April 12, 2005
CIS Students Advance to State Competitions in History, Science
Sixth, seventh graders qualify in regional competitions for middle schools
HARRISBURG, N.C. - Four seventh grade students and a team of sixth graders at Carolina International School (CIS) will compete in state contests in history and science, respectively, at the end of April after qualifying at regional events earlier this month.
Eileen Smith won first place in the regional National History Day competition for her Express exhibit.
Spencer Nichols (left) and Daniel
Whitecavage earned fourth place for their Pony project on the Enigma machine.
(Left to right) Colin Moore, Blaise Kress, Ashwin Chandrasekar and
Corey Terral are headed to the state Envirothon competition after placing
fourth in the regional event.
On April 5, 11 sixth and seventh grade students from CIS competed in the regional Southwest Piedmont District Committee’s National History Day at UNC Charlotte. Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, National History Day is a nonprofit program designed to promote history education for middle and high school students. Students spent several months researching and creating exhibits that embodied this year’s theme “Communication Through History.”
Eileen Smith, a CIS seventh grader, placed first in the junior individual exhibit category for her entry on the Pony Express, and seventh grader Ashley Prince, whose exhibit was on Helen Keller, placed second. Seventh graders Spencer Nichols and Daniel Whitecavage came in fourth place in the junior group exhibit for their project on the Enigma machine, a device used in World War II to encrypt military messages. All four students will compete in the state event on Saturday, April 30 at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh. If any of the four students qualify in the state competition, they can advance to the national competition in June in College Park, Md. Middle school social studies teacher Melissa Gayan organized the group’s participation in the competition.
The following day, April 6, several teams of CIS sixth and seventh grade students entered the regional Envirothon competition at the Catawba College Center for Environment in Salisbury, NC. A national environmental education competition for middle and high school students, Envirothon tests teams in five resource stations on soil, wildlife, aquatics, forestry and current environmental issues.
A team of four sixth graders from CIS placed fourth in the regional competition, which attracted 20 teams from schools in Cabarrus, Lincoln, Iredell, Rowan and Stanley counties. The top seven teams advance to the state competition at Cedarock Park on April 22-23 in Burlington, NC. The CIS team that will advance consists of Ashwin Chandrasekar, Blaise Kress, Colin Moore and Corey Terral. Middle school science teacher Saretha Lavarnway organized the students’ participation in the event.
* * *
Carolina International School is a new North Carolina public charter school offering grades K-7, adding a grade each year to become a full K-12 system. The school’s mission is to nurture students’ natural curiosity and joy of learning while they achieve academic excellence through a challenging, interdisciplinary, international curriculum. For more information, visit the Carolina International School website at www.CarolinaInternationalSchool.org.
