MANSFIELD — Last week, Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center (MOESC) hosted hundreds of fourth- and fifth-grade students as they battled it out to be the Academic Challenge champion. Students compete as teams, a nswering questions about a wide range of topics including literature, fine arts, geography, history, math, and science.
Twenty eight teams from Ashland Christian, Colonel Crawford, Crestview, Galion, Lexington, Mansfield City Schools, Northwestern, Plymouth-Shiloh, Shelby Sacred Heart, Mansfield St. Mary’s, Mansfield St. Peter’s, Shelby, Mansfield City’s Spanish Immersion and Wooster participated in the fifth-grade Academic Challenge on Jan. 28th.
Wooster Team A tied for first with Lexington Team A. Olivia Kelly, Jill Hostetler, Annette Hemming, Dane Kuzma, and Nick Kakanuru comprised Wooster’s team. The Lexington team members were Owen Weiser, Danica Staats, Sylvia Secrist, and Gianna, last name withheld. Team C from Wooster, with Nick Altland, Ethan Shamir, Luke Walenciak, and Adrionna Adams, captured third place.
Twenty six teams from Ashland Christian, Colonel Crawford, Crestview, Galion, Lexington Central, Lexington Eastern, Mansfield City, Northwestern, Plymouth-Shiloh, Mansfield St. Peter’s, Shelby, Mansfield City’s Spanish Immersion and Wooster Parkview, Wooster Cornerstone, Wooster Kean, and Wooster Melrose participated in the fourth-grade Academic Challenge on Jan. 29
Wooster again came away with the victory. Its Melrose team won with team members Josiah Sexton, Lincoln Conley, Andrew James, Cayden Kandel, and Ellen Armour. Wooster’s Parkview team with the team of Elijah Dean, Jack Kallio, Liam Van Doorn, and Jules Osborne, was second.
“As I was watching the fourth-grade students between their first two rounds ever of competition I saw a girl talking to her mom. She could barely contain her excitement as she was jumping up and down say.‘This is just SO much fun. I can’t wait for this next round to start!’”, said Leanna Ferreira, Gifted Student Consultant and coordinator of the Academic Challenge meets. “This is why I enjoy this activity so very much. We are giving students an opportunity to celebrate the academics is a safe, yet competitive nature. It is a place where being ‘smart’ is celebrated in a similar environment to athletics.”
This week MOESC hosted the sixth=grade competition on Tuesday evening, and seventh, and eighth competed Wednesday evening. All competitions are open for the public to watch.
