Area Students Participate in GEAR UP Quiz Bowl

Ten local GEAR UP schools participated in the third annual GEAR UP Quiz Bowl at Fairmont State on Saturday, Oct. 16.

"The Quiz Bowl encourages the good academic work done by students in the middle schools in our area," said J. Robert Baker, English Professor and Director of the Honors Program. "We want these bright students to have an opportunity to show their intellectual skills and to enjoy themselves on campus."

The winners were the South Harrison Middle School team, sponsored by teachers Charlotte Gunter and John Carter. The students on the team were Joey Bright, Riley Davis and Phillip Rabanal.

Other schools and teachers participating in the event were Davis Thomas Elementary Middle School (Teacher: Eileen Poling); Tucker Valley Elementary Middle School (Teacher: Eileen Poling); East Fairmont Junior High School (Teacher: Carla Wood); Tygarts Valley High School (Teacher: Kay Hart); Mannington Middle School (Teacher: Beverly Bowers); South Preston Middle School (Teacher: Diane Zinn); Lumberport Middle School (Teacher: Lisa Kerns); Gore Middle School (Teacher: Dawn Orton); and West Preston Middle School (Teacher: Angela Knisell).

Students participating were the following:

Davis Thomas Elementary Middle School
Anna Patrick
Elana Slaubaugh
Sam Beafore
Melody Heath

East Fairmont Junior High School
Rebecca Yost
Jenna Carpenter
Samantha Swisher
Megan Moore

Gore Middle School
Luke Kopp
A.J. Pena
Brett Floyd
Bryan Layfield

Lumberport Middle School
Roger Luchuck
Justin Frye
Parker Osbourne
Nikki Cottrell

Mannington Middle School
Aaron Amos
Carl Rice
Olivia Moran
Jeremy Gouzd

South Harrison Middle School
Joey Bright
Riley Davis
Justin Myers
Phillip Rabanal

South Preston Middle School
Beth Bolyard
Isaiah Rosier
Katy Bolyard
Matthew Maxwell

Tucker Valley Elementary Middle School
Miranda Trader
Emily Jones
Ashley Long
Kandance Tennant

Tygarts Valley High School
Alex Taylor
Joe Thornhill
Zack Pingley
Erika Pingley

West Preston Middle School
Alicia Harman
Maisie Fraley
Andrew Feather
Christian McCarty

The Quiz Bowl was created and organized by students in the Fairmont State Honors Program and Kappa Delta Pi Education Honorary and was sponsored by the FS GEAR UP Partnership. This year's Quiz Bowl student coordinators included Heather Yoho of Mannington, Amber Hayhurst of Fairview and Amanda Triplett of Keyser, W.Va.

The seventh- and eighth-grade participants, organized in teams of four by school, took part in four rounds of competition covering questions on language arts, math and science, social studies and popular culture. For attending, each student received a copy of "5087 Trivia Questions" and a certificate of participation. The winning team won a plaque for their school.

Dr. Angela Schwer, an English Professor at FSU, served as faculty coordinator for the event and coordinated the efforts of the students, GEAR UP and the various schools involved.

"FS students Heather Yoho, Amber Hayhurst and Amanda Triplett did a fantastic job of organizing not only the event, but getting college student volunteers and faculty judges assembled, getting questions written (new questions must be provided each year) and making sure that everything from the buzzers to the awards ceremony moved smoothly," Schwer said. "Many teachers commented on how well-organized the event was this year, and that's all down to the coordinating committee who have been working on this since school began."

Several FSU faculty members served as judges for the event, including Dr. Nancy McClure, Director of the FS Center for Teaching Excellence; Education Professor Beverly Richards; Math Professor Dr. Susan Goodwin; Dr. J. Robert Baker; and Dr. Gwen Jones, Education Professor and sponsor of Kappa Delta Pi.

GEAR UP is a six-year, federally funded program that aims to significantly increase the number of students who are prepared to succeed in education beyond high school. In 1999, Fairmont State received the largest of 164 partnership grants awarded throughout the United States.

For more information on GEAR UP, call (304) 367-0436.