Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008
Lake Arbor beats fifth-grade Rockledge team in Science Bowl
by Andrea Noble | Staff Writer
Raphael Talisman⁄The Gazette Lake Arbor Elementary School team captain Clyde Davis (center) consults with teammates Fisayo Quadri (right) and Jron Barber, all 11,during their Science Bowl match-up with Mother Jones Elementary School on Feb. 13. Lake Arbor went on to beat Rockledge Elementary and advance to the finals March 11.
|
With only fifth-graders on its Science Bowl team, Rockledge Elementary School of Bowie faced older and more experienced competitors in the semifinal round.
The sixth-graders from Lake Arbor Elementary School in Mitchellville prevailed; trouncing Rockledge’s hopes of winning the school’s second Science Bowl championship.
Rockledge last won in 1993, well before any of the contestants at the Feb. 13 contest were born.
The Science Bowl, now in its 22nd season, is a county school-sponsored televised quiz bowl competition open to elementary and middle school students. Teams of three are quizzed in categories such as ‘‘Zoo Parade” which deals with animals and ‘‘Let’s Get Physical” which focuses on physics and chemistry.
Rockledge team captain Elizabeth Voigt, 10, had easily led her team to beat Perrywood Elementary School with 215 points to 155 earlier in the day.
Early in the Perrywood game Voigt effortlessly collected points by naming the polio vaccine as the crowning achievement of scientist Jonas Salk and calling out the ‘‘intra-specific fighting” of Ugandan buffalo for what it is; competition for a mate.
‘‘We came up with questions to quiz each other,” said Voigt of her teammates’ strategies.
Team sponsor Frances Koontz said with the help of Rockledge parents the students were able to practice three times a week for the event. Because the school only goes up to fifth grade she said students do wind up going head to head with the more experienced sixth graders.
‘‘But they rise to the occasion,” said Koontz, a fourth-grade teacher. ‘‘They actually became a team, which was fun to watch.”
The rest of the team was comprised of Rockledge fifth-graders Taylor Bendlin and Matthew Kegley, with alternates Patrick Cable and Alonzo Carter.
Perrywood, which also has no sixth-graders, experimented with having fourth-graders compete on the team for the first time this year after a thrilling championship run that fell just short two years ago.
‘‘Two years ago we went to the last game and lost by one point,” said Perrywood co-sponsor Jessica Schiery.
Fellow co-sponsor Anita Jones said Perrywood wanted to get fourth-graders to compete this year so they could have some experienced participants next year. Despite its loss, it’s a strategy they plan to use in the future.
‘‘I think it made the team stronger, having the fourth-graders on, because they are very competitive,” Jones said.
The win by Lake Arbor secured the school a spot in the finals, where Hollywood and University Park elementary schools will do battle and Lake Arbor will face a yet-to-be-determined school. It is the farthest in the competition Lake Arbor has ever gone.
‘‘We feel real good to make it this far,” said sixth-grader Clyde Davis of Mitchellville.
The finals will be held March 11. This week’s taped Science Bowl will air on Prince George’s County Public School’s TV 96 from April 7 to 13.
E-mail Andrea Noble at anoble@gazette.net.
