Armstrong Middle School students continue to win individual and group awards in various disciplines.
AMS earned top middle school honors at Mississippi’s National history Day in February. The school was named Quiz Bowl Champions and Best Middle School for the second year in a row.
Six student projects will go on to national competitions this summer in Washington, D.C. AMS winners include: William Paul Ellis, first place junior paper, “I Love Lucy: One Episode that Changed Television History;” Bradley Curtis, second place junior paper, “From Washington to the Moon;” Clay Turner, first place junior individual exhibit, “The War against Tripoli: The Birth of the United States Navy;” Mugeni Lukongo, second place junior individual exhibit, “Historical Perspective of Socioeconomic Impact of Stennis Space Center;” Shanika Rae Musser and CiCi Zhang, first place junior group website, “The Creation of Two Nations: 1947 Partition of India;” Kensley French and Hannah King, first place junior group exhibit, “A Law Broken … A Crime Committed … A Criminal at Large: The Turning Point in Forensic Science – Criminal Profiling.”
Junior Quiz Bowl Champions include Curtis, King, Turner and Angela Tang. Curtis also won the Spirit of National History Day award, while King, Turner and Zhang won the Three Years Participation – Spirit of National History Day award.
The AMS team also included Johnathan Franz and Heidi Miller.
Ellis’ paper focused on an episode of the groundbreaking show that exposed viewers to many cultural norms television had yet to broach.
“It discusses and analyzes pregnancy and how the show changed censorship. At that time, no women had ever really been seen pregnant on TV, and the word itself wasn’t used,” the 13-year-old eighth grader said. “It really changed America’s social standards and attitudes. At the time, it was shocking for everyone to see something like this. Now, it’s something people are used to. When you see shows from that time period, it really shows how much it shocked people.”
Ellis received research assistance from Mississippi State University’s Mitchell Memorial Library and Department of Communication associate professor Pete Smith.
Josh Pankey, a second-year AMS teacher who serves as the school’s National History Day faculty advisor, said Ellis’ piece was one of the most original research ideas he has seen.
“It’s very impressive. At the national level, you see projects that touch on many overdone subjects,” Pankey said. “When he came to me with ‘I Love Lucy,’ I, at first, had no idea what he wanted to do. He could have gone so many ways … with women’s rights, interracial marriage – we do discuss those at one point – but with the maternity point, it’s extremely interesting because it’s not as well played by many historians.”
AMS’ MathCounts team also won first place at February’s regional competition in Oxford. Numerous students also placed with top 10 individual awards. Those students include: Hamilton Wan, first place; Zhang – who also was recognized for National History Day – second place; Helen Peng, third place; Sean Mackin, fourth place; Musser – another National History Day honoree – fifth place; Joseph Houston, sixth place; Gloria Zhang, seventh place; and Tracey Senger, eighth place.
MathCounts competitors faced word problems which demanded exact answers written in simplified terms.
Wan also placed first in a buzz-in math equation competition. In that competition, he was allowed only 45 seconds to solve each problem.
Many of the award winners said they practiced math problems outside of school in preparation for the event.
Team and individual winners will compete against other regional winners in Flowood on March 23.
Finally, AMS eighth-grader Sarah Grace Duncan recently won third place at the regional reading fair. Her project was based upon the Southern classic, “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
“When I started reading it, it was just so amazing,” she said. “I learned a lot about how you can’t judge people by how they look. You have to get to know them and actually learn what’s in their heart before you can tell what kind of person they truly are.”
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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