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Marion student with autism finishes 39th in National History Bee
Jun. 5, 2017 3:49 pm, Updated: Jun. 6, 2017 2:04 pm
MARION - From ancient history to modern times, Nicholas Weaver was quizzed on it all as he competed in the championship rounds of the National History Bee this past weekend in Atlanta.
In the end, he placed 39th out of 64 other eighth-graders who made it to the final round of competition on Sunday.
'It was pretty cool. I got to go to Georgia for the first time,” Nicholas said. 'I liked getting to show off my vast history knowledge.”
Nicholas, along with five other middle schoolers from Oak Ridge Middle School in Marion - sixth-graders Makoto Carolin and Ashna Karia and eighth-graders Cavan O'Hara, Nathan Stark and Jared Stumpf - qualified for the History Bee nationals.
The families of Ashna, Cavan, Jared and Nicholas chose to make the trip to Atlanta to compete. Ashna placed 168th out of 317 sixth-graders, according to a news release from the Linn-Mar Community School District. Out of 317 eighth-graders, Cavan placed 164th and Jared placed 190th.
The National History Bee is an annual competition for elementary and middle school students that quizzes them on their knowledge of United States and world history. Academic Competition Enterprises puts on the annual event.
This is the first year students from Oak Ridge middle school have participated.
'I was thrilled,” said Jim Campbell, Oak Ridge behavioral support teacher and coach for the History Bee team. 'I was unsure on how the students would do because this was basically the pilot program for our middle schools at Linn-Mar.”
Nicholas was the only student from Oak Ridge to advance to Sunday's final round.
'The other Oak Ridge kids did really well, too,” said Amanda Weaver, Nicholas' mother. 'We can be proud of all the students.”
The Weavers were especially proud of Nicholas for how well he did and how he handled the competition.
'It was a really good experience,” Weaver said. 'Nicholas has autism so we weren't really sure if it would be too overwhelming for him, but we went and he handled it really well.”
Weaver commented that a lot of people with autism have sensory issues and can be easily overstimulated by sensory experiences like loud rooms. It didn't stop Nicholas from succeeding however.
'Nicholas had to learn and remember history and overcome difficulties he has from autism like sensory overload, needing to move rather than sit still and regulate his emotions,” Weaver said. 'One of the things motivating him to control himself was to show that people with autism can do this type of thing and should be included.”
The only accommodation Nicholas had was that during the multiple choice test round a moderator told him specifically when to start the test rather than having him recognize the time to start from a general announcement.
'I could tell he was going to do really well because of how he did on the initial test,” Campbell said. 'I tested the entire student body and he immediately soared right to the top. He nearly aced the test. He just knows these unique details of history.”
The other students at Oak Ridge were very supportive of Nicholas as he continued on in the competition and even attended the final round to cheer him on.
'It has been such a wonderful thing for us and for Nicholas to see his classmates support him,” Amanda Weaver said. 'It was a really meaningful experience.”
l Comments: (319) 368-8538; elianna.novitch@thegazette.com