Reach for the Top; the past, present and future of a Canadian staple

What creation of the Mattel toy company celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2019?

Not sure? Just ask the students on École Lansdowne School’s Reach for the Top team. They’ll be able to tell you, the answer is Barbie.

It’s lunchtime at the Winnipeg school and a group of about 20 students pile into the music room. After eating their lunch, they split into two teams and get to work.

“What botanical technique involves joining a part of one plant to another?” one student asks as three or four hands shoot up into the air.

“Grafting,” another responds with a small cheer from their teammates.

Students on École Lansdowne School’s Reach for the Top team put their trivia skills to the test in Winnipeg in December 2024. (Danton Unger/CTV News Winnipeg)

“It's fun because you get to work with your classmates in a way that you don't do a lot,” said Annika, a grade 8 student on the team. “It's a lot more fun facts and trivia knowledge than things that you would study in class.”

These students meet every Friday at lunch to sharpen their trivia skills in hopes of competing in the 2025 Reach for the Top Junior Nationals.

“They're learning so much, and they already know so much. It's crazy,” said Amy Carlson, a teacher at École Lansdowne and co-coach of the school’s Reach team. “It's really impressive to watch their knowledge just absolutely grow.”

For nearly 60 years, the national Reach for the Top competition has been putting the wits of Canadian students to the test. In 2024, students from about 500 schools across the country participated in the competition.

“I’m always amazed to see the students and their passion for the game, and it's their big competition,” National Host Ryan Vickers told CTV News. 

Two high school teams are seen competing in the 2024 Reach for the Top National Championship. (Reach for the Top/YouTube)

Vickers describes it as a kind of school-based version of Jeopardy!.

“It's as simple as pressing the buzzer. If you get the right answer, you get points,” he said.

It may be simple, but it is definitely not easy.

For example, do you know from what synthetic polymer toothbrush bristles are usually made? Well, you’d have to if you wanted a shot at the Reach for the Top national trophy.

The answer, by the way, is nylon.

The challenge has hooked Canadian students on the game since 1966.

Reach for the Top started as a game show airing on CBC with a familiar face at the helm. The late Alex Trebek hosted Reach until the early 70s before moving on to host another game show.

A young Alex Trebek is pictured hosting Reach for the Top in the late 1960s. (W5)

The beloved Jeopardy! host spoke with CTV News’ W5 back in 2015.

“You’re looking at the future of your country,” Trebek said, thinking back to his time hosting Reach for the Top. “If the kids come across as bright, personable, humorous, you feel better about the future of your nation.”

Take, for example, two of those bright and personable students who went on to become Canadian prime ministers: Kim Campbell and Stephen Harper.

Stephen Harper (left) and Kim Campbell (right) are pictured as students. Both competed in Reach for the Top and went on to become Canadian prime ministers. (W5)

Here in Manitoba, it’s been 40 years since a local team has taken home the trophy. But for Grant Bell, the memory is still fresh in his mind.

“We were pretty happy,” Bell told CTV News.

It was 1984 when Bell and three other students from Deloraine Collegiate in the small rural Manitoba town of Deloraine found themselves in a battle for the national title.

Bell was just 17 years old but still remembers the winning question.

“I buzzed in. The question was, 'From the root of what plant is tapioca made?'” Bell said.

Bell got the answer right (we’ll let you try to guess what the answer is), and with it, solidified Deloraine Collegiate as a national Reach for the Top champion.

The Deloraine Collegiate students won the 1984 Reach for the Top national championship, the last time a Manitoba team has brought home the trophy. (Scott Day)

The following year, CBC cancelled the game show, but it has been able to continue in various forms throughout the following decades.

Bell went on to get a degree in computer engineering and spent 35 years in the field, carrying with him the lessons he learned all those years ago.

“I think what I took from Reach for the Top is that you have to be ready and willing to absorb information, pick up information from wherever you can,” he said in an interview from his home in Calgary. “You kind of learn how to learn.”

And that’s exactly what the team at École Lansdowne is doing now. This is only the second year Lansdowne has had a Reach for the Top team, yet the group has already made it to the junior nationals and was awarded a school spirit prize.

“I think it's a really great sense of community with your school,” Annika said before zipping back over to her teammates, hands stretched high, eager to answer the latest trivia question posed to her.

And for those who are stumped on what Bell's winning answer was, it is cassava.