CCSD Students Earn Honors at State, Regional Science Olympiad Competitions

Cherokee County School District students placed in the elementary and high school statewide Science Olympiad competitions and in the middle school regional contest!

Students from Holly Springs ES STEM Academy earned first-place state honors; Avery ES, Hickory Flat ES, and River Ridge HS students won second-place state awards and Dean Rusk MS students earned second- and third-place regional honors.

At the State Elementary Science Olympiad Competition held earlier this month at Kennesaw State University, students from six CCSD schools – Avery ES, Ball Ground ES STEM Academy, Hickory Flat ES, Holly Springs ES STEM Academy, Johnston ES and Liberty ES - competed against 42 other teams from around the state.  

Holly Springs ES STEM Academy fifth-grader Parker Harlow and fourth-grader Conrad Salling earned first place in the state in Data Crunchers and fourth-graders Caleb Anderson and Adelyn Chettiar earned first place in the state in Simple Machines.  Their coaches are teachers Naticia Zocca, head coach, and Ashley Adams, assistant coach.

Avery ES fifth-graders Loni McArthur and Sam Newman earned second place in Data Crunchers, and Hickory Flat ES fifth-graders Abigail Amos and Graham Plousis earned second in Barge Building.  Their coaches are Avery ES teachers Lyndsey Reed and Miranda Satterfield and Hickory Flat ES teachers Colton Christian and Michelle Kozak.

The River Ridge HS team earned honors at the statewide high school competition this spring at Georgia Tech after earning sixth overall at the regional event held at KSU.

Junior Kevin Duncan and senior Ari Peacock earned second place in the state in Write It, Do It, with ninth-grader Ian Haas placing second in Science in the News.  Juniors Soham Duggal and Connor Schmitt placed fourth in the state in Astronomy.

Their teammates are: Neil Duggal, Manik Durani, Neiviin Flores, Eric Han, Etieno Mfon-Okon, Alyssa Mull, Adrianna Musser, Surya Narasimhan, Hillary Patuwo, Lavanya Shankar and Alfred Tan.  Their coach is science teacher Heather Bellini.

The Dean Rusk MS team earned honors at the regional middle school competition held at Shorter University.

Seventh-graders Shraddha Sriram and Jyothsna Priya Thammana placed second in the region in Disease Detectives, and eighth-graders Matthew Agler and Caroline Agler earned second in Crime Busters.

Shraddha with seventh-grader Inaksho Nayak earned third place in Can’t Judge a Powder, and sixth-graders Ben Brooks and Garrett Royal placed third in Roller Coaster.  The team also includes Sadia Khan and is coached by science teacher Lisa Naliwajka.

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