WOODBURY, Minn. -- "We're dorky. We understand that we are," said retired Math and Science Academy teacher Darrel Schoeberlein. "So we do something that's out of the box."
That something is one of the most highly-anticipated events of the year at the Woodbury charter school. It's called "The Dork Olympics."
More than 300 students pack the school's gymnasium. Music blares as science teacher Stacy Bartlett takes the microphone. "Let's get ready to rumble!" Screaming kids give way to the action on the floor, namely, the first event - the baby bottle prune juice event.
Representatives from grades 6 through 12 line-up, then furiously try to down a baby bottle filled with prune juice.
Every event here is wacky and infused with fun. Not what you might expect from a school that requires students to take calculus before they can graduate.
"They work really hard all year long, and this is a chance for them to cut loose," said Bartlett.
And students do, as they race in garbage cans, fish bubble gum out of bowls filled with powdered sugar, try to put on a t-shirt frozen into a block, and other events that elicit cheers from the crowd. Bartlett describes it as the school's de facto homecoming.
"We're a small school. We're never going to have a football team. We're a bunch of nerds," explained Bartlett.
Students don't just embrace that idea, they celebrate it. "Everyone gets so hyped up about it," said 9th grader Hannah Ulrich. "They didn't tell us to wear nerdy apparel, we just did 'cause we felt like it."
"I think this is the greatest school because it is so accepting," said Schoeberlein. "No matter who you are, doesn't matter what religion you are, if you've got some quirks, if you're a little bit different, you're accepted here."
(Copyright 2011 by KARE. All rights reserved.)