The other Cheltenham team was from the Cheltenham Middle Years School's Elkins Park campus. Sixth graders Emily Kettner, Carly Schaer, Laura Goldstein and Jodi Lazarus competed on the junior level, geared to children ages 8 to 12.
The road to the international competition began with qualifying rounds throughout the state. Only five teams at each level - junior, intermediate and senior - were eligible for the state competition. A third of those teams came from the Cheltenham School District.
The team of Allison Ray, Zach Weintraub, Susan Cohen and Rebecca Raizman competed at states on the senior level, for 17- and 18-year-olds. The recent Cheltenham High School graduates had been state champions for five consecutive years before the competition this spring.
Another team from Cheltenham High School received a second-place award for a skit at the state contest. Sophomores Liat Berdugo, Sasha Rush, Matthew Malinowski and Zana Bass won the award on the intermediate level.
Fourth graders from Wyncote Elementary - Emily Hockenberry, Erica Silverman, Sydney Rotter and Caitlin Sheeder-Borrelli - competed on the junior level at the state contest.
The coaches for the future problem-solving teams were Scott Eisner, head of the high school science department; Roberta Jacoby, gifted-student consultant at Cheltenham Middle Years School's Elkins Park campus; Judi Harris, math teacher at Cheltenham Middle Years School's Cedarbrook campus; and Stephen Buckingham, second-grade teacher at Wyncote Elementary.
"It's so great to see these kids processing at different levels. . . . They take factual data and combine it with emotion to meet the needs of the community," Harris said.
