The 3rd grade Lego League Jr. teams competed at West Valley HS on Saturday, March 23.  FIRST robotics reviewers approached each team to ask them questions about their Moon Base and what they learned about living on the Moon.  After this presentation period, the students were given a tour of the SGS FIRST Robotics team at their competition before receiving high-fives from the FIRST volunteers and a LEGO medal award.  Former SGS Robotics member, Max Richardson (Denie's son), was home from college to give the third graders a special tour of the Robotics competition.  See a Photo Gallery of their displays and tour.  

The LEGO League Jr. season challenge this year was Mission Moon.  The students had to learn about the challenges that would face them on the Moon so that they could construct a Moon Base.  In addition to learning about the environment on the Moon, each team brainstormed ideas of how to get their air, water, energy and food on their base.  After each team picked their favorite ideas, they began building and testing those ideas with their Legos.  One part of the moon base had to be motorized and programmed with Lego WeDo 2.0.  

Thank you to lead coaches Laura and Chase Bradford and assistants Jacob Swartz and Toshi Shimizu for all their hard work in preparing the students of Team Apollo Lunar Ninjas and Team Discovery Adventurers for the competition and providing a fun experience with Legos!

Four Saint George's students scored 4.0 in the Dragon Slayer Tournament at Saint George's on Saturday, March 23, winning the team trophy.  Four students won individual chess trophies: Eshan Reddy won 1st place in the K-12 section, Joey Maestas took 2nd place in K-5, Noah Hochheimer finished 2nd in K-2, and Adrian Rooney won 1st in fourth grade.  Per Sande and Preston Sevigny also competed at the tournament in Metters Gym that drew 50 students from 20 schools.  See a Photo Gallery of images from the event taken by SGS coach James Stripes.

Eshan finished in a tie with two others for the top prize, winning the prize on tiebreaks, since his five opponents had a higher overall score than the five opponents of each the other two players.  It was a very competitive event for the top players.  The top six in the K-12 section all beat at least one of the six and each lost at least one game to one of the six.  Eshan is in third grade; the other five are in grades six through nine.  Great matches, Dragons!

The 5th grade Math Is Cool team will be participating at Masters (State) in Moses Lake on May 18.  Congratulations to Matthew Longstreth, Britta Ohnback, Per Sande, Megan Neiwert, and alternate Regan Thomas.  Go Dragons!

The 4th grade Math Is Cool team of 21 students took 2nd place at their Regional competition on March 23.  In individual honors, Taylor Teague placed 1st in the top division and Adam Ling took 2nd place.  See a Photo Gallery of the team at Regionals.  Coach Rick Petrini will learn this week if team members will be going to the State Masters competition.  Congrats, Dragons!

The SGS FIRST Robotics Team #1595 reached the quarter-finals at the Yakima Regional Competition on March 15-16.  They also won the "Creativity Award" that celebrates creativity in design, use of components, or strategy of play.  See a Photo Gallery of the team in Yakima and their matches.  (See the Team's Video showing off their robot and the FIRST Video about this year's competition.)  Their next competition is at East Valley HS on March 22-23; go see them in action!

SGS 7th grader Kara Chaing finished 29th at the Statewide Math Counts competition in Redmond, WA on March 9.  Kara represented the SGS Math Counts team (photo above).   She was 2nd overall at the Spokane regional Math Counts competition, and finished in the top quarter of the best Middle School math students in Washington State.  Congratulations!

Saint George's 2019 Deep Space robot T.A.R.S. can place hatches and red 'cargo' balls to earn points in the FIRST Robotics Competitions that begin in mid-March.  Check out Their Video that placed 3rd in their division on FirstUpdateNow's #ogrobotreveal stream.  (Here's the FRC Video that explains the game the robots will play this spring.)  Go SGS Robotics!

Six SGS players and two parents enjoyed some "March Madness" chess competition on Saturday, March 9.  Reagan Heller won best in fourth grade with a score of 3.0, while Eshan Reddy was the highest scoring Dragon (3.5) in the top section.  Noah Hochheimer also played up and scored 3.0; Donovan Bradford was the other SGS player with 3.0.  The team was 3rd overall.  See a few photos from the March Madness Chess Tournament taken by coach James Stripes.

Saint George's Knowledge Bowl team took 1st place in the 2B Division for the Spokane Region at Whitworth University on Feb. 22.  The Dragons were tops among 12 2B schools and advance to the State Competition.  Congratulations to Alec Bunn, Gabi Cunningham, John Michael Field, Jake Gliniak, and Tariq Ravasia.  The team also made it to the semi-finals of the overall Spokane Region of 34 schools of all sizes, finishing 7th overall.  Go Dragons!

Saint George's 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Math Is Cool teams attended their regional competition on Feb. 15 at Mead HS.  The 6th grade team of Esther Buckner, Robert DeForest, Oliver Ling, and Ian Reichel earned 2nd place overall, just one point out of 1st place.  Oliver placed 3rd overall in the individual competition.  The 7th grade team of Jaiden Nagra, Lily Nosbaum, Henrietta Osborne, and Aarna Pardeshi (coached by Chris Marshall) learned a lot but did not place.  The 8th grade team of Peyton Dixon, Anna Field, Catherine Field, Paul Poole, Michael Resendes, and Luke Whitman also competed well but did not place.

The SGS Math Counts team of Kara Chiang, Steel Lindauer, Oliver Ling, and Sam Morris placed 3rd overall at the Spokane Regional Math Counts competition at Gonzaga Univ. on Feb. 9 against Middle Schools from across Eastern Washington.  Kara earned 2nd place overall in the individual competition and will advance to the State Math Counts event on March 9 at the Microsoft Campus in Redmond, WA.  Way to go, Dragons!