Okaloosa students compete in Tech Bowl; Niceville schools excel

Niceville High School and Plew Elementary School both were first place winners in the Tech Bowl

Over 100 local students from Okaloosa County Elementary, Middle, and High Schools competed recently in the 2016 Annual Tech Bowl held at the Niceville Community Center.

The elementary teams competed in an Internet scavenger hunt competition.  They had 45 minutes to complete 70 questions in the time allotted.  Two students sat at a computer – one student did the writing and one student operated the computer.  They had to answer the questions from their test booklet, write the answer in their test booklet and bookmark their answer on their computer.  Scores for elementary division were determined by adding up the number of correctly answered questions.

The middle school teams competed in the 2016 Tech Bowl by creating a Power Point presentation, with specific criteria.  Students were asked to submit up to 10 slides in their presentation.  Students had one hour to create their presentation which was judged and a scored based on their ability to complete the presentation including all the mandatory criteria and any other features and functions they choose to add.  This year’s Power Point presentation competition was new for the middle school division.

The high school teams competed by creating a Power Point presentation with specific criteria.  Students were asked to submit 10-15 slides in their presentation.  They had one hour to create the presentation which was judged and scored based on the ability to complete the presentation including all the mandatory criteria and any other features and functions they choose to add.  This year’s Power Point presentation competition was also new for the high school division.  The high school teams also had to participate in a computer diagnosis competition where the team had to diagnosis what was wrong with a computer.  Once they determined what was wrong with their computer and fixed the issue, the team had to get the computer to boot up and get to the Windows splash screen.  The score from the Power Point presentation and the score from the computer diagnosis portion of the event were added together to get a final score.

All first place schools received a $200 Best Buy gift card.  All second and third place teams received a $100 Best Buy gift card.  Every student competing in the Tech Bowl this year who didn’t win a team prize received a $25 Best Buy gift card.

The winners of the Elementary School Division were:

• 1st place:  Plew ES : Coach Kalie Shaw; Team – Lily Hathaway, Manny Nunez, Jax Gwinnup
• 2nd place:  Edge ES : Coach Terri Murphy; Team-Carla Tyson, Anna Czajkowski, Ryan Shelton
• 3rd place:  Lisa Jackson ES : Coach Jona Friedman; Team-Ethan Nguyen, Bailey Gable, Jonathan Curtis

The winners of the Middle School Division were:

• 1st place:  Laurel Hill MS: Coach Wanda Cooper; Team- Haylee Steele, Kaitlynn Southard, Hope Slaughter
• 2nd place:  Lisa Jackson MS : Coach Jennifer Auriemma; Team- Savannah Beaulieu, Henry Vu, Nicole Ramirez
• 3rd place:  Davidson MS: Coach Toni Toney; Team-Andrew Jaworski, Ryan Walsh, Rhys Mistele

The winners of the High School Division were:

• 1st place:  Niceville HS: Coach William Legarreta; Team- Patrick Womack, Andrew Parmer, Ian Hunter, Seth Rung, Jaylin Hollis
• 2nd place:  Crestview HS: Coaches Meg Million and Dan Sligar; Team – Chandra Andrade, Pattylynn Brock, Jakob Miracle, Cody Morton, Gavin Johnson
• 3rd place:  Choctaw HS: Coach Tasha Bates; Team – Bradlee Bates, Bryan Denton, Benjamin George

The elementary schools that competed this year were Antioch, Bluewater, Edge, Liza Jackson Prep, Mary Esther, Plew, Walker, and Wright.  Middle schools that competed were Bruner, Davidson, Laurel Hill, Liza Jackson, Pryor, Ruckel, and Shoal River.  The high schools that competed were Choctawhatchee, Crestview, Fort Walton Beach, Laurel Hill, and Niceville.

PHOTO: The first place Niceville High School team.