Call it the national championship for brainpower.

Some 350 high school students from 39 states, including Hawai'i, are holing up at the Hilton Hawaiian Village today and tomorrow to compete in the annual United States Academic Decathlon National Competition.

Nine students from a school in each of the states won qualifying rounds against other schools to make it to the finals in Hawai'i.

In an academic decathlon, students compete against peers in 10 events that test their skills in the areas of economics, essay, art, interviewing, language and literature, math, music, science, social science and speech.

The students take written tests in math, social science, language and literature, art, music and economics. Many of the questions will center on this year's theme, "China and its influence on the world," said Gus Ricardo, marketing and public relations director for the California-based, nonprofit competition that was founded in 1981.

Students also take a Superquiz on a different topic that includes a written essay test, a prepared speech, an impromptu speech and an interview. The topic for the Superquiz this year is "An introduction to climatology."

A unique feature of the decathlon is that the nine members of each team are made up of three "A" students, three "B" students and three students with "C or below" grades. "This competition includes kids of every GPA," Ricardo said. "A lot of (academic) competitions are restricted just to the very brightest."

And because each student must compete in each event, the winning team typically will be composed of the students who are nimble in each of the events. "They have to be well-rounded students," Ricardo said.

Locally, this year's state champion is the Kamehameha Schools' Hawai'i Island campus in Kea'au, which upset longtime reigning champion Hilo High School to qualify for the national competition. Hilo High has done well in the competition, finishing as high as fourth nationally several years ago.

There's a caveat, however. While as many as 300 schools take part in the competition in a state like California, only three teams vied for the Hawai'i state title this year. The third team was Kealakehe High School, also on the Big Island.

Anne Miller, a lecturer at the University of Hawai'i-Hilo who was named Hawai'i state director in February, hopes to expand the program over the next several years.

Miller said she wants other schools to field teams and, in the near future, hold regional competitions that lead up to a statewide tournament. Ricardo and Miller want local educators to attend the two public events tomorrow to observe the decathlon for themselves.

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.