Just over 50 students gathered in lower Seeger Sept. 9 at 7 p.m. to participate in the first humanities bowl. 

Charlene Thomas, associate professor of humanities, and Diane Junker, professor of chemistry, came up with the idea over the summer while trying to find a way to help freshman humanities students study.

“A lot of them have been involved with Bible bowl; maybe we will do a humanities bowl,” Thomas said.

All the students were divided by their peer mentor groups and wrote down the answer to each question. 

There were 61 questions which were projected as slides on a screen over the stage. At the end of the slide show of questions, the answers were given.

According to Thomas, this helped the students find out what they know what they need to work on. This was particularly helpful considering the students had a humanities test coming up the following Friday, Sept. 14.

The humanities bowl was designed to get students thinking about the exam when they should, rather than when they normally would.

“I think it helped me prepare, but I think it would have been better if I studied a little bit more before hand,” freshman Curtis Gibson said.

“I wish they had this my freshman year. I think it would have helped me get a better grade in humanities,” junior peer mentor Matt Haas said.

According to Junker, this will not be the only humanities bowl; there will be one before every freshman humanities exam.