going to be asked,” Isaac said. “It’s a lot of questions on different things.”
Matthew had a slightly different take.
“I most enjoyed meeting Tim Smith,” he said with a laugh about the weatherman/host before heading back to class.
Oh, by the way, Rip Van Winkle fell asleep in the Catskills, and the sun is composed mainly of hydrogen.
WHAT IS IT?
Masterminds is an academic quiz show produced by a local TV station. Teams from different schools face off on such subjects as history, math, English, current events, art and music. Weatherman Tim Smith is the host.
