By: Sarah Memon
After months of preparation and anticipation, the long-awaited Battle of the Classes occurred on Friday, December 21st in the MPR, the day before Winter Break. This year’s BOTC consisted of a multitude of events. There were a total of 10 events this year. Some of the competitions included The Voice, Pictionary, and the Improv Dance.
There were numerous activities that happened in the days leading up to BOTC. There was Spirit Week, in which all the grades had to dress up according to a specific theme. The daily themes were the following: Wholesome Meme Monday, Ugly Sweater Tuesday. EXTREME Weather Wednesday, Pajama Thursday, and finally Class Color Friday. The sophomores placed fourth, the juniors placed third, the seniors placed second, and the freshmen placed first. Another event was the Coin Jar contest, where students could place pennies in their own jar for 1 point or a dollar for 100 points, but they also could place silver coins in the opposing team’s jar for -1 point. The seniors placed last, followed by the sophomores in third, juniors in second, and yet again the freshmen in first.
The SCH Food Drive, organized by the Students of Service club, was an event to raise money and food donations for Students Change Hunger, but grades could also acquire illustrious BOTC points. The Food Drive occurred from December 3rd to December 12th. The Seniors brought in first place with 497.157 pounds, followed by the sophomores with 398.151 pounds, the juniors with 262.718 pounds, and the freshmen in last with 249.247 pounds. With other contributions such as the Chemistry vs Physics Science Food Donations, Biotechnology High School raised a total of 1539 pounds of food!
The BOTC Hype Videos were shown during lunch the Tuesday before Battle of the Classes. Each grade created a video that was about 90 seconds long to hype their grades up for the big day. The freshman came in fourth, sophomores came in third, seniors came in second, and the juniors succeeded in winning first for the hype video. Here are some of the links for the videos so you can see them for yourself:
Freshmen: https://tinyurl.com/botc18frosh
Sophomores: https://tinyurl.com/botc18soph
Juniors: https://tinyurl.com/botc18junior
Seniors: https://tinyurl.com/botc18senior
The last event that took place before BOTC was the art wall. The freshmen created a Winnie the Pooh inspired wall (because Winnie the Pooh is one of Biotech’s iconic symbol due to Mr. Shafaie and his countless Pooh plushies). The sophomores went with a Sesame Street theme where they called themselves “Smart Cookies” and they were represented by Cookie Monster on the wall. There were other Sesame Street Characters in the colors green, yellow, and orange placed inside the cookie jar to indicate the sophomores consuming the competition. The Juniors represented themselves with a Phoenix where each feather contained the name of a student in the junior class. Their mantra was “Rising above the ashes” because they lost the last two years and they were ready to rise to first place. The senior’s wall was breathtaking with the lights and the mechanical components for the wings of the green dragon they painted. The dragon was pictured to breathe fire, which led into the slogan “Soarin’ Seniors.” As expected, the seniors placed first for their wall, followed by the juniors, then the freshmen, and lastly the sophomores.
The first event to take place the actual day of BOTC was the classic relay race. Some of the activities in the relay race included a three-legged race where the people tied together had to jump rope five times as well. A person also had to consume a cup of jello with chopsticks and another had to juggle a soccer ball. There was also army crawling, leapfrogging, and passing a volleyball. The seniors achieved first place with the juniors closely falling behind in second, freshman in third, and sophomores in fourth.
The next event was the Improv Dance. Two grades would face each other in a dance battle and perform a choreographed routine. The winners would move on to the final round where a random song would be selected and they would have to perform an improv dance routine. The freshmen performed “I Like It” against the juniors who performed “Moves Like Jagger.” The juniors moved on to the final round. The sophomores and seniors faced each other in a thrilling dance battle. After much deliberation, the judges decided that the senior’s performance of “Nonstop” won over the sophomore’s routine of “Where They From.” In the improv dance battle, the juniors had to dance to “Never Gonna Give You Up” and the seniors’ song was “Look Alive” by Drake. In the end, the seniors won the Improv Dance Battle!
After the Improv Dance Battle, the grades competed in a game of Pictionary with biology themed vocabulary. In the first round, the freshmen had to draw a Mitochondria, the sophomores drew a Tabletop Balance, the juniors drew Photosynthesis, and the Seniors drew a graduated cylinder. The Seniors and Juniors guessed their words quickest, so they competed in a second round. In this round, the seniors had to draw a mouse and the juniors drew gel electrophoresis. The seniors guessed their word first and won first place in Pictionary, followed by the juniors, sophomores, then freshmen. The second to last event was Acapella. Each grade had to perform a rendition of the song “Somebody I Used to Know.” The freshmen placed fourth, juniors placed third, seniors placed second, and the sophomores placed first in their first event.
Sophomore Dance Battle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_P9bGFJsdQ
After much waiting, it was time for the BOTC Dance! The freshmen’s dance included the song “thank u, next” by Ariana Grande and it showcased specific individuals/pairs dancing in the center of a circle. The sophomores dance contained the song “It’s Raining Men” and featured a Kahoot portion where the question was “Who’s Gonna Win BOTC?” and the correct answer was “Sophomores.” The juniors dance had a mix of genres including an Indian dance portion and the song “ZEZE.” Finally, the day ended with the senior's dance. Highlights of their dance included a couple dance and the song “The Greatest Show” from the movie “The Greatest Showman” where all the seniors from the audience joined to take part in the dance. For the dance, seniors came in first, sophomores in second, juniors in third, and the freshmen in fourth.
Sophomore Dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u1iSsDo_2s
Senior Dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-gaFgkwLaw
BOTC ended with the seniors reigning victorious with 850 points. Juniors following behind in second place with 675 points. Sophomores in third place with 525 points and the freshmen in fourth with 425 points. That’s a wrap to Biotech’s Battle of the Classes 2018!
Monday, April 1, 2019 at 3:27 PM 
