Although their

teams are not heading to the national championship competition next month,

both Flat Rock Middle and Sandy Creek High competed and scored well at

the state level. Flat Rock placed ninth and Sandy Creek seventh.

In order to

become the national champion, not only will Fayette's schools have to

out score top Science Olympiad teams from other states, but Rising Starr

and Booth Middle will also have to go up against each other as they contend

for the top honor in their division.

Booth is no

stranger to winning national championships, having won five in a row.

However, Mary Wilde, Science Olympiad coach at Booth, says that competition

from other schools within the state is making the contest more challenging

each year.

"We are

finding that our biggest competition is coming from systems within our

own state. We know that Rising Starr is going to be a tough competitor

and we are practicing hard so that we can hold onto the national championship

title," Wilde explains.

This year will

mark Booth's 10th consecutive year of going to the national competition.

Wilde says one of her strategies is to look for students who are team

players. During the national competition, students must compete in a total

of 23 events and each one requires working with at least two people.

Wilde's team

also studies hard throughout the year preparing for the national championship.

After-school practices and lock-in study sessions at the school help to

build knowledge and teamwork.

Rising Starr

has competed on the national level two times prior to this year. The school

took 24th place the first time out and placed sixth last year. Although

this will be the school's third time at the national competition, Rising

Starr is sure to be one of the competition's fiercest competitors.

"I am

very proud of the team and what they have accomplished. This is a very

competitive program and to get this far is a real testimony to all of

the hard work and dedication the students have shown all year long,"

says Marge Counts, one of the Science Olympiad coaches at Rising Starr.

Science Olympiad

is an international nonprofit organization whose goals are to improve

the quality of science education, increase student interest in science,

and recognize outstanding achievement in science students and science

teachers.

The Olympic-style

competition was created in 1983 as an alternative to traditional science

teaching methods, science fairs and single-discipline academic tournaments.

Instead of memorization and textbooks, students engage in hands-on discovery

of cross-curriculum theories and principles. Relying on teamwork, discipline,

commitment, and determination, students experience achievement under real-world

rigorous academic interscholastic individual and team events in biology,

chemistry, earth science, physics computer science, and engineering. Currently,

the Science Olympiad involves participants from nearly all of the 50 states

and more than 12,000 K-12 schools.

Approximately

2,500 middle school and high school students will compete in the 2001

National Science Olympiad to be held May 18-19. Fayette Science Olympians

are listed below.

J.C. Booth Middle School

7 th

grade: Daniel Bass, Allison Fratto and Andrew Wedemeyer. 8 th

grade: Alyssa Anderson, Rahul Basu, Kevin Goelz, Karen Ketsche, Nike Massengale,

Bryan Odakura, Steven Perry and Steven Piasta. 9 th grade: Whitney

Baker, Christine Hedge and Shirley Li, Nate Reddy.

Flat Rock Middle School

6 th

grade: Ashley Ellis, Ashley Watts, Joseph Cunningham, Ravi Dayabhai and

Laura O'Donnell. 7 th grade: Josh Preston, Kenny Charron, Patrick

Herron, Kip Dunlap, Owen Anderson, Michael DiGiusto, Jeremy Holcombe,

Dani Slaton, Jacquelyn Bracco, Kyle Johns and Scott Long. 8 th

grade: Sajjad Menghani.

Rising Starr Middle School

6 th

grade: David Lowry, Jennifer Schildmeyer, alternate, Jack Larsh, alternate,

Andrew Ash, Craig Huffman, Paul Winchester, alternate, Andrew Zheng, Evan

Ferree, alternate and Andrew Marble, alternate. 7 th grade:

Davis Grisham and Brett Lorber. 8 th grade: Daniel Shankle,

alternate, Devin Harrington and Brett LeBrecque. 9 th grade:

Tim Legare, Matt Grisham, Nate Overall, Danny O'Shaughnessy, Michael Kozial

and Sankar Sridaran.

McIntosh High School

9 th

grade: Daniel Lin, Patrick Thomas and Ton Wyatt. 10 th grade:

Cale Austin, Tori Fratto, Robert Huefner, Ben Lorber, John Powers, Reah

Rogers and Chris Taylor. 11 th grade: Chris Baudhuin, Tony Hung,

Kate Schmid and Rik Wyatt. 12 th grade: David Condon, Andrew

Henebry, Christina Mojica, Kathryn Murphy, Yosuke Nomura, Lindsay O'Connor

and Brian Williams.

Sandy Creek High School

9 th

grade: Brian Johns. 10 th grade: Peter Davenport. 11 th

grade: Mike Brennison, Simon Coleman, Karthi Karunanidhi, Arif Noorani,

Lawrence O'Donnell, Mark Smits, Kevin Watson and Jimmy Watts. 12 th

grade: Jesse Dukes, Nick Giglio, Anuj (Manny) Mahajan, Ryan Ratto and

Andrea Van Buren.