Local students score well in contests

Wednesday, May 24, 2000 | 10:32 a.m.

Several local students have been honored recently for a variety of accomplishments.

Five students from Basic High School in Henderson won recognition as the best unit in the nation in a competition on the Constitution.

Students Ryan Johnson, Holli Michell, Krystally Nielsen, Mark Niewinski and Jeni Riddle had a higher score than any of the other 305 teams from around the country.

The Washington competition tested the knowledge of the rights and responsibilities of American citizens.

In their second year participating in the "We the People ... The Citizen and the Constitution" competition, Basic's 30-student team won the state championship by avenging last year's loss to the Reed High School team from Sparks.

A team of seventh graders from Von Tobel Middle School received an award this month for their first-place performance in a statewide stock market game.

The Von Tobel team of four students and teacher Mary Jo Lopez ended the game with $172,000 after investing $100,000 in equity over 10 weeks last spring. Their team beat out 150 other high school, middle school and elementary school teams. Seven teams at Von Tobel placed in the top 10.

Secretary of State Dean Heller presented the award. His office funds the game with fines from securities law violators. Nevada is the only state where students can participate at no charge.

A second grade student at Warren Walker Elementary School in Henderson has been named state champion of handwriting by Zaner-Bloser, the nation's leading publisher of handwriting texts.

Kevyn Lee is among the 172 students selected to compete for in the national championship out of 100,500 students from around the country.