At the annual Chocachatti Elementary School Science Lab Olympics, watch out for flying paper airplanes, catapulting marshmallows and marbles zipping across the floor. It's a good thing — all teacher sanctioned. Science resource teacher Ruth Markham and grade-level teachers do this event to encourage kindergarten through fifth-grade students to use the science, math and engineering skills they have learned throughout the year.
"This is a lab activity the teachers do, and the children absolutely love it," Markham said. "The teachers say the children are so engaged, and it makes them really analyze and make things work."
The challenges are appropriate for each grade level and begin in the classrooms. Kindergartners are directed to build towers for height out of plastic and paper cups and manila folders. First-graders create aluminum-foil boats that are placed in water. Then the creators add marbles and are judged according to the number their boats can hold.
Second-graders design and fly paper airplanes for distance, and third-graders use straws and tape to build towers for height. Fourth-graders design catapults to throw marshmallows and are rated for distance. Fifth-graders engineer roller coasters to send marbles flying across the floor — again for distance.
The top designers from each grade level then compete at the Olympics, with their classes cheering them on. This year's participants and top scorers included:.
Kindergarten (teams): Tyler Shugarts and Michael Arrington (winner-98 cm.); Cody Blehm and Doug Ruhlig; Nadia Serrano and Jamin Pond; Hailey Cooper and Tyler Brown; Anna Groudas and Aidan Ramirez; Domenic Stone and Charlie Campo, and Jadyn Barb and Rylie Guck.
First grade: Joseph Arevalo (winner-173 marbles), Louis Romeo, Nikkole Sagliocca, Riley Bradley, Nate Leavitt, Janessa Millan, Chloe Kroner, Andrew Kolwicz and Nani Langley.
Second grade: Antonio DePina (winner-961 cm.), Hannah Paolillo, Dylan Abbatiello, Kailey Whitten, Joey Zarcone, May Leaman, Gabriela Suris, Andrew Brittain and Ezryel Thompson.
Third grade (teams): Ashlyn Ware and Emily Dean (winner-148 cm.); Juliana Eubanks and Gregory Werbe; Emma Perdue and Olivia Tracy; Angie Garcia and Nicole Rabideau; Jeffrey Bohlman and Dillan Flores; Alea Spiridakos and Destiny Carter; Tristan Carreiro and Simon Eldredge, and Molly Shannon and Jennifer Page.
Fourth grade (teams): Jonas Rose and Joey McDonald (winner-1,243 cm.); Morgan McDaniel and Katie Stenger; Elizabeth Noark and Jose Malave; Maria Boyle and McKenna Huffman; Brooke Anderson; Nick Marsicano and Hannah Forrest; Richard Lopez and Giovanni Acevedo, and Kylie Kanaar and Justin Gay.
Fifth grade (teams): Zach Stone and Austin Flores (winner-638 cm.); Anthony Paoli and Makenxo Maysonet; Onyx Langley and Isabella Enriquez; Ian Escamilla, Alex Herzek and Brian Morgan; Matteo Dicristofalo and Justin Acevedo, and Jacob Vancleave and Michael Machnicke.