Contact: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Sunday, January 25, 2009

Nearly 2,000 kids spent Saturday exercising their brains, and each received an academic excellence certificate for his or her efforts in the Principals' Cup.

This was the second in the three-part Academic Challenge series, a single-elimination team tournament that focuses on core-content material.

The top teams in this latest competition:

Primary division (grades 1-3)

(with 140 teams competing)

1^st: Picadome I (Ben Camuel, Mary Crowley, Bailee Hughes, Emma Mathews, Luke Sills)

2^nd: Southern A (Kevin Ensor, Thomas Ensor, Cosey Kelley, Alex Meadors, Julia Meadors, Megan Meadors)

3^rd: Rosa Parks D (Saif Ahmed, Ramzi Hamdalla, Tamara Hamdalla, Rocco Wrentmore, Stephanie Yang, Brian Zhu)

Intermediate division (grades 4-5)

(with 104 teams competing)

1^st: Dixie E (Dara Bockrath, Kaitlyn Kelley, Taegen McCarty, Amelia Rogers, Halleigh Shackleford, Anthony Tamasi)

2^nd: Dixie A (Anna Hensley, Brooke Justus, Thomas Kikuchi, Elizabeth Lasley, Brady Marshall, Mishaela Robison)

The back story

The Academic Challenge program, organized jointly by One Community, One Voice and the Fayette County Public Schools, is available to all students in grades 1-5. The goal is to create a culture that encourages children to embrace scholastic excellence, gives students opportunities to compete in rigorous academic contests, and involves parents in their kids’ education.

The annual series includes three Saturday competitions held at Tates Creek High School. This year’s Invitational was Nov. 15, the Principals’ Cup was Jan. 24, and the Superintendent’s Cup is coming up March 7. (Note: The date of the final event changed after the district calendar was printed.)

Most schools field several teams, each with four to six students. In competition, three teams square off at a time. A moderator reads a question, and the children have 45 seconds to confer and write their team’s answer on a white board. Each round has 20 questions, and the winning team advances to the next round.