spelling bee

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National Spelling Bee Opens With 'Witticism'

278 participants will be whittled down to 50

(Newser) - The 85th National Spelling Bee is under way. Thirteen-year-old Kevin Lazenby of Opelika, Ala., stepped to the microphone this morning at a convention center outside Washington and correctly spelled "witticism." The 278 participants won local and regional spelling bees to make the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Each gets...

Girl, 6, Is Youngest Ever in National Spelling Bee

Lori Anne Madison competing in Scripps National this week

(Newser) - Lori Anne Madison is blonde and adorable and talks at 100mph. In the last few weeks, she has won major awards in both swimming and math, but one accomplishment above all has made her an overnight national celebrity: This week, the precocious girl from Lake Ridge, Va., will be onstage...

Spelling Bee's Winning Word: Cymotrichous

8th-grader Sukanya Roy takes the top prize

(Newser) - Long after the time allotted by ESPN had passed, the Scripps National Spelling Bee was still going strong last night. The five remaining competitors were on a streak—21 correct words in a row—and one started to wonder "if they could declare five-way co-champions." But when the...

Scripps National Spelling Bee Is Obsolete: Alexandra Petri

 Spelling Bees 
 R Obsolete 
OPINION
Jun 2, 2011 4:33 PM CDT

Spelling Bees R Obsolete

Why show off a skill rendered useless by machines?: Alexandra Petri

(Newser) - It’s time again for the Scripps National Spelling Bee—but these days, it’s more “hilarious” than educational, writes Alexandra Petri in the Washington Post . “What better way to announce to the world at large that you have a totally useless and unmarketable skill—besides, I guess,...

The Toughest Words at Scripps Spelling Bee

Linguist explains which ones are the trickiest

(Newser) - The 84th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee is under way, and before a winner is crowned on national television tomorrow night, thousands of really obscure words will be tackled by 275 kids ages 8 to 15. Twelve-year-old Kevin Lazenby of Opelika, Ala., kicked off round two today, notes the AP...

Spelling Bee Certificate Fails at Spelling

Just look at the image

(Newser) - We present, for your snickering pleasure, this image of a rather dubious certificate, which was presented on Monday to junior high school student Emily White in honor of her victory in the "Dallas County Speling Bee." White, who has won the competition in three of the past five...

Ohio Teen Wins Bee Amid D-R-A-M-A

14-year-old Anamika Veeramani's winning word? 'Stromuhr'

(Newser) - Who says Cleveland can't win a championship? The long-suffering sports city captured one in a DC ballroom last night when 14-year-old Anamika Veeramani took first prize at the 83rd Scripps National Spelling Bee, keeping a poker face as she spelled "stromuhr," and not cracking a smile until the...

Protesters Target 'Illogical Spelling' at Bee

'Enuf is enuf,' say spelling reform advocates

(Newser) - A small group of protesters, some of them dressed in bee costumes, gathered outside the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington DC yesterday to make their case for spelling reform. The protesters, representing the American Literacy Council, say the illogical spelling of the English language is holding back much of...

Kansas Girl Wins Spelling Bee With 'Laodicean'

Shivashankar becomes national spelling champ after getting 'laodicean' right

(Newser) - Cool and collected, Kavya Shivashankar wrote out every word on her palm and always ended with a smile. The 13-year-old Kansas girl saved the biggest smile for last, when she rattled off the letters to "Laodicean" to become the nation's spelling champion. The budding neurosurgeon outlasted 11 finalists tonight...

11 Make It to Spelling Bee Finals

Week began with record 293 spellers

(Newser) - Eleven youngsters have advanced to tonight's finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee after surviving today's three semifinal rounds, which began with 41 candidates. Only five were eliminated in the first round, then 20 exited in an extremely difficult second round that knocked out some returning favorites. Among the words...

Prof Argues for Looser Spelling

English-speaking pupils hamstrung by non-phonetic words, apostrophes

(Newser) - A British academic argues that English-speaking schoolchildren waste time learning the peculiarities of spelling, and should be given more freedom to spell phonetically, the Times of London reports. Children studying in languages with more phonetic writing systems, like Finnish or Italian, don’t need to waste classroom time on spelling,...

Phonetics Reformers Buzzing at Spelling Bee

Revitalized movement wants to simplify the language

(Newser) - Every year, the National Spelling Bee sparks a protest from an 800-year-old movement that aims to simplify spelling by using phonetics, the Wall Street Journal reports. (Think thru vs. through.) “We have 42 different sounds in English, and we spell them 400 different ways,” says the 102-year-old...

What It Takes to Become a C-H-A-M-P-I-O-N

Spelling bee winners weigh in on dos and don'ts of success

(Newser) - Prevailing in the Scripps National Spelling Bee isn't easy, say former contestants and winners, but it can change your life. "To be a champion, I think it takes a certain tenaciousness and a will to succeed, and that will pretty much take you far in anything," 1973 winner...

Science Smackdowns Aid Search for 'Bill Gates 2.0'

Popularity of math, science competitions shoots off the charts

(Newser) - With the days when the space program inspired American students to embrace science and math a distant memory, the US is counting on competition among schoolkids to return the country as a whole to a leading role, the Christian Science Monitor reports. High-level science fairs and math bowls are potential...

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