LA PLATA, Md. (Jan. 22, 2009)—A team from Berry Elementary School, Berry's Brainy Bunch, earned the overall top spot in the tri-county 2009 Southern Maryland Elementary Computer Bowl held Wednesday, Jan. 14.
Students compete in teams and answer 75 knowledge-based questions uploaded to the Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO) web site, which sponsors the event.
Berry's Brainy Bunch is composed of Berry fifth graders Ciara Bryson, Kimmell "Donavan" Benford, Denise Laforteza and Jason Hamilton, and Berry fourth graders Austin Burgess, Joseph Perriello, Cassidy Manning and Michelle Young. Team coach is Yvette Lewis, an instructional assistant at Berry.
Two other Charles County teams placed in the top six out of 41 teams. Vaughans Victors from Walter J. Mitchell Elementary School earned fifth place overall and second place out of the 19 CCPS teams that participated.
Team members are Mitchell fifth graders Angela Cortex, Jacob Ditomaso, Kyndal Gordon and Tanner Sticht, and fourth graders Mark Burgess, Reese Davidson, Zachery Holland and Anant Patel. Team coach is Sharon Vaughan, Mitchell's library media specialist.
Berry's Best Brain Buster's from Berry Elementary School earned sixth place overall and third place among the participating CCPS teams.
Team members are Berry fifth graders William "Robbie" Hogans, Naloni Johnson, Andrew Nguyen and Kelsey Veasy, and Berry fourth graders Brandon Fletcher, Julianna Rosasco, Thach-Vu Nguyen and Melina McElligatt. Lewis is also the coach for this team.
Teams from 24 schools in Charles, St. Mary's and Calvert counties competed in the event, and more than 110 CCPS students participated.