Can't Stop the Questions

Chapter 4: Expedited

Pablo then proceeds to spend the rest of Sunday to explore a little bit the resources given by Audrey to familiarize himself with quiz bowl. He also attempts to complete what he deems to be his part on the AP Biology group project, based on the extras started by Audrey, and gives out notes for Natalie and Tyler for their parts based on the work of the other two.

The following Monday, during the AP Biology lecture, Warren checks on the various teams' progress status at the very start of the class. He doesn't spend very long with each team though.

"What progress has been made last week?" Warren asks Pablo.

"We spent a night to make our research and analysis of the topic, and we all made some fine-tuning later in the week, so I believe it will be finished by next week" Pablo reports his team's status. "Oh and by the way, I'm going to play on the quiz bowl team..."

"Pablo, I want you to see me after class about quiz bowl" Warren, while satisfied by the rapid progress made by his team, instructs him.

Now that's rapid progress! A lot of teams are a lot slower, Warren keeps to himself, before moving on to another team.

"I did a favor to you by joining the quiz bowl team" Pablo whispers in Audrey's left ear, before turning to his teammates in the group project. "Now, I strongly believe it would be in our best interest to finish the project by next week, and hopefully tonight! I'll even offer to host it at my home, same time as last time"

"Good. I can't wait to get over with this project" Audrey is relieved that at least someone on this team understands that their lives are going to get more complicated going forward.

"It seems like the other teams didn't do nearly as much as we did. However, rushing the way Audrey and Pablo want will only lead to disaster!" Natalie warns them.

"Of course not, Natalie; we can spread out our fine-tuning time, and only make small adjustments as needed once the big work is done. That's how we will prevent the disaster from happening" Tyler keeps arguing, while he thinks that fine-tuning will take the form of an introduction, conclusion and bibliography.

As they start getting into mitosis and meiosis, as well as how they play into genetics, there's one question that Natalie is itching to ask when Warren explains that both mitosis and meiosis involve replication of genetic material.

"What happens if errors are made in DNA replication?" Natalie asks.

"That's a mechanism for genetic mutations to occur, especially when errors happen at random" Warren explains to them. "More on that topic will be covered in a few weeks"

And also carry implications for protein synthesis, Audrey is then remembered a tossup in freshman year on this very topic.

When the lecture ends, Warren gets to speak with Pablo about quiz bowl.

"It's the first time I ever had a football player playing quiz bowl. You're probably aware of the intensity of intellectual requirements of quiz bowl, and for this reason, don't expect to have success in quiz bowl right out of the gate. Nevertheless, quiz bowl will benefit you in your coursework. And, of course, several quiz bowlers will be tempted to believe that football players won't be able to amount to much on the buzzer"

"Beyond reading past quiz bowl questions and using Protobowl, how else can I improve in quiz bowl?" Pablo asks the quiz bowl coach.

"Audrey gave you the most effective ideas. If you realize that you're weak in one area, then you can try writing questions on that area"

For each Myriam, who actually had some success in quiz bowl right out of the gate, there are several who take months to be serviceable, Warren wonders what to expect from Pablo.