Cherokee kids win quiz title

The team from Creekland Middle School in Cherokee County won first place in the National Academic Quiz Tournament Middle School State Championship held recently in Gwinnett County. The team earned the title by remaining undefeated, 10-0, through the competition among 43 teams. Team members Captain Joseph Satterfield and Hampton Barrineau, Justin Bolsen, Er’el Moyal, Jordan Moyal, Cal Pace and Sean Yates are coached by teachers Dr. Mark Nazemzadeh and Eli Rollman. Their achievement follows the team’s successful sweep of first and second place at the regional Georgia Academic Team Association competition and its win of the Cherokee County School District’s Annual Middle School Academic Bowl. The team’s sixth-graders last summer placed fourth at the national competition.

Student advocates for Special Olympics

Georgia Cyber Academy student Michael Holland of Douglasville traveled to Washington D.C. last month to meet with Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and Georgia lawmakers about important work the Special Olympics is doing in Georgia and the opportunity that it has afforded him and many others across the country. Michael also met with Special Olympians from more than 40 states. Michael has autism, CAPD, mild intellectual disability, Marfan’s, osteopenia, polycystic kidney disease, tic disorder, seizure disorder and developmental delay and has been competing in the Special Olympics since he was 8.

Daughter ‘internet famous’ thanks to dad

The little girl’s recap of her dad’s emotional Super Bowl reactions when the Falcons played the Patriots, which made the rounds on major news outlets such as Sports Illustrated, Time, Fox News and Reddit, was penned by a Cherokee County third-grader. Clark Creek Elementary School STEM Academy student Skylee Poirrier took detailed notes as her dad — a Falcons fan — rode the emotional rollercoaster (“Dad screams,” “Dad does his evil laugh,” “Dad is the happiest person”) of Super Bowl LI through the historical heartbreaker of an ending (“Dad cries”).

Team headed to robotics world championship

Puckett’s Mill Elementary School’s robotics team, the Sparrow-bots, is headed to the FIRST Lego League World Championship in Houston, Texas, in April. The team of fourth- and fifth-grade students earned the bid after a top finish at the Georgia FIRST Lego League Tournament Feb. 4 at Georgia Gwinnett College. Puckett’s Mill’s Sparrow-bots were named the overall grand champion of the competition, recognized for their perfect scores in teamwork, research and innovation and robotics design.