Babylon Grade School Top in Nation on Current Events

Babylon Memorial Grade School fifth- and sixth-grade Current Events Olympians recently completed their fourth National Current Events League meet, for which their cumulative scores ranked them among the top teams in the nation.

The fifth-grade team was ranked second in the nation and the only from New York State to be among the top three nationwide, while the sixth-grade team was ranked ninth in the nation.

To prepare for the league’s four contests, which consist of 30 multiple choice questions, the teams worked with teacher and league adviser Stephen Fasciani. As questions spanned a variety of areas, including general news, arts and entertainment, science and health, business and finance, and sports, the students were required to be well-versed in all content areas.
 
“These questions are extremely challenging, and on average, 80 percent [24] of the questions come from the general news and business and finance categories,” Mr. Fasciani said. 

All students in grades five and six competed in the initial meet, with the top five scorers from each class moving on to the additional three meets. Nationwide, there were 18 schools that participated on the fifth-grade level and 33 schools on the sixth-grade level.

Information provided by Jennifer Kuefner/Syntax.