home > news & events > academic competitions

Academic Competitions

5/6 KMO Finish First in Nation
April 2011 - The 5/6 Knowledge Masters Open team competed in their final contest of the year on Wednesday, March 23. The team had been working diligently on strengthening their teamwork skills since the previous contest, and their efforts paid impressive dividends. With a score of 761 points, the 5/6 KMO team ranked 9th place overall in the nation out of 290 schools, including schools in Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates. The team placed first in the state of Indiana as well as first in the nation for its school size.

Sycamore Dominates State MATHCOUNTS
March 2011 - On Saturday March 12th Sycamore School mathletes competed in the annual state MATHCOUNTS contest at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN. There were 204 students representing more than 40 teams at the competition. Sycamore School finished as the first place team for the 2nd year in a row and the 3rd time in the last 4 years. Sycamore students were 4 of the top 5 individual scorers. Five Sycamore mathletes finished among the top ten individuals in the state competition and each earned a $2000 per year scholarship to attend Purdue University - Chad Qian (gr. 7) in 1st place; Nathan Mytelka (gr. 8) in 2nd place; Jeffrey Cheng (gr. 8) in 4th place; Julia Wang (gr. 8) in 5th place; and Josh Segaran (gr. 8) in 9th place. Chad, Nathan and Jeffrey will be joined by one student from Lafayette, IN to represent the state of Indiana at the National MATHCOUNTS competition on May 6th in Washington, D.C. The state team will be coached by Sycamores MATHCOUNTS coaches Bob Fischer and Trent Tormoehlen.

District History Day Competition
March 2011 - This year thirty sixth grade students from Sycamore School voluntarily participated in the National History Day in Indiana District Contest held at IUPUI on Saturday, March 12th. These students each researched a topic of their choosing centered around the 2011 theme "Debate and Diplomacy: Successes, Failures, Consequences" and created a project to compete in either the Long Paper, Exhibit Board, Documentary, Website, or Performance category. This year more students from the Central Indiana District participated than ever before, providing some impressive competition for our students. Of the thirty Sycamore School students competing on Saturday, twenty-four are moving on to the State History Day contest to be held on the campus of Marion University, April 16. The investment of time and energy devoted to these projects by all of our students was not only evidenced in their final products but also during the interview portion of the endeavor, when three judges, most of them university professors, quizzed the students on the depth of their knowledge.

4 Get Perfect Scores on Math Contest
January 2011 - In November, 2010 over 70 Sycamore School Middle School students competed in the Mathematical Association of America's American Math Competitions 8^th Grade Contest (AMC 8) and four of them scored a perfect 25 out of 25. The AMC 8 is a national competition with 25 multiple-choice problems for middle school students in grades 6-8. The material covered includes probability, estimation, percentages, spatial visualization, everyday applications, and reading and interpreting graphs.
   Sycamore recently learned that of the 3000 students in Indiana that took the test only 4 others received perfect scores. Additionally, one Sycamore eighth grader was the top scoring female student in the state. Three more had nearly perfect scores (24 out of 25). For the team event the top three scores were tabulated. Sycamore finished first in the state with a team score of 75 out of 75. 

Science Bowl Team Wins Regionals
January 2011 - On Saturday, January 22 five Sycamore eighth graders traveled to the campus of Indiana State University in Terra Haute with Coach Linda Tomczuk to compete in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Science Bowl. In this nationwide academic competition, high school and middle school students are quizzed in a fast paced question-and-answer format (similar to Jeopardy) testing students' knowledge in all areas of science. Twelve teams competed in the contest. There was a single-elimination round-robin competition in the morning.  In the afternoon there was a double-elimination round between the eight remaining teams. Sycamore was the only team that went to the final round undefeated. They lost the first match but rallied back in their second match-up with Honey Creek Middle School to win the championship. 
   The Sycamore Science Bowl team now advances to the national competition scheduled for April 28 - May 2, 2011 in Washington D.C. A featured event at the National Finals for middle school students, the Hydrogen Fuel Cell Model Car Challenge, invites students to design, build, and race model cars. This competition tests the creative engineering skills of many of the brightest math and science students in the nation as they gain hands-on experience with the automotive design process and hydrogen fuel cell technology.

MathCounts Team Wins Regionals
February 2010 - There were 168 students from across the metropolitan area competing in the Central Indiana Chapter MathCounts regional competition held at Sycamore on Thursday, Feb. 11. Sycamore's team finished in first place and earned a trip to Rose-Hulman to compete at the state level March 13.

5/6 KMO Team 1^st in State/Nation
January 2010 - Students from practically every state and several countries, including Germany, Singapore, and Hong Kong, competed in the 42nd 5/6 Knowledge Master Open academic competition on Jan. 20. The teams used computers to answer 100 challenging questions from all curriculum areas. Sycamore's team of 24 students scored an impressive 800 points out of 1000 possible points. This score earned the team a ranking of first place in the state of Indiana and first place nationally for our school size out of 283 teams. Sycamore took second place nationally in all categories, scoring only 6 points less than the first place team, a much larger middle school with a school enrollment of 1297.

AMC 8 Contest Spurs Interest in Math
January 2010 On November 17, all of Sycamore's eighth and seventh graders, and a few other students participated in the American Mathematics Competition AMC 8. The purpose of this contest is "to spur interest in mathematics and to develop problem solving ability through the excitement of friendly competitions in a timed format." Over 150,000 students worldwide participated in the contest and a Sycamore eighth-grader was one of 163 to receive a perfect score. Twenty one Sycamore students scored high enough on the AMC 8 to participate in the high school contest, AMC 10, on February 24, 2010.

7/8 Knowledge Masters on Top Fall '09
Dec. 09 - The Sycamore 7/8 Knowledge Master Team finished the fall competition with a score of 1609 out of 2000 possible points, ranking them 1st out of 28 schools in Indiana. The team finished 2nd out of 577 schools internationally, only 13 points behind the first place team from Virginia. Sycamores 7/8 team performance also clinched the National Championship in the Small School Division for this competition.          

Academic Olympics Team Wins 1st Round
Oct. 09 - Sycamore Middle School's Academic Olympics team competed in the first round of the Cathedral Academic Olympics on October 17, defeating last year's champion, St. Luke, by a score of 60-24. The team will compete in the second round of the competition on November 14.

7/8 KMO Tops at State/Nationals
April 09 - The Sycamore 7/8 Knowledge Master Team finished the spring competition with a score of 1625 out of 2000 possible points. This ranked us 1st out of 31 schools in Indiana, and 11th out of 700 schools internationally. Sycamore School is the reigning National Champions in the Small School Division.

Spanish Students Compete on HS Level
April 09 - On Saturday, April 18, a compact group of Sycamore eighth-graders competed in the annual State Spanish competition, or Concurso Academico. This event is hosted by the Indiana chapter of the American Association of the Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese. Even though there is a middle school division at the competition, our students competed at the high school level. Sycamore students competed in all High School Level 2 events, testing their Spanish skills against high school sophomores and juniors. In the "Scrambled Sentences" event two students placed first; in "Vocabulary" one placed third; in "Non-Stop Conversation" two paired groups won 2^nd and 4^th places; and in "Impromptu Speaking" one placed third.

5/6 Knowledge Masters 1^st in State/Nation  
March 09 - Sycamore's 5/6 team competed in their final Knowledge Masters Open contest of the year on Wednesday, March 18. Sycamore is ranked first in the nation and is also ranked first in the state of Indiana for our school size. Overall, the team finished third in the nation out of 368 schools, including some schools in Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, and Korea. Sycamore's team scored a mere 3 points behind the first place team from a middle school with a student body of 1300 students.

School Hosts MATHCOUNTS Regionals
Feb. 09 - On Feb. 12 Sycamore hosted the Indianapolis Region MATHCOUNTS contest. Sycamore placed 3rd out of 27 teams, finishing just 1.75 points from first place. This qualified the Sycamore team for the state competition. One Sycamore student finished in 3rd place out of the nearly 200 students and he also placed 1st in the countdown round. The Sycamore team will be defending Sycamores state championship at Purdue University on March 14. Three students also qualified for the state competition as individuals.

5/6 Knowledge Masters
Jan. 09 - The 5/6 Knowledge Master Open team participated in the winter contest, competing against 321 schools across the nation and in Singapore and China. With a score of 820 points, Sycamore placed first in the state of Indiana, 3rd in the nation overall and first in the nation for the Small School Division.

7/8 National Knowledge Master Champs
Dec. 08 - The Sycamore 7/8 Knowledge Master team earned the national championship title of the Small School Division in this year's Knowledge Master's fall competition. The team scored of 1553 out of 2000 possible points, ranking them 1st out of 27 schools in Indiana and 14th out of 700 schools internationally.