publisher's - Allegheny West Magazine

ACADEMIC ADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTHIEVEMENTSMoon Area School District students won high honorsin the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals at theUniversity of Maryland in College Park, MD on May27 – 30, 2011. The Moon Area Elementary teamcame in second out of 64 teams in their Division. Theteam included Bon Meade Elementary studentsLeah Eberts, Sarah Ellis, R.J. Kanith, ShannonMelton, Julia Puhalla and Nick Ulven; and AllardElementary student Zach Gribben. A total of 858teams (seven students on a team) from 33 states and14 countries participated in the internationaltournament. Additionally, they won the Ranatra FuscoAward, which recognizes extraordinary creativity inproblem solving. There were only five of these awardsdistributed among the 858 teams. The Moon AreaMiddle School team of Ally Bardusch, Emily Bolen,Beth Eberts, Jenna Foster, Natalie Melton,Rachael Melton and Angela Priola also didextremely well, placing 10th in the competition.Odyssey of the Mind is an international competitionthat fosters creative thinking and problem solvingskills in competitors from kindergarten throughcollege. Students, working together as a team,evaluate and solve problems using cooperation,creativity, and out-of-the box thinking.Moon Area High School’s Aaron Johnson wasselected as one of more than 800 finalists in the 2011National Achievement® Scholarship Program,coordinated by the National Merit ScholarshipCorporation. Additionally from the National MeritScholarship Program, MAHS seniors EmilieDavignon, Neil Frick, and Priyeta Panigrahi wereselected as three of more than 15,000 finalists in the2011 National Merit® Scholarship Program.Stephen Cropper from WTAE Channel 4 visitedMoon Area School District’s McCormick ElementaryWednesday, January 19 for a weather assembly inconjunction with the Carnegie Science Center.Students in kindergarten through fifth grade enjoyed apresentation from Cropper and Carnegie ScienceCenter’s Mindy Gawlas about the weather thatOlweus BullyingPrevention Programincluded demonstrations and a Q&A session.Channel 4 was presented with a $200.00 donation forProject Bundle Up from the McCormick ElementaryPTC and a cake.Over 30 Moon Area students represented Moon AreaSchool District at the National Academic GamesTournament in Kissimmee, Florida, April 29 – May 1,2011. They competed against hundreds of studentsfrom throughout the United States in areas ofMathematics, Language Arts and Social Studies.Students qualified by participating in localtournaments and scoring in the top 10 percent, orbecause their team won a local tournament. Thestudents, representing grades 6-12, included:Isabella Montanaro, Annie Bal, MichaelMontelone, Sean Kennedy, Nikhil Maheshwari,Rachel Boward, Natalie Melton, Haley Sims,Madison Taylor, Allison Ulven, Jared Puhalla,Stevie Kotok, Patrick Crago, AnthonyTambellini, John Bal, Nick Jericho, AmandaGilmore, Dana Murray, Jessica Peng, AashkaShah, Abby Eberts, Ashley Hall, Allison Kelly,Priyanka Kolli, Nora Kupiec, Allison Murphy,Selin Sirinterlikci, Dakota Talbott, RebeccaZane, Sarah Kelly, Jenna Murray, SavannaStarko, and Priyeta Panigrahi and April Peng.MASD is committed not only to quality education but to a safe learning environment. The Olweus Programwill be implemented throughout the district in the 2010-2011 school year. The Olweus Bullying PreventionProgram is a school wide program designed to prevent or reduce bullying throughout the school setting. Themulti-component approach involves individuals, classrooms, entire schools, as well as parents andcommunities, to successfully address bullying in schools. Read more about outcomes associated withimplementing the program and what MASD is doing by visiting www.moonarea.net/202/attending.20 Allegheny West Magazine January 2012