San Joaquin County high school students will be competing in a high-energy academic competition this weekend.

Teams of students will compete in the 37th Annual San Joaquin County Academic Decathlon Championship. The 2018 theme is Africa. The Super Quiz event and awards ceremony are open to the public on Saturday, Feb. 3 in Lathrop. Competition started on Jan. 27 with the interview and speech contests, which were closed to the public.

Objective tests in art, economics, language/literature, math, music, social science, and science, closed to the public, start off the Feb. 3 day of competition.

Super Quiz gets underway at 2 p.m. at the large gym at Lathrop High School, 647 Spartan Way, Lathrop, with the awards ceremony to follow at about 3:30 p.m.

Eleven San Joaquin County high schools including Escalon, Lathrop, Lincoln, Manteca, McNair, Middle College, Tracy, Merrill F. West, Millennium, and Mountain House high schools, as well as Stockton Early College Academy are taking part.

The winning team will represent the county at the State Academic Decathlon Championship in Sacramento March 22 through 25 with all fees paid by the SJCOE Educational Foundation.

Other awards on Saturday will include: $5,000 renewable tuition scholarships to the University of the Pacific; cash awards provided by the SJCOE Educational Foundation; $1,000 award to top overall scorer provided by the Premier Community Credit Union and the SJCOE Educational Foundation in honor of Walt Rathhaus; medals and plaques; and the Dave Sorgent Championship Award.