Navarre students excel at marine biology competition
BY STEFFANEY CLARK Gulf Breeze News news@gulfbreezenews.com

Submitted photo From left to right: Eric Nieves, Nick Eustace, McKayla Spencer, Justine Gudmundson, Morgan Maynard, Charlene Mauro Fearon, Tami McConnell represented Navarre High Scool in a recent science competition.

Students at Navarre high school earned an impressive second place at the regional Hurricane Bowl in Hattiesburg, Miss. The team, made of up of five seniors, was one of 16 schools competing at the J.L. Scott Marine Science Education Center at the University of Southern Mississippi last month.

The Hurricane Bowl tests the student's knowledge of Marine Biology and other areas of earth and life sciences.

"We studied like crazy!" said teammate McKayla Spencer. "We began studying in mid- November and continued right up until we competed."

The students practiced after school every day for two weeks before the event with the help of Marine Biology teacher Charlene Mauro-Fearon who set up the practices just like the competition, including the buzzers they would be using in Mississippi.

"She's hilarious and makes us want to learn more," Morgan Maynard said in regard to Mauro-Fearon. "She is a great teacher and likes helping us with everything we need to study." Maynard continued, "And another science teacher Ms. McConnell helped so much with geology questions, she really knows her stuff!"

The students went through many different studying strategies. Fellow teammate Justine Gudmunson explained "We went through seven different binders full of old quizzes, and all five of us read an entire textbook each before it was all over, we each assigned ourselves different categories like: biology, chemistry, and geology."

Indeed, the studying paid off as the team prevailed through the ten rounds of the competition to take second place. "We were all so excited about doing so well." Spencer said "We wore huge crab hats and had such a good time and we were honored with the award for best sportsmanship."

Mauro-Fearon is very pleased with her students, and the effort they put into the competition "It was very rewarding for me as their teacher to see the time they put into studying pay off," She exclaimed.

Navarre High will continue to compete in science oriented academic competitions and invites every student with a love for science to keep learning and to participate in future competitions.