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Choral and instrumental music groups from Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Germantown won high honors in two music festivals.

At the Maryland State Festival, held May 6 at South Carroll High School in Sykesville, the school's treble choir earned a superior rating and the mixed choir earned an excellent rating from a panel of judges that included a college professor and experienced choral conductors and clinicians.

After winning superior ratings at the county level, choirs from 35 Maryland schools were invited to participate in the state festival sponsored by the Maryland Music Educators Association. Katie Archer is the chorus teacher at King Middle School.

The school's advanced band and advanced orchestra performed May 7 at the Music In The Parks Competition held near the King's Dominion amusement park outside Richmond, Va.

Competing against eight schools from Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, the advanced orchestra took first and had the highest score of any middle or high school band, orchestra or chorus. The orchestra was named best overall for middle and high school orchestras. The advanced band placed second in the middle school concert band competition, missing first place by a quarter point.

Mike Szczublewski is the MLK band/orchestra teacher.

Awards add up for

Living Grace students

Students at Living Grace Christian School in Montgomery Village entered the math olympics hosted by the Northeast Association of Christian Schools International at Forcey Christian School in Silver Spring.

Awardees from the event's computation category included eighth-graders Anna Switzer (first place); Ashley Ruiz (second place); seventh-graders Dominick Vendeuvre (first place) and Lydia Baker (second place). Sixth-grader Diego Gomez earned fifth place; fifth-grader Caleb Switzer earned second place. In fourth grade, Santiago Chitiva earned second place and Jeremy Barrios earned fifth place in the reasoning category.

The team is coached by math teacher Andrew Toman.

Montgomery Blair earns second at science bowl

Five Montgomery Blair High School Science, Mathematics, and Computer Science Magnet Program students earned second place at the 2011 National Science Bowl, which was held at the National 4-H Center and the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., on May 2.

Members of the team include team captain Andrew Das Sarma of Potomac, Alexander Briese of Silver Spring, Diwakaran Ilangovan of Gaithersburg, and Sandra Yan and Samuel Zbarsky of Rockville. Each team member was awarded a $750 scholarship from the U.S. Air Force, and Montgomery Blair's science department received a $1,000 check from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The team is coached by Blair magnet math and science teacher Tran Pham.

More than 13,000 students competed for a spot at the national contest and 69 high school teams were invited to the National Science Bowl.

With a 14-1 record entering the final round, the Blair team won its match against last year's champions from Mira Loma, Calif. With both final teams' records including one loss, a tie-breaking game followed, and the Blair team secured their second-place spot.

In a statement, the Blair team captain Das Sarma credits the Blair magnet for the team's success, "Because it covers math, physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, astronomy, and energy sciences, it's impossible for any one individual to know enough to be competitive. A successful team needs members who are talented in each of those respective fields—a mix that the Blair magnet hosts every day."

Schools go to the bank for Pennies for Patients

Walter Johnson High School outraised 12 other high schools in the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Pennies for Patients program.

In four weeks, the school raised $38,000, which brings the school's six-year fundraising total to $114,963, according to a statement from the society.

Lakewood Elementary School in Rockville and Potomac Elementary School are the two Montgomery County schools who raised the most money in the Pennies for Patients program.

Four hundred and twenty five schools raised more than $645,000 in the campaign, according to a statement from the society.

Lakewood raised $11,260 while Potomac raised $10,654.

Also honored, the Bethesda Country Day School earned a penny plaque for the seventh year. The school raised more than $5,000 and placed in the top 20 for the amount raised, according to a statement from the school.

Education Notebook accepts news items and photographs about events, people and good news at your school. Contact Peggy McEwan at pmcewan@gazette.net, fax at 301-670-7183 or 9030 Comprint Court, Gaithersburg, MD, 20877.