By Adam Kramer
The 2000-2001 results from the New York State “Thinking Cap Quiz Bowl” are in and the winners are PS 115 of Floral Park.
The 11-member team of fifth-graders beat out 113 other fifth-grade teams from around the state to take the championship, which was announced earlier in the month.
The team posted a score of 1,276 points, topping the second place Roslyn Omni Program in Roslyn Heights L.I. by 12 points. PS 88 in Ridgewood placed 16th and was the second highest with 1069 points.
“My kids are fantastic — they put in a great effort into working on this contest,” said Principal Marjorie Fein. “They really deserved the award.”
She said this was the first year the school at 81-51 261st St. had won the tournament, but it had placed in previous years.
Frank Newman, a teacher at the school, said he had put teams into the contest for the last 15 or 20 years, including the last six years at PS 115.
The team of children sits in front of a television screen and answers 100 multiple choice questions, he said. The teams are scored on how many and how fast they answer the questions, Newman said.
The scores are sent into the organization that runs the “Quiz Bowl” and compared to other schools from around the state to choose a winner.
Newman said he gave the students from the school’s three fifth- grade classes a trivia test and from the results he picked the top 11 students. He said he tried to balance his choices by taking three or four children from each class.
“Congratulations to the fifth-grade trivia team for coming in first in the New York State area,” Newman said. “You all worked hard and made me feel proud.”
He said all of the students who participated in the Quiz Bowl had an extensive knowledge of many different subjects, but each one of the students had “specific talents,” which enabled PS 115 to win the trophy.
“I felt great about the win, absolutely great,” said Cindy Schneider whose son Harrison was part of the team. “They were so excited that they won. The kids worked so hard.”
She said the school had placed 14th last year and with the fifth-graders graduating this year, “it is special for them to get first place before they leave school.”
The members of the winning team were Manav Bandlamudi, Sudha Dharmavaram, Julia Ding, Benson George, Akash Kundu, Frederick Lin, Harrison Schneider, Anup Shah, Shyam Shah, Jonathan Snider and Shawn Varghese.
Reach reporter Adam Kramer by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 157.
