ELIZABETHTOWN — In February, Elizabethtown Christian Academy had three students win awards in the Bladen Soil and Water Conservation District contests.
Students were challenged to examine water and soil conservation and come up with a poster or essay revealing their concerns or observations. Third-grader Kaelyn Eason and fourth-grader Anna Gooden earned first place in the poster competition; Max Dilello, a sixth-grade student, took first place in essay.
In January, Dilello won the school competition for the National Geography Bee, which qualified him to take the state placement test. The school received notification at the beginning of March that he scored high enough on the placement test to qualify for the state competition. He will be traveling to Charlotte at the end of the month for the state Bee competition. The champion from the state Bee will move on to the national Bee in Washington, D.C., in May.
On March 5, LaDonna Coates took her middle-school Science Olympiad team to Wilmington to compete against other regional schools. This is ECA’s first year of having a team and they prepared to enter nine events.
The team returned home with winners in two events: Melynda Storms and Thad Brisson won fifth place in bottlerocket, which required teams to construct two rockets designed to carry a raw egg in the nose compartment using air pressure only and staying aloft for greatest amount of time without breaking the egg on landing; Melynda Storms and Johnathan Thaggard won eighth place in duct tape challenge, a build-on-site event where teams are given a set of materials, primarily Duct Tape, and a task. They have a set time to complete whatever task they are assigned. This year’s challenge was designing a wall to protect a 2-liter bottle when a tennis ball is launched at it. The wall that protects the bottle best with the least amount of duct tape wins.
“I am extremely proud of how hard these students worked, how much they learned,” Coates said. “They were very excited about being part of this team, not just competing, but about what they learned while they were there. Many of them are already thinking and planning for next year.”
Third-grader Kaelyn Eason and fourth-grader Anna Gooden earned first place in the poster competition; Max Dilello, a sixth-grade student, took first place in essay.
Melynda Storms, Thad Brisson and Johnathan Thaggard brought home Science Olympiad awards.