Rising Starr Middle School

ended J.C. Booth Middle's string of six consecutive national titles with

its own win at last week's National Science Olympiad at the University

of Delaware, but Booth's second-place finish gave Fayette County an impressive

1-2 punch.

The middle school division

sent team members into 23 events ranging from events like "Can't

Judge a Powder by its Color" and "Egg Drop" to "Science

Crime Busters" and "Wright Stuff." Each event uses anywhere

from 1-4 team members and points are awarded. There are also pilot events,

which award medals but do not count towards the point totals for the schools.

Rising Starr sponsor Dr. Marge

Counts said her team had no idea of how well they were going to finish.

"They only announce the

top six finishers in each of the 23 events. We had several finishers in

the top six but other schools seemed to be getting called up more than

us, including the school in front of us," Counts recalled. "When

they announced Booth finished in second place some of us started to congratulate

the team in front of us for winning. When they called our name, you could

have knocked us over with a feather."

The students on the team, their

families and the entire community are proud of the accomplishment of both

Rising Starr and J.C. Booth. Fayette County School Board member Marion

Key announced the news to the crowd at the Fayette County Board of Education

meeting Monday evening.

It was also announced that

McIntosh High School competed in the Olympiad and finished 21st out of

60 high schools competing. Two elementary schools competed in the Georgia

Science Olympiad and finished well. Brooks Elementary finished in second

place while Oak Grove Elementary School placed fourth out of 23 schools.

Among their top scores at the

national event, Rising Starr Middle School took first place in Weather

or Not, second Place in Metric Estimation, second Place in Science of

Fitness and third place in Pentathalon. Additionally, the Rising Starr

team scored first place in the trial event: Compute This.

Team members and their grade

levels are David Lowry (7), Brian Martin (9), Andrew Hayes (8), Kento

Masuyama (8), Tim Legare(9), Kevin Harrell (6), Davis Grisham (8), Andrew

Zheng (7), Brett LaBrecque (9), Brad Morris (9), Jennifer Schildmeyer

(7), Brett Lorber (8), Craig Huffman (7), Andrew Ash (7), Daniel Shankle

(9). Alternates on the team were; Nathan Shankle (6), Steven LeBrecque

(6), Devin Harrington (9), Katie Tramonte (8) and Ariella Perry (6). Team

coaches are Dr. Marge Counts, Mr. Tom Reed, Mrs. Julie Gray, and Mrs.

Martha Trisler.

The National Science Olympiad

is an international nonprofit organization devoted to improving the quality

of science education and increasing student interest in science. The Science

Olympiad has been on the cutting edge of educational innovations for almost

twenty years. Created by teachers for use by teachers and their students

these innovations include an emphasis on high academic standards; learning

through hands-on activities; learning with other students in events which

require teamwork; and making applications and connections to the real

world.

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