The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 16

I 4B Monday, April 7,2003 THE TENNESSEAN www.tenne8sean.com SCHOOL NEWS baoMDini ognn (Bp High school has won 7 state floriculture championships If By NICOLE GARTON Staff Writer HENDERSONVILLE The day before the wedding, Natalie Wright brushes her fingers across a cluster of tulips, calla lilies, freesia and sweet peas. Tomorrow, these still-closed blossoms will bloom in the hands of the bride, who will dry them upside-down and cherish them as a memory of the happiest day of her life. But for now, the bouquet belongs to this 17-year-old high school senior, whose gentle fingers have placed each flower to create a starburst of red, orange and yellow. "It's going to be really neat because by tomorrow, the tulips will be opened up a little bit," she said. "It's so easy to make them because the flowers are so pretty.

You just have to put it together, and the flowers take care of the rest" Natalie, who's toying with the idea of becoming a florist, is getting her fill of hands-on experience through a floral design class at Hendersonville High. She's designed bouquets and altar arrangements for three weddings. She's made Valentine's bouquets for her brother's friends to give to their girlfriends. She even had her own display at the Nashville Lawn Garden Show this spring. She's one of about 120 students each year who flock to one of the few high school programs in the state that give students a full-on introduction to the florist industry, agriculture teacher Jerry Cooper said.

After winning seven state floriculture championships, the program has made a name for itself in the community. It's part of the school's popular agriculture department, which boasts more thin 400 members in the national student agriculture group, FFA even though Hendersonville isn't a rural community. Jill Shrum has taught floral design at Hendersonville for the past six years. She helps students learn to identify dozens of plants and then lets them practice turning flowers into corsages and table arrangements. Shrum procures the raw materials from flower wholesalers, who donate flowers they don't sell She sometimes even brings in cuttings from her own yard.

"We've got floral designs all over the building," said Principal Paul Decker. "I've got floral designs on my desk that students have done. They've done arrangements for banquets, graduation ceremonies." That one of the attractions for Natalie, who took the class almost by accident and discovered a natural talent for floral design that has blossomed into an almost reverent love for flowers. "Almost every day I get to make something pretty and take it home and put it on the kitchen ly I -r- 7 LARRY MCCORMACK STAFF Natalie Wright adds gladiolus to a wedding arrangement she's preparing as part of her floral design class at Hendersonville High. The stu-dents sometimes do arrangements for faculty and their family members.

counter," she said. When faculty or their family members get married, the students also sometimes arrange the flowers for the weddings. It's not a service they provide to the public, though, because they don't want to compete with local florists, Shrum said. This time, the wedding is for Cooper's soa By lunchtime, the bride's bouquet is done, but there's plenty left to do in Shrum's classroom. Senior Jerreka Perry and some of her classmates have assembled 14 boutonnieres for the groomsmen and male relatives.

"It's kind of hard," she said. "First you get a tulip, and you have to tape a leaf around it Then you add sweet peas and any kind of greenery to use in back, and we tape it all together." Shrum worries whether the reddish-yellow tulips are too feminine for the mea No, they decide. They're fine. Senior Jayme Bain finishes off the seven bridesmaids' bouquets and starts working on the table arrangements that will surround the unity candle at the altar. Tm so afraid we're gonna mess it up," she said, sticking a branch of yellow forsythia into a block of floral foam.

Tomorrow, they'll load up the flowers in Shrum's van and drive them to the church, careful not to knock any flowers out of place. "I love wedding days," Natalie says. "I just like to make arrangements," Jayme adds. "I like the people, and I like getting to play with flowers and create my own NOTEBOOK Geographic bee winner is going places Loofc here every week for the latest on school news and events in Middle Tennessee and from around the country. Opportunities: HIV education grants The Tennessee Derailment nf mont University's library.

The sixth annual nnen art rnmnpfirinn will Education and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are looking for community-based organizations to educate teenagers about HTV and other sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy pre-ventioa There are three grants available totaling $95,000, and the awards can be renewed annually for up to five years. The deadline for applications is May 15, but a letter of intent must be submitted to the state Education Department's office of school health programs by April 30. For informatioa call 532-6260, e-mail jerry or visit www.state.tn.useducationcicis-chhealthhivaidscover. Art competition: Some of the best artwork by Tennessee high school students will be on display April 27 at the Leu gallery in Bel include works of painting, drawing, graphics, photography, sculpture and crafts.

Students or art teachers can drop off works 330-530 p.m. April 16 or 10 ara-noon April 17 in the Leu Gallery. The mail-in deadline is April 2L For more information, visit mestateartJitmL Scholarships: High school seniors who live in public housing and attend public school in Montgomery County can apply for a $500 scholarship by writing the Urban Resource Center at 211 Andrew Drive, Clarksville, Term. 37042, or by e-mailing Deadline for applications is April 25. For information, call (931) (Dallas lapf 1 Jonathon OP Simons uu 1 Lundy i PHOTOS BY STEPHANIE BRUCE STAFF A triumphant Dallas Simons, In seventh grade at M.L King Magnet, shows his victory stance after beating Jonathon Lundy, a Harding Academy eighth-grader from Kingston Springs, In the championship round of the Tennessee Geographic Bee.

Jonathon came in second. Student maps out trip to nationals By NICOLE GARTON i.Staff Writer It started with pointing out different license plates on road trips. By the third grade, Dallas Simons had learned all the state capitals and moved on to international ones. "Then we had to work to get ahead of him," said his dad, Russ Simoas. "He went way beyond any capacity I had" On Friday, the M.L King Magnet High seventh-grader was able to identify the river that flows through Ghana to the Atlantic Ocean (the Volta) to win the Tennessee Geographic Bee and a trip to Washington, D.G, for nationals in May.

"I feel shocked. I just can't believe it There were some great students up there," Dallas said. Of the 100 competitors from around the state, 10 made it to the game-show-like finals, held in a studio with Nashville Public Television cameras rolling. Getting that far in the competition takes "a desire to know where places are and how things look on Earth," said Edna Pear-soa who teaches history at Harding Academy. Her student eighth-grader Jonathon Lundy, won second place.

Third place went to eighth-grader Jay Reynolds of Chattanooga. To prepare for the contest, Dallas spent the past couple of months reviewing atlases and visiting National Geographic's Web site every day. "Kids who do well in geography seem to have that map in Thebes on TV The final round of the Tennessee Geographic Bee willairlnClarksvilleat9p.m. ThirsdayonWCTE.lt was on NPT yesterday In Nashville. News: technology grants I The Midstate grant winners were: Franklin County High in Franklin County; Livingston Middle in Overton County, Hawkins Middle in Hendersonville; and Jack T.

Farrar Elementary and East Lincoln Elementary in Tullahoma i How smart are you? These are some of the ques-- tons students answered at geography bees across the country last year; 1. What megaclty of approximately 10 million people Is located on the delta of the Ganges In Bangladesh? 2. Which South American capital city Is located on the slopes of the Pichincha volcano? 3. Which West African coun-; try joined the Federation of Mali In 1959, only to secede and achieve Independence a year later? 4. Only ore country In Central America has Its capital city on the coast rather than In the Interior.

Name this country. 5. Name the only country In Southeast Asia that was not colonized by a European power. Answers: 1. Dhaka; 2.

Quito; 3. Senegal; 4. Panama; 5. Thailand SOURCE: National Geographic Society Contestants Jonathon Lundy, 14, Jay Reynolds, 14, and Jimmy Humphrey, 10, hold the trophies they won In the Geographic Bee, a statewide scholastic contest Jonathon came In second and Jay placed third. Thirteen Tennessee schools received grants to improve academic achievement through the use of technology.

Seventy schools from 37 districts applied for the $300,000 federal grants, and four rural schools and nine urban schools were finalists. Awards: young CEOs Jarad Badger, a Nashville eighth-grader at Piney Woods boarding school, won first place in the nation for best individual business at the sixth annual Young Entrepreneur Conference and Business Competition in Milwaukee on April Badger is a self-published author writing his third installment of a series titled Peter Black. Marlon Douglas, a sixth-grader at Wharton Arts Magnet, won third place for his inspirational picture frames and artwork. He also won the Audience Choice Award for best business. Dominique and Joshua McCord second- and fourth-graders from Eakin Elementary, won the Most Creative Business Award for their flower pen bouquets and wave relaxation bottles.

They started making their products during a visit to their grandmother's house and have since hired their parents and another sibling to work in the business. The Middle Tennessee competitors were among 50 students who submitted business plans to the CEO Academy Inc. and won first their minds that they can get to at any time," Pearson said "They just sort of have that mental picture of the world. Dallas gets straight A's in geography, said his teacher, Carmen Anderson. "None of his peers want to compete against him in class when we play games," she said "They all want to be on his team because his team always wins." Dallas, who sometimes looks at atlases for fun, said his interest in his favorite subject comes from a curiosity about different places and cultures.

"It's important to study geography so people around the world can have a better understanding of the world they live place in a regional competitioa For information about the Camp CEO program, call Lajuana Booker at 320-3232 or visit www.ceo-acad-emy.org. Arbor Day poster winners: Maggie Moore, a fifth-grader at Bethel Springs Elementary, is the winner of the Tennessee 2003 Arbor Day National Poster Contest She will compete with other state winners for the national prize on April 26. Ann Marie Rittenhouse, a former student of Goodpasture Christian School in Madison, won second place. Bert White of South-side Elementary in Pulaski won third place. The winners received VS.

Savings Bonds, and a red maple tree was planted in a grove on the state Capitol grounds in honor of Maggie's winning entry. More than 1,800 students participated in this year's poster contest You can view winning entries at wvAV.state.tausagriculture, then click on Forestry Division and then "Arbor Month." COMPILED BY PETER WHITE Schools could play vital role in case of terrorist attack By WILLIAM HOLMES vice sites used by the government Not that the children know about the role their schools might play. Anthony Gaul, a sixth-grade science teacher at West Middle School in Sioux City, Iowa, said his students are more interested in seeing the school mentioned by TV forecasters or checking the temperature on the Internet. "As far as their grasp of it being used in an emergency, we briefly discussed it," Gaul said "We really haven't focused on that with them, nor do I think we will." Most days, the data are only used by the students or local forecasters, but the private company that operates the stations sees a greater purpose and so does the government The 6,000 sites operated by AWS Convergence Technologies Inc. create a monitoring system that would cost the government an estimated $50 million to replicate.

AWS, based in Gaithersburg, Md, has promised to give the government access to the data for free. Vice President John Saaty said the company did so in response to President Bush's call for private companies to help with homeland security. The government already has access to National Weather Service data to map and forecast air movement for emergency managers choosing evacuation routes. But weather service stations are typically posted at airports and they can't provide accurate information about what may have happened miles away. The school-based monitors could fill in the gap.

Associated Press In a nation at war and on high alert for terrorism, schools across the country could help save thousands of people in case of a chemical or biological attack Perched on the schools' rooftops are weather stations recording wind speed temperature and humidity. In the case of terrorism, they could provide key information for predicting how and where dangerous substances might spread information not able from National Weather Ser- SEND FT IN A LETTER or a fax or even an e-mall: Let us know about Interesting news and awards, or events at least two weeks In advance. Write "School News Notebook" on your fax, enve lope or In the subject line of your e-mall. Fax us at 259-8093; e-mail us at ngartona tennessean.com; or send a letter to The Tennessean, 1 100 Broadway, Nashville, Tenn. 37203.

writer Nicole Garton can be reached by telephone at 726-5957; by fax at 259-8093; by e-mail at ngartontennessean.com; or by mail at 1 1 Broadway, Nashville, TN 37203. Photos submitted with school Items cannot be returned..