Though it may be front and center in the minds of KCS children and educators these days, standardized testing is only one measure of how well prepared students in Kingsport City Schools are for the exciting and challenging futures that await them.  Both inside and outside the classroom, our students are participating in a wide variety of district, regional, and state-wide competitions to test their applied knowledge and skills.

How are KCS students pursuing excellence?  This week in the Saturday Six, we’ll take a look at the KCS Science Olympiad Teams and the Dobyns-Bennett Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFJROTC), who have been competing in various venues over the past few months.

1. Teams from KCS participated in the Tennessee Science Olympiad that was held on April 7, 2018 at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.  In order to compete at the state tournament, teams had to initially compete and place in district-level competition.  Kingsport City Schools did just that, sweeping through the regional competition to place three teams in the state tournament.
2. Robinson Middle School’s Science Olympiad team won first place in the district competition and placed third overall out of 24 teams at the state event.  Fifteen students competed in 23 different events spanning all areas of science and engineering.  Students from Robinson placed first in two individual events – Rocks and Minerals, as well as Disease Detectives.  Robinson’s successful team was coached by Marsha Buck, Daniel Way, and Cameron Buck.
3. Sevier Middle School placed second in the district event in their first year of team competition, while the team at Dobyns-Bennett also scored high enough to win the right to compete at the state-level tournament.  Sevier’s team was coached by Jessie Crowe and Brad Fissel, while the Dobyns-Bennett team was student-led and coached by D-B senior Hannah Jackson.
4. The Science Olympiad was founded in 1984 to increase K-12 student and teacher participation in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).  It is one of the premier science competitions in the nation, providing rigorous, standards-based challenges to 7,800 teams in all 50 states.
5. Academic teams are not the only KCS groups faring well at recent competitions.  The Dobyns-Bennett Air Force JROTC unit has continued its award-winning journey by winning third place overall (Small Unit Division) in the 6^th Annual Appalachian Region ROTC Championship.
6. The D-B cadets also won first place in Overall Drill and Best Air Force Unit, and had first and second place finishes in every drill category at this competition!  The D-B AFJROTC unit, under the command of Colonel Eric Vogt and Chief Master Sergeant Melanie Blankenship, is considered one of the top 10% JROTC units world-wide.

Students at Kingsport City Schools are provided with many opportunities to demonstrate their academic prowess, work collaboratively toward a common goal, and achieve extraordinary results against well-trained peers.  Whether in academics, fine arts, athletics, or leadership, KCS students are succeeding and setting new standards for themselves and those students who will follow in their footsteps!