Birchwood School Press Release: Students Excel in NASA's Young Astronaut Competition

CLEVELAND—At the NASA Glenn 17th annual Young Astronaut Day Challenge on Nov. 7th, Birchwood School soared by winning a first place ribbon for the Balloon Propulsion Competition. They also had the fastest time for the Inspace Repair Challenge. In the Wind Power Challenge, they earned a third place ribbon for generating the most power from their turbine.

The day is filled with hands-on activities and competitions that are intended to stimulate an interest in aeronautics, space science and engineering. A total of 350 students from Greater Cleveland gathered at the challenge. The day’s events started with a talk given by NASA astronaut Sunita L. Williams, a flight engineer aboard the International Space Station (ISS). During the talk, Birchwood 5th grade student Vinny K was chosen to model the distance of the
ISS from the moon.

The students competed in a variety of engineering and scientific challenges. Birchwood’s Pilot (5-6th Grade) team was composed of Marco B, Katherine B, Alexis H, Vinny K, Darius Z (5th Grade) and Hajira A, Christine B, Clive C, Dhweeja D, Alex H, Jorgen K, Kavya R, Katelyn V, Naomi W (6th Grade). This is the team that won the first place ribbon for the Balloon Propulsion Competition, had the fastest time for the In-space Repair Challenge and earned a third place ribbon in the Wind Power Challenge.

The Commanders (7-8th Grade) team was made up of Nicholas J, Trevor L, Prithvi P, Sanjana and Susmita R, Hassan S, Brad S, Hannah Y (7th Grade), Nathan C, Deepak K, and Mohammed M (8th Grade). The Commanders earned a special ribbon in the Aerodynamic Protection Competition and also earned a ribbon for “most improvement” in the Aerodynamic Drag Challenge.

Dec 2009 5-8 Math Awards

5th-8th Math
November was the start of math competitions and here
are the results:
Continental Math League
Gold Award
Christine B, Katelyn V, Kavya R, Clive C, Sue R, Sunny R,
Vikas N, Alexander I, Sarah D, Zaeem M, Deepak K, Grant
F, Nathan C, Shawki A, and Michael T

Silver award
Carlf C, Munim M, Clare P, Lu Lu S, Peter A, Hajira A, Nate
C, Dhweeja D, Jorgen K, Cameron S, Shan S, Kareem T,
Naomi W, Vinayak K, and Ammar M

Bronze award
Zach I, Miguel P, Ben W, Marla B, Amir F, Nicholas J, Prithvi
P, Brad S, Hannah Y, Dayla A, Marco B, Anthony C, Mayla
F, and Darius Z

Math Olympiads
Gold award
Munim M, Sue R, Sunny R, Joren K, and Pheby L

Silver award
Shawki A, Nathan C, Grant F, Clare P, Nardine T, Vikas N,
Clive C, Kavya R, Christine B, and Nate C

Bronze award
Zaeem M, Carlf C, Sunny R, Hassan S, Marla B, Amir F,
Brad S, Hannah Y, Alex P, A.J. S, Katelyn V, Naomi W,
Cameron S, Hajira A, Kareem T, Dhweeja D, Darius Z,
Vinayak K, and Maya F

Great Job!

Students Excel in NASA's Young Astronaut Competition

THE BIRCHWOOD SCHOOL
PRESS RELEASE


Nov. 13, 2009 Contact: Jim Sukys, 216-251-2321


Birchwood School Students Excel in NASA’s Young Astronaut Competition
CLEVELAND—At the NASA Glenn 17th annual Young Astronaut Day Challenge on Nov. 7th, Birchwood School soared by winning a first place ribbon for the Balloon Propulsion Competition. They also had the fastest time for the In-space Repair Challenge. In the Wind Power Challenge, they earned a third place ribbon for generating the most power from their turbine. The day is filled with hands-on activities and competitions that are intended to stimulate an interest in aeronautics, space science and engineering. A total of 350 students from Greater Cleveland gathered at the challenge. The day’s events started with a talk given by NASA astronaut Sunita L. Williams, a flight engineer aboard the International Space Station (ISS). During the talk, Birchwood 5th grade student Vinny K was chosen to model the distance of the ISS from the moon. The students competed in a variety of engineering and scientific challenges. Birchwood’s Pilot (5-6th Grade) team was composed of Marco B, Katherine B, Alexis H, Vinny K, Darius Z (5th Grade) and Hajira A, Christine B, Clive C, Dhweeja D, Alex H, Jorgen K, Kavya R, Katelyn V, Naomi W (6th Grade). This is the team that won the first place ribbon for the Balloon Propulsion Competition, had the fastest time for the In-space Repair Challenge and earned a third place ribbon in the Wind Power Challenge The Commanders (7-8th Grade) team was made up of Nicholas J, Trevor L, Prithvi P, Sanjana and Susmita R, Hassan S, Brad S, Hannah Y (7th Grade), Nathan C, Deepak K, and Mohammed M (8th Grade). The Commanders earned a special ribbon in the Aerodynamic Protection Competition and also earned a ribbon for “most improvement” in the Aerodynamic Drag Challenge.

Click here for printer friendly version:
http://www.birchwoodschool.org/mainfiles/pressreleasebirchwoodstudentsnasa.doc

Jim Sukys joins Birchwood as Director of Marketing,

BIRCHWOOD SCHOOL
PRESS RELEASE

August 25, 2009

James Sukys Joins Birchwood School as the Director of Development, Marketing and Communications

Birchwood Head of School Charles Debelak has announced the hiring of James J. Sukys as the school’s first Director of Development, Marketing and Communications.

Sukys will concentrate on creating and implementing marketing and development strategies to help position the school for its long-term sustainability. “We are extremely pleased Jim has become a member of the Birchwood family,” said Mr. Debelak “He brings a wealth of experience from his tenure as a school president as well as his extensive experiences in the business world. I look forward to partnering with Jim as we work to position Birchwood School for a long future providing Northeast Ohio with a premier academic program.”

Sukys is relishing the opportunity to become part of the rich tradition that Birchwood has built over the years. “I am very fortunate to be joining an institution with the outstanding reputation that Birchwood has achieved over the past 25 years. I am excited to spread the news about this great resource in the heart of Greater Cleveland. “

Please contact:
Jim Sukys
Director, Development, Marketing and Communications
(216) 251-2321
sukys@birchwoodschool.org

Click here for printer friendly version:
http://www.birchwoodschool.org/mainfiles/pressreleasesukys82509.doc

Birchwood Announces School Gallery: A Local Partner

August, 2009
For more information contact:
Lorraine Tzeng
lctzeng@aol.com
216-251-2321

Announcing Birchwood School Gallery
A Local Partner Gallery in the National Gallery of Writing Writers at Birchwood School in Cleveland, Ohio, will join thousands of writers throughout the nation to display their compositions in http://galleryofwriting.org/galleries/55327, a Local Partner Gallery in the National Gallery of Writing hosted by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
Their compositions will be unveiled with the opening of the Gallery on October 20, 2009, the
National Day on Writing.

Gallery curators, Lorraine Tzeng and Karen Kufahl, invite you to view the Birchwood School Gallery (http://galleryofwriting.org/galleries/55327). Browse through the stories, poems, and essays of Cleveland area students from Birchwood School (http://www.birchwoodschool.org/) whose writings will transport you to different times and places. The Birchwood School Gallery will strive to showcase Birchwood talent from grades K-8 that depict strong voice, vivid imagination, and a unique perspective.

As a Local Partner Gallery in the National Gallery of Writing, Birchwood School Gallery will join NCTE in celebrating composition in all its forms and demonstrating how integral writing has become to daily life in the 21st century.

All sorts of writers—students, teachers, parents, grandparents, service and industrial workers, managers, business owners, legislators, retirees, and many more—and all forms of composition from kindergarten picture messages to YouTube videos to short stories, emails, journal entries and more will be featured in the NCTE National Gallery of Writing (http://www.galleryofwriting.org/).

###

The National Council of Teachers of English, with 50,000 individual and institutional members worldwide, is dedicated to improving the teaching and learning of English and the language arts at all levels of education. For more information, please visit http://www.ncte.org/.

Click here for printer friendly version: http://www.birchwoodschool.org/mainfiles/pressreleasencte0809.doc

Birchwood School student wins poetry contest

Article about fifth-grader, Katelyn V, who wrote a poem that was selected from thousands of entries as one of the top 10 in her grade division by Creative Communication.
http://blog.cleveland.com/westsidesunnews/2009/05/birchwood_school_student_wins.html

Birchwood School students take home ribbons in competition

Article about students who were recognized at the Ohio History Day competition and FPS State Bowl: http://blog.cleveland.com/westsidesunnews/2009/05/birchwood_school_students_take.html

More Math Awards

Congratulations to our elementary and middle school math teams who participated in the Math Olympiads competition this year. Math Olympiads is a yearlong series of five contests that provides students training in creative problem solving skills in mathematics. Both Birchwood teams received the "Highest Team Achievement" award, meaning they scored in the top 10% of all 4,638 competing schools. In addition, among the 103,045 competing students, seven Birchwood students earned a gold pin, scoring among the top 2%, and 19 students earned a silver pin, scoring among the top 10%.

8th Grader receives Br. John William Donoghue Scholarship & Promising Young Writers recognition

Congratulations to Thomas W who was awarded a Br. John William Donoghue Scholarship from St. Edward High School, the top scholarship awarded to students.

For the NCTE Promising Young Writers Program, Thomas W was chosen as one of the outstanding writers among the five chosen in Ohio. 487 eighth-grade students were nomitaged for the 2009 program where they each submitted two pieces of writing. Two judges evaluated the papers based on content, purpose, audience, tone, word choice, organization, development, and style. His name is posted on the website at www.ncte.org/awards/student/pyw. The National Association of Secondary School Principals has place this program on the NASSP National Advisory List of Contest and Activities for 2009-2010.

FPS State Bowl, Earth Day Poster Contest, National History Day, Mathletes

Future Problem Solvers in fifth through eighth attended the State
Bowl in Solon on April 24. Competing against twenty-five other
teams who made it to the state event, students used the sixstep
problem solving model to examine an imaginary future
scene facing New Zimbabwe as it deals with a counterfeit e
economy dilemma.

Congratulations to these teams who placed in the middle division:
Second Place - Jacob B, Thomas W, Isaac Y, Nathan C
Third Place - Sam J, Serena C, Jacob D, Oliver D

Another component of the event was the scenario writing
competition where students submitted a futuristic story. Using
the research topic of space junk, Jacob D’s “The Junk Collector”
received first place. He earned an invitation to attend the
international conference where his piece will be submitted to
compete with other state winners.

State finalists from Birchwood include the following students:
Mohammad M, Carlf C, Zaeem M, Miguel P
Grant F, Ben W, Lulu S, Zach I
Jocelyn L, Clare P, Shawki A, Nardine T
Alexander I, Sue R, Hassan S, Nikola D, Sean F
Hannah Y, Trevor L, Sunny R, Prithvi P, Marla B
Hajira A, Kavya R, Katelyn V, Naomi W

A big thank you to the many parents who coached, judged,
chauffeured, prepared lunch, and supported the memorabilia
exchange including Nancy and Isaac Wu, Nancy Isherwood,
Jill Levin, Debbie Deak, Ghousia Wajida, Nisha Roy, Susan
Fine, Brian Jackson, Clark Broida, Ravi Annaswamy, and
Tony Vlasteris.

Earth Day Poster Contest

Thirty-one Birchwood students sent entries to the Cuyahoga
County Solid Waste District’s 2009 Earth Poster Contest. Out
of 1,284 entries from 35 schools in Cuyahoga County, Jocelyn’s
poster was chosen as the 8th grade winner, Kavya’s poster was
chosen as the 5th grade winner, and Katelyn’s poster was the 5th
grade runner up. Their posters were printed in the Earth Day
calendars! In addition, Alexis (8), Nina (7), Hannah (6),
Alexander (6), and Christine (5) were in the “top ten”.
Congratulations!

National History Day

Birchwood students had a phenomenal showing at the state level
of the National History Day competition held in Columbus on
April 25, 2009. Ten students will be moving on to the national
competition at the University of Maryland in June! Against some
very tough competition, the following students were named
national finalists: Ilona K for her paper on Martin Luther and the
Reformation; Oliver D for his individual documentary on John F.
Kennedy’s handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis; Lulu S for her
website on George Mason, writer of the Virginia Declaration of
Rights; Nardine T for her performance on Mary Ann Bickerdyke,
a Civil War nurse; the group consisting of Thomas W and Shawki
A for their documentary on Admiral Nimitz and the Battle of
Midway; the group consisting of Serena C and Clare P for their
documentary on Jacob Riis, the Progressive Era photojournalist;
and the group consisting of Zaeem M and Miguel P for their
performance on John F. Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.
In addition, Jacob D was named as a national alternate for his
performance on Wernher von Braun. Receiving honorable mentions
were Miranda M for her website on Florence Nightingale, Isaac
Y for his documentary on Dwight D. Eisenhower and D-Day, and
Nikola D for his exhibit on Nikola Tesla. Congratulations to all
and good luck at Nationals!!

Congratulations Mathletes

Ohio Mathematics Competition

The Ohio Mathematics Competition is a 40 minute exam covering
thirty questions. Students prepare for this contest throughout
the year and compete against some of the best math students
and math programs in the state of Ohio.
On the fifty/sixth grade level, Birchwood’s team came in first
place in the state and first place in Cuyahoga County.
Furthermore, as individuals on the state level, Nate C tied for
first place, Clive C tied for second place, Kavya R tied for third
place, Hajira A tied for fourth place, and Trevor L tied for fifth
place. Congratulations team!

On the seventh grade level, Birchwood’s team came in third
place on the state level and second place in Cuyahoga County.

In addition, Nathan C tied for fourth place, Mohammad M tied
for fifth place, and Deepak K tied for sixth place.

On the eighth grade level, Birchwood’s team came in sixteenth
place and Isaac Y tied for sixth place.

Continental Mathematics Competition

In this contest, students complete five separate thirty minute
tests over a span of five months. We are in Region 5 - Ohio,
Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois. Results:

Eighth grade team came in first place in our region. Thomas W
and Isaac Y were among the top eight students regionally
recognized as Regional Student Leaders.

Seventh grade team came in second place in our region.
Mohammed M was among the seven students nationally
recognized as National Student Leaders.

Sixth Grade team came in second place in our region. Sanjana
R was among fourteen students nationally recognized as National
Student Leaders.

Fifth Grade team came in second place in our region. Christine
B, Dhweeja D, and Kavya R were recognized among 59
students nationally as National Student Leaders.

Birchwood School featured in Plain Dealer

Birchwood School has earned a reputation as the best little private school:
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/05/birchwood_school_has_earned_a.html

Language Arts and Social Studies Awards Abound

Language Arts Competition Results

2009 Scholastic Writing Awards

Three students were awarded the regional Gold Key in this year’s Scholastic Writing Awards, presented by the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers. Congratulations to Jacob B, Jacob D, and Ilona K. Their writings were among 1400 chosen from 140,000 works submitted. Their works are forwarded to the national level for judging. Jacob B‘s short story entitled "War" was about the conflicting choices the main character faced as he encountered the rites of passage into manhood, while Jacob D used the context of Atlantis as the setting of his ancient historical fiction. "Atlantis" involved the heroine grappling with the explanations for the tremors occurring more frequently on the island. In Ilona’s fictional world an orphaned girl attempted to save her village by embarking on a quest to face a dreaded sorceress in "Sasaki and the Crown of King Saraab."

Power of the Pen

At the regional competition in February at Garfield Middle School in Lakewood, the eighth grade team received the third place trophy among the forty schools represented. The scores of both the seventh and eighth grade team combined put them in fourth place for the Sweepstakes Award. Oliver D received an honorable mention for the Best of Rounds Award. Despite the strong showing of the team, only Thomas W will be attending the state competition in May. Jacob D is the official alternate.

Letters about Literature

Sponsored by the Center of the Book of the Library of Congress, this national competition encourages reading and writing by having students write to an author of a book that helped them in some way. Birchwood fifth and sixth graders took up this challenge. We received exciting news recently that Trevor L is the state winner for his letter to Jerry Spinelli. Trevor received close to $200 in monetary awards and prices. His work will be qualified for national judging. In addition Hannah Y and Susmita R were semi-finalists.
The letters of six other students also stood out in the first round of judging: Marla B, Alexander I, Sachi G, Peter A H, Christine B, and Sebastian D. These students were among the 164 chosen from a total pool of 2600 letters. Impressive Birchwood showing!
NCTE Promising Young Eighth Grade Writer
Thomas W represented the eighth grade class to submit an edited piece of writing and another short expository/memoir for this competition sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English. We wish him the best of luck.

Win with Words

In February four sixth grade boys represented Birchwood at St. Edward’s High School for a local spelling competition: Prithvi P, Trevor L, Abhijeet S, Hassan S. Trevor received a ribbon for making it to the final round. Abhijeet received a second place award in the excellence division, and Hassan placed third in the merit division. Demi Z was the lone sixth grade girl that faced the competition at the girls’ spelling event at Magnificat High School. She made it to the final oral round in the championship division and placed sixth.

History Day

Birchwood School had a stellar showing at the district History Day competition held at Case Western Reserve University on March 21. Beginning with the historical paper category, Ilona K earned second place with her paper on Martin Luther. Birchwood swept the website category with three place finishers. Earning first place was Nathan C with his website on Alexander Graham Bell. Second place was awarded to Lulu S for her website on George Mason, one of the founding fathers. Miranda M earned a third place award for her website on Florence Nightingale. In the group performance category, Zaeem M and Miguel P took first place with their performance on the Cuban Missile Crisis. Two individual performers earned second and third place. Jacob D earned second place for his performance on Werhner Von Braun and Nardine T earned third with her performance on "Mother" Bickerdyke, a Civil War nurse. In the documentary categories, Birchwood had a very strong showing. Oliver D took first place with his individual documentary on the Cuban Missile Crisis. Isaac Y earned third place with his documentary on Dwight D. Eisenhower. In the group documentary category, Birchwood students earned all three top honors. In first place were Serena C and Clare P with their documentary on Jacob Riis. Thomas W and Shawki A earned second place with their documentary on Admiral Nimitz. In third place were Deepak K and Zach I for their documentary on Robert Oppenheimer. This year, two sixth graders received an honorable mention for their exhibit boards. Sanjana R did an exhibit on Lewis Hine and Nikola D did his exhibit on Nikola Tesla. All eighteen of these students will compete at the state competition at Columbus Community College on April 25. In addition, three students won generous cash awards from the Settlers Association of the Western Reserve for their excellent projects on a local history topic. Ben W did a paper on Thomas Edison and Carlf C did an exhibit board also on Thomas Edison. Nina R did an individual documentary on Garrett Morgan. Congratulations to all these student and good luck at states!!

National Geographic Geography Bee

Congratulations to Trevor L for qualifying for the state competition for the Geography Bee! Trevor qualified by answering very difficult geography questions on a written test. He was one of the top 100 scorers across the state. Trevor will compete on April 3 at The Ohio State University Mansfield Campus. Good luck!!

3-8 Math, POP District Results

3-4 Grade Math Awards

Each month, the third and fourth grade students have had the opportunity to participate in contests for the Continental Math League (CML). So far, the fourth graders have had four contests and the third graders have had two. In addition, students have the option of taking the
Math Olympiad Contests, which are meant for slightly older students. Several have chosen to take the challenge! We’ve had many students receive Gold (all correct), Silver (one incorrect), and Bronze (two incorrect) awards on these challenging word problem contests. Here are the winners so far this year (some students have earned several awards):

Gold - Marco, Prathna (2), Vinny (4);
Silver – Pheby (2), Michael, Darius (4), Ammar, Anthony, M.J.;
Bronze – Katherine, Pheby, Darius (2), Prathna, M.J., Rami,
Ammar (3), Vinny, Haley (3), Maya (2), William (2), Tim

Congratulations Mathletes

On Saturday, February 14 the Birchwood MathCounts team came in sixth place among competing middle-schools in Northeast Ohio. In addition, Jacob B came in sixth place individually among all participants. Team members Jacob D, Nathan C, Mohammed M, and Isaac Y, along with individual participants, Jacob B, Serena C, Oliver D, and Jocelyn L, put together an outstanding overall performance. A special thanks goes to Mr. Ravi Annaswami who coached the team weekly after school.

On Saturday, February 21st the Birchwood mathletes flexed their mental muscle at the St. Edward’s mathematics competition. The eighth grade team of Jacob D, Isaac Y, Serena C, Oliver D, and Ilona K came in third place among 30 schools and 225 students. The seventh grade team of Nathan C, Mohammed M, Zaeem M, Deepak K, Carlf C, Grant F, Zach I, Clare P, and Lulu S came in second place. In addition, in the individual competition, Nathan C came in second place and Mohammed M came in third place among 250 students.

2009 POP District Results

The Power of the Pen teams in the seventh and eighth competed on January 31 at Olmsted Falls Middle School against 24 other participating area schools. Seventh grade representatives included Nathan C, Jocelyn L, Nina R, Lulu S, Nardine T, Ben W, while the eighth graders were Jacob B, Serena C, Oliver D, Jacob D, Ilona K, Thomas W, and Sam J.

Congratulations to the following:
Eighth graders - team third place trophy
Serena C (8th) – individual seventh place
Nardine T (7th) – Best of Round award
They will be competing in the regional competition on Feb 28.
Thank you to Mrs. Deak and Mrs. Taleb for the lunch arrangement.

Birchwood student featured on WKYC News

Isabela Moner & Carl Topilow: Valentine's with the Pops:
http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=107091

Birchwood science program featured in Plain Dealer

Ohio schools involved in effort to determine human impact on Earth's climate:
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/02/ohio_schools_involved_in_effor.html

Awards in Reading, Science, Language Arts, and Social Studies

5th-8th Reading Classes

Creative Communications just released their list of poem acceptances for their fall anthology. Birchwood School was named an honor school for the amount of qualified poets. 5th grade: 15 poets, 6th grade: 10 poets, 7th grade: 8 poets, 7th/8th split class: 11 poets. Look for these and other creative poetry by the whole class in the hallways during February and March.


Language Arts

Brad S, sixth grader, won first place in the junior prose division of the Ohio Outdoor News Youth Writing Contest with his story, "Squirrel or Not, In the Woods with Dad is the Place to Be". His story and picture appeared in the December 19 edition of the newspaper. He received a cash award and a plaque. The newspaper will also sponsor his story in a national contest, the 2009 Norm Strung Youth Writing Competition.

Science

During the first week of 2nd Quarter the 5th – 8th Grade classes conducted physics experiments with balls for the American National Chemistry Competition. They tested the rebound height and found the kinetic and potential energy in each type of ball.
Nikola and Hassan were selected as the sixth grade winners of the Cleveland Section of the American Chemical Society’s National Chemistry week. The will receive a cash prize and they and their parents are invited to a dinner— Education and Awards Night. Congratulations.

In November 25 teams competed at NASA Glenn in the Young Astronaut Day competition. Mr. Farmer and Mr. Nair chaperoned two teams of students. The Pilot team (6th grade) was composed of Brad, Hannah, Hassan, Nicholas, Prithvi, Sanjana, and Vikas. The Commanders, (7/8th) composed of Ben, Carlf, Grant, Jacob, Ilona, LuLu, Nathan, and Sam. Some of their challenges were: in space repair, space shuttle tile design, telescope repair rover races, and balloon races, wind power challenge, airplane designer activity, wind power challenge, constellation rocket transportation, out of sight rover, and constellation rocket transportation. Together the two teams won three first place ribbons and 2 second place ribbons and 2 honorable mention ribbons.

National Geographic Geography Bee
Can you answer these questions? 1) Located northwest of the Niger River Delta, Lagos is one of the largest cities in sub-Saharan Africa, and is the largest city in what country? 2) Danzon, a dance incorporating both European and African music traditions, is an important dance in what island country located northwest of Hispaniola? 3) Saguaro cactus can be found in the Sonoran Desert on which continent? (Answers: Nigeria, Cuba, North America) These and many other questions like them were posed to fourth through eighth graders, as each class participated at the class level of the Geography Bee.

Students participated in seven rounds of questions on both U.S. and world history. Each class competition resulted in two winners: Fourth grade - Prathna K, Darius Z; Fifth grade - Phillip H, Kavya R; Sixth grade - Trevor L, Vikas N; Seventh grade - Mohammed M, Ben W; Eighth grade - Jacob B, Sam J. These ten students then competed in a school level Bee following winter break. The questions were challenging as the students faced stiff competition from one another. After a number of rounds we had a winner. The third place finisher was Kavya R with Prathna K finishing in second place. Our school winner this year is Trevor L! Following his school win, Trevor had to take a very difficult written test to qualify for the state level of the Geography Bee held in the spring.

(Two sample questions: What port city is at the eastern end of the Trans-Siberian Railway? Which ocean contains the cold Benguela Current? Answers: Vladivostok; Atlantic Ocean). Congratulations to all our class winners and our first, second and third place winners!