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Pine Island, Pelican elementaries face off in ‘Brain Bowl Quiz’

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Marianne Paton Students from Pine Island Elementary and Pelican Elementary from Cape Coral battled for the title of winner of the Brain Bowl Quiz contest held recently at Pine Island Elementary School. Serving as quiz master and emcee was PIE gifted student teacher Jeff Nelson.

Going head-to-head, fourth and fifth grade students recently competed against one another to determine the winner of the Brain Bowl Quiz. Teams of students from Pine Island Elementary and Pelican Elementary met Saturday, May 30, for the challenge patterned after TV’s popular academic Quiz Bowl involving high school students.

Organizing and serving as emcee for the event was Pine Island Elementary School gifted student teacher Jeff Nelson.

“Both schools responded well to the idea of the Brain Bowl and I had no problem getting volunteers to help out,” said Nelson. “About 120 kids from both schools tried out and we kept 30 kids from Pelican and 24 from Pine Island. A couple of students came and went, but the teams pretty much stayed together for a month and everybody came out to play on Saturday.”

Nelson said he created a qualification test covering six major topics: math, literature/grammar, geography, history, science and a general category. Nelson developed the idea of the Brain Bowl competition because his hometown in Pennsylvania does a similar activity with all of the schools.

“We haven’t done a competition here at the elementary level, so maybe it will take off,” Nelson said. “Some kids just know stuff and this is a chance for them to showcase their academic skills. They seem to get a kick out of the game show-type atmosphere and maybe we all learned something from the competition.”

Nelson said that geography seems to stump some of the kids and math and science seemed to be subjects where somebody usually excelled.

“The idea of teams was that with four or five heads in the game, maybe somebody would know the answer,” he said.

Participants from each of the 11 participating teams took turns in the hot seat in groups of four or five from each school. Each of the participants were equipped with paper, pencils and a buzzer and after hearing the question posed by Nelson, the first team to ring in with the correct answer was rewarded a point. The teams with the most points at the end of each round were named qualifiers for the final round.

Emerging as the winners of the Brain Quiz Bowl in first place receiving the gold was Cambio’s Commandos from Pine Island Elementary. Taking the silver was Eliis Avengers from Pelican Elementary School and third place was won by Whitt’s Wonderful Winners from Pine Island.

Representing Pine Island Elementary School, each team came prepared with their own handles. From the Whitt’s Wonderful Winners were Jake Rossi, Molly Jo Fogle, Kaylee Brilhart, Zach Strickland and Cheyenne Jendrusiak. From team Garris’ Gladiators were Jessy McCain, Ryan Long, Brittany Newman and Shep Brinson. Representing Bernard’s Brilliant Bowlers were Brandon Reed, Halie Talbott, Gianna Gagliardi and Devon Hamilton. From the Renzagada’s were Noah Cicoria, Kendal Talbott, Victoria Henderson, Skyler Burke and Dakotah Goetz and from Cambio’s Commandos were Palmer Haffner, Stephanie Boyd, Angela Rimany, Kyle Skau and Matthew Wyatt.

Participants from Pelican Elementary School in Cape Coral included team Elias with JR Rose, Kyle Glarum, Ryan Joyce, Jacob Crandon, Anna Dostie. team Clouse with Amanda Garratt, Brock Shaffer, Lexi Merkel, Augusto Sandino, Michael Santacroce. Team Littlestone with Ethan Littleston, Sedona Toowsend, Austin Devito, Dan Gill, Zach Wheeler. team Ellis with Nick Gordon, Amanda Davis, Chris St. Onge, Zach Stilts, Chase Pollard. Team Blythe/Bravard with Stephanie Benitez, Sami Wolfe, Wayne Biancione, Noah Simmons, Morgan Clouse and Team Stormfletz with Robert Kandor, Cody Smith, Valentino Rosalez and Maggie Michael.

According to Nelson, the kids were well prepared and enjoyed the healthy competition experienced at Brain Bowl. Since the competition was so well received by the students, staff and parents, Nelson is considering bringing Brain Bowl back next year.

“I’m still asking for feedback from my coaches and helpers as to what we could do better, etc. If we could work out a good system, it’s possible will may try it again,” Nelson said.