A group of accelerated students represented Madisonville Middle School well recently, placing 21st out of 62 groups in a state competition for elementary and middle school students.

Sixth grader Lucy Conyour, seventh graders Aaron Lay, Brice Bowers, Trinity Stradlin and Angel Bowers, and eighth grader Ethan Bird participated in the First LEGO League competition earlier this month.

The group of students are part of the TAG (Talented and Gifted students) program at Madisonville Middle School (MMS).

"I was very proud of them," said Melissa Grose, a sixth, seventh and eighth grade reading and language arts special education teacher at MMS.

Grose said the school had decided to enter the competition over the summer before she was hired.

The annual First LEGO League competition is open to students ages 9-14 and focuses on a different real-world topic related to the sciences each year. Each challenge within the competition then revolves around that theme. Everything the students used in the competition directly or indirectly had to be made of LEGO-manufactured elements.

This year's competition was themed Senior Solutions and was held at Tennessee Technology University in Cookeville on Dec. 8, and was made up of several components.  

See full story in the Sunday, Dec. 23, edition of The Advocate & Democrat.