Elves triumph in Brain Bash

Classes at Plains School were suspended for the day, but students still had to don their thinking caps with the goal of combining reason, speed, aim, ingenuity, but mostly fun.

For more than three hours, 15 teams with names like "Frosty the Snowman," "Elf," "Nutcracker," "Polar Express," and the "The Nightmare Before Christmas" competed in the annual "Brain Bash" competition at Plains School Friday morning. The teachers and staff designed contests for each of the stations. Some involved calculation, while others took some sort of physical action, but teamwork was a major factor in achieving success, said teacher Kati Mitchell, the chief coordinator for the annual event, which was put together by students of her business essentials class.

It was a stiff competition for most teams, but in the end members of team Elf were on top with 117.5 points, followed by the Christmas Carol with 115 points and in third place stood team Grinch at 114 points. The teams with the lowest scores were the Polar Express and the Christmas Stories, each finishing with 85 points.

Nearly 100 students from seventh grade to seniors took part in the festivity. Each team had students from different grades to make it a fairer contest. Time at each station was 10 minutes long. This year's theme was Christmas movies and shows with an assortment of games, such as Pictionary With a Twist, Corn Hole, Poetry For Neanderthals, and Suction Cups. The students had seen some of the games from previous years, but there were some that teachers hadn't used for several years, along with new ones, such as Brooks Sanford's Paper Airplane Landing.

The kids had to make paper airplanes, fly them about 10 feet and land their airplane on a small aircraft carrier platform. Each team had 10 tries, though a few snuck in a couple extra flights. Students said it was fun, but tough to get points, which was evidenced by the low numbers on the score sheet. Four teams had goose eggs for their flight time and five teams had one point. The highest score for his station was five points, going to the Nightmare Before Christmas team, which finished with a score of 107.5. This was Sanford's third year to participate. He said he tries to make it science related, but fun. He said there were some unique aircraft designs, but the most accurate ones were the traditional paper planes.

Paraprofessional Heather Worrall had a new one with her M&M Chop Sticks competition, which involved picking up 10 M&Ms with chop sticks and placing them in a bowl. "I couldn't do chop sticks so I figured they couldn't," said Worrall, who was surprised at the number of students that accomplished the feat. No team scored lower than eight and eight teams received the max score of 10. Math teacher Tanna Klammer, aka an FBI agent, complete with badge and sunglasses, ran the Keep Talking & Nobody Explodes competition. The team would get two points for completing each module to diffuse a bomb. Scores ranged from zero with team Die Hard to seven for Christmas Stories.

Paraprofessional Debi Kulawinski and librarian Lacey Holland had a new event this year - Reindeer Ring Toss - where two teammates put inflatable antlers on their heads while two others threw the rings. The team members switched places every two minutes. Each ring on an antler was worth a quarter of a point. A team had to get 40 rings for the 10-point max score. Kulawinski said that team Arthur's Christmas had 92 ringers.

Physical fitness teacher Mike Cole brought an event back that he hadn't done for several years. Called "Shootout at Mount Crumpit," Cole positioned 22 road safety cones on the gymnasium bleachers. Each cone had a Santa, Grinch or elf on it with a picture of a teacher, including his wife, art teacher Kristen Cole.

He created a tennis ball throwing machine rigged with badminton birdie tubes for the firing mechanism and several scooters attached together for team members to sit on and move the wheeled "tank" left or right so the shooter could sight in on the cones. The team got two points for knocking down Grinches and a half point for elves. Hitting a Santa, with Cole's photo on it, meant a loss of five points. The highest score at Cole's station was team Christmas Stories with a score of eight. Frosty the Snowman and Polar Express had the lowest score with one apiece.

Shop teacher Kyle Mitchell once again had his traditional Giant Jenga game in the school foyer, which he has done for some 10 years, although this year he had a step ladder on hand for the "height impaired," he said. Mitchell said it never gets old watching the kids plan and execute their next move, sometimes the wrong one, as Mason Anderson found out when he removed the wrong block and the entire stack fell back on him. Team Christmas Vacation got the highest score at Giant Jenga with seven points. Nutcracker got the lowest with three points.

English teacher Mike Tatum decided to get tough this year with his traditional miniature golf contest. "Last year was fairly easy, so this year I wanted to make it difficult," said Tatum, who has done a golf theme for five years. This year, he had four different stations with obstacles, but the students were handicapped by the selection of golfing tools, such as a plastic spoon. Team Grinch could only get one point and most of the scores were low. Nevertheless, Home Alone and Die Hard maxed out with 10 points each.

Many of the students dressed in their team theme. Christmas Vacation had three cousin Eddie's - Hailey Dimond, Aiden Silva and Reece Cummings - on the team. Mila Rivinius was the Grinch head to foot. Greg Tatum wore an angry beaver reindeer shirt. Will Horodyski wore a Frosty the Snowman top hat. Several students wore the traditional Santa hat.

"It went very well. The students and staff all had a blast," said Kati Mitchell. The students of Charity Jermyn's family consumer science class prepared snacks for the event. "It has been a tradition for years and it is a fun way students can collaborate and participate with students in the school that are outside of their own circle of friends. It also is a fun way to give kids a break right before another holiday and it gets them all out of their comfort zone, which is healthy," she added.

"The kids that weren't here today really missed out on a fun day," said Dr. Heidii Fettinger, the high school principal. The Brain Bash event has been going on for nearly 30 years. The seventh and eighth grade classes were added to the event some 10 years ago. "It's nice that we can carry on these kinds of traditions," Fettinger added.

Mitchell said the teachers call this time of year the "The Teacher Bermuda Triangle." "Three holidays in a short amount of time: Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, which means it's time for a break!" she said.