BLANCHESTER — A bit of history was made recently as 10 students from Blanchester Middle School competed in the Columbus Regional Finals History Bee held at Shanahan Middle School in Lewis Center, Ohio.
The competition originally began in December as BMS students competed in the school-wide History Bee that determined which students would advance to the next level of the competition: eighth-grader Shane Smith, who finished first; and seventh-grader Teresa Zhang, who finished second; along with eighth-grade classmates Brady Phillips and Hannah Gabbard; seventh-grade classmates Adam Frump and Daelyn Staehling; and sixth-grade classmates Cody Kidd, Kaylie Paugh and James Rumpke.
The regional finals proved to be a fun and exciting competition. Top students across the state of Ohio competed head-to-head to demonstrate their knowledge of history by responding to a series of challenging questions featuring content split evenly between United States and non-United States history as relevant to fifth through eighth grade social studies curricula.
History Bee questions were written and edited by history teachers, professors, and other social studies educators from around the United States.
After a rigorous competition, Blanchester’s Kaylie Paugh, James Rumpke, and Teresa Zhang were among those who qualified to advance to compete in the National History Bee June 1-4 in Atlanta.
Working behind the scenes to facilitate the event and prepare students for all levels of the History Bee competition were Blanchester Middle School social studies teachers Kurt Ballinger, Michelle Elston, and Michelle Kirkendall. Also working to coordinate the event was Southern Ohio ESC Gifted Intervention Specialist Shelly Wellman.
Information for this article was provided by Diana Miller, who coordinates communications for several area schools.
