Paducah Middle School's Odyssey of the Mind teams placed 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th at Saturday’s Western Region Odyssey of the Mind competition. Odyssey of the Mind is an international education program that provides creative problem solving opportunities for students. In the competition teams pick from five creative challenges and present solutions.

For the problem “Le Tour Guide”  first place was won by Meg Hancock, Claire Kelly, Caroline Meiners, Daly Spicer, Michael Ellen Walden, and Maddie Ybarzabal. Fourth place went to Caroline Criner, Makayla Hamilton, Ashlee Harris, Ashton Hurst, Julia Parrish, and Trevor Williams.

For the problem "Full Circle" second place was won by Jack Boyd, Heath Ford, Hugh Mattingly, Carter Noneman, and Matthew VanHoose.

For the problem “Good As Goldberg” third place was won by Sabrina Behrens, Skylar Bundy, Erin Burba, Will Denton, John Holtgrewe, and Rohit Vaderavu.

Teams that placed in the top three advance to the state competition on March 26 at Northern KY University. 

Paducah Middle reading teacher Amy Eddings and sixth grade team Neptune students presented a check, dog food, and pet supplies to Project Hope Animal Shelter treasurer Donna Groves at Paducah Middle School on March 16. Project Hope is a no-kill animal shelter in Metropolis.  The students received a certificate of appreciation from Groves on behalf of Project Hope.

Overall, the students and staff raised $371.25, 340 lbs. of dog food, 160 lbs. of cat litter, and numerous towels, blankets, toys, bowls, and treats for Project Hope.

Congratulations to Erin Burba, Reese Butler, and Meg Hancock on their strong scores in individual tests at State Governor's Cup academic competition.  Erin was 15th in Science, Reese was 13th in Math, and Meg was 15th in Arts and Humanities out of 650 students state-wide who took the tests.

Paducah Middle School band had 60 students perform at the First District Solo & Ensemble Festival on Saturday, March 5th.  Out of 48 events, 46 events received a Distinguished (I) rating.  The students did an incredible job and represented Paducah Middle in a very positive and excellent way.  Congratulations to all 6, 7 and 8 grade band students who performed.

The Paducah Middle School "Blue Jazz" Ensemble performed at Southern Illinois University Jazz Festival on Saturday, February 26th.  Members of the jazz ensemble saw performing artist Bill Prince perform a concert with the SIU-C Jazz Orchestra, and he improvised on 8 different instruments.  They attended a master class with Bill Prince, as well as another master class with SIU-C faculty Dick Kelley (saxophone and jazz professor). 

Blue Jazz had an outstanding performance at this festival, playing songs: Loosen Up, Rock Around the Clock, Peter Gunn Theme and The Judge.  Soloists were Micheal Hassel, Alex Sember, Reed Harriman, Sabrina Behrens and Erin  Burba.