Best in class: Pinecrest Academy team win mock trial event
• The mock trial team of Pinecrest Academy in Cumming won every round of their regional competitions in Cartersville on Feb. 7, to become the mock trial regional champions. The goes on to the district competition Feb. 28 in Dalton. Mock trial competitions are sponsored by the Georgia Bar Association, and students are judged by approximately attorneys, judges, and other legal professionals on criteria including knowledge of court procedure, rules of evidence and oratory performance. Awards Pinecrest students earned at the regional event included: Maria Andrade, Maddie Brabrook and Clay Childress, "best attorney;" Danielle Miller and Andy Rodriguez, "best witness;" and Adisson Maalouf, "four years participation."
• A team from Rockdale Magnet School for Science and Technology in Conyers won the Southern Stingray Bowl on Feb. 7. That regional ocean science academic competition, held at Savannah State University, tested students' knowledge of ocean science disciplines through buzzer-style, multiple-choice questions and open-ended, team-challenge questions. The team will compete against 22 other regional champions in the 18th annual National Ocean Sciences Bowl at the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast Research Lab, April 23-26 in Ocean Springs, Miss. The winning Rockdale Magnet team is coached by Diana Kennen. Team members are Arianna Gibbs, Sean Keeler, Megan Symons and Samantha Godwin.
• Evan Barnard, 16, of Johns Creek and Carter Ries, 13, of Fayetteville were named Georgia's top two youth volunteers of 2015 by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards, a nationwide program honoring young people for outstanding acts of volunteerism. Evan was nominated by Johns Creek High School in Johns Creek, and Carter was nominated by Konos Academy in Fayetteville. Evan repaired a vandalized nature trail that featured Braille signs and guide ropes for the blind, and then set out to build more "Braille trails." He led a hike on the trail for 25 members of the Georgia Council of the Blind, and began speaking at council chapter meetings about Braille trails and the importance of making nature accessible to the visually impaired. After his work was highlighted in a radio show and international Braille blog, Evan was contacted by people all over the country who wanted Braille trails in their communities. Carter, an eighth-grader at Konos Academy, created a weeklong educational curriculum with his younger sister that is teaching kids about the importance of reducing plastic pollution. After watching TV coverage of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, Carter and his sister, who had already been working on projects to save endangered species, spent four months collecting animal rescue supplies, then delivered them to a rescue center on the Gulf.
• The Georgia Council on Economic Education has selected Sally Meyer, a math and social studies teacher at Crabapple Lane Elementary, as a Georgia Economics Teacher of the Year for 2015. Meyer has spent her entire 17-year teaching career in the Fayette County Public School System. Teaching is her second career. Before becoming a teacher, she was a successful banker, and she applies what she learned in banking to help students make real-life connections to both math and social studies.
