By Lillian O’Rorkeltucker@sammamishreview.com

What Chinese river does the Three Gorges Dam span? The city of Baltimore is next to what large bay? In what city is the Suleymaniye mosque, which was built to honor the 16th century Ottoman ruler? These were just some of the questions posed to Pine Lake Middle School students during its Geography Bee.

Since 2004, the school has hosted the trivia contest, part of the National Geographic Bee, a countrywide competition for students in grades four through eight. Designed to spark an in-terest in geography, the program starts each year with school bees held between November and January.

This year, nearly 50 Pine Lake students took part in the school’s preliminary round — taking a short test. From there, the seven top scorers gathered Jan. 8 to battle it out in the geography bee.

“This is probably one of the largest groups of participants I’ve had for the preliminary round,” said seventh-grade humanities teacher Karin Daar, who serves as the bee’s quiz master. “Just being here on the stage tonight is quite the achievement.”

Making the final cut was sixth-grade student Ethan Hines; seventh-graders Mahathi Alle-pally, Adil Islam, Arjun Malhotra and Will Carson; and eighth-grade students Riley Gill and Coby Boulware.

“I thought it was a good expe-

rience. It felt pretty good to be top 10 in the school,” Boulware, 13, said. “It was cool — they printed out a list and showed everyone … It felt good. I had no clue that I would be on it.”

Daar asked the students a series of questions. Onstage, contestants who had two wrong answers were eliminated. After seven rounds, the group had been whittled down to two.

“I was intimidated at first. It was hard, but I was surprising myself that I knew the answers,” said Gill, 13. “Some are major cities that I know and some were rivers and border states, and that was hard for me.”

As the last two left, 11-year-old Hines and 13-year-old Malhotra went into the championship round. Just like before, if no one came up with the correct answer, another question was given, but if one guessed wrong while the other came up with the right response, the competition would be over.

“I was nervous. I thought he

would get one right. A lot of them, I was just guessing. I had no idea,” said Hines, the young-est of the group. “I like geogra-phy, and this is the first geogra-phy bee I’ve ever been in.”

After three rounds, Daar announced the next was the tie-breaker, but it took more than

By Christina Corrales-Toynewcastle@isspress.com

Issaquah resident Victor Zou first tried sudoku on a long bus ride while headed for a company retreat.

He was intrigued by the numbered logic puzzle, but put off by the solitary and bland nature of the game. Sudoku, he said, could be so much more.

So, Zou set out to create a product that could be the centerpiece of family game night and challenge kids and adults alike to use both sides of their brains. The result is Suku-go, a versatile and colorful sudoku board game that develops users’ logic and reasoning.

“Our left brain is really good at math, numbers and logical reasoning, but our right brain is more about color and creative thinking, so I wanted to combine these two together to really make an enjoyable game,” he said.

The Sukugo set consists of a 9-by-9 sudoku game board and more than 200 brightly-colored game pieces. Instead of simply writing numbers in blank squares, Sukugo users can affix the game piece in the

appropriate spot, making full use of their sense of touch and sight.

The board is also big enough that families can work together to solve the puzzle.

The game is described as a social version of sudoku and is appropri-ate for all ages, but its best use may be its ability to engage children in a fun, educational activ-ity that enhances their school performance, said Lucy Lu, Zou’s wife and business partner in the venture.

“It really teaches kids numbers and logic by playing a game,” she said. “It allows you to have fun together as a family while building your child’s inde-pendent thinking.”

Sukugo is particularly adept at strengthening math skills, Zou said.

Lu and Zou’s two chil-dren, students at Briar-

wood Elementary and Issaquah Middle schools, have particularly benefit-ted from Sukugo, Lu said, teaching them patience and perseverance.

“It definitely made them have a better, longer at-tention span,” she said. “Sometimes, when you see a tough math problem or puzzle, you’re kind of scared, but this builds up their confidence and teaches them to work through things.”

Sudoku isn’t the only game that can be played on the Sukugo game board. Users can also play checkers and go, a chess-like board game that is

popular in Asia.Both Lu and Zou moved

to the United States from China several years ago. Lu said Sukugo is proof of his American dream, and now he hopes to share it with the greater commu-nity.

“Sukugo is helpful for our family,” he said. “I want to see more Ameri-can families benefit from this logic teamwork game.”

Sukugo is still a rela-tively new product, but Lu envisions it being used in schools and homes to help improve students’ math skills and bring the family together for safe, educa-tional fun.

COMMUNITYSection

B WednesdayJanuary 23, 2013

THE ISSAQUAH PRESSTHE ISSAQUAH PRESSTHE ISSAQUAH PRESS

Skyline student writes petition for

disabled rightsBy Hannah Grandinenews@isspress.com

On Dec. 4, when the U.S. Senate failed to ratify a United Nations Treaty, the Convention for Rights and Persons with Disabilities, Skyline High School senior Joshua Schaier had some-thing to say about it.

Schaier said he was upset by the rejection of the treaty, which is meant to protect the basic human rights of people with dis-abilities around the world.

“I didn’t think it was right that the United States fail in their duty to help protect people everywhere, including people with dis-abilities,” Schaier said.

So, Schaier took action and started a petition on the White House website. The aim of the petition is to “Urge the 113th Congress to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.”

“It was my hope that if I got enough public support, maybe things would start to happen,” Schaier said.

The online petition needs at least 150 signatures to be made available to the general public, and after that, a total of 25,000 for an official response to the executive branch, though there have been responses to petitions with fewer signatures in the past.

Currently, the petition only has about 30 signatures. It will be taken down from the website Jan. 28. Schaier hopes that as many people as possible will help his cause and sign the petition.

“Signing the petition is very quick and very easy, all you need to do is make an account,” Schaier said. “You can sign this petition and any other petition that catches your eye.”

Schaier believes that as

a country, all people should care about the fact that we have not ratified the treaty.

“Right now, the message that we’re sending is, ‘We don’t care.’” Schaier said. “It is our duty to care about ev-ery single person, especially those who other people may not care about so much.”

As a young man with As-perger syndrome, Schaier feels a deep conviction to help others with disabili-ties. However, he said he believes that if he did not have a disability himself, he would still be passionate about the issue.

“I would still feel the same way, because this isn’t just a question of dis-abilities, it’s about human rights,” Schaier said. “I think it’s the duty of every-one to care about that sort of thing.”

Schaier said he hopes more people will sign his petition before the dead-line. Even if it is unsuccess-ful, he hopes that there will be more awareness and people will still try to make a difference.

“Anywhere you go, there are going to be people that are unfriendly to people who are different, that’s just the way things are,” Schaier said. “But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t do something about it. I think discrimina-tion, no matter what kind, is wrong, and it should be worked against. And that’s what I’m trying to do.”

ON THE WEB4Sign Schaier’s petition at www.wh.gov/QSan.4Learn more about the process and view other petitions at www.petitions.whitehouse.gov.

BY CHRISTINA CORRALES-TOY

Victor Zou (right), the creator of Sukugo, poses with his wife and business partner Lucy Lu and a Sukugo game board, in their Issaquah home.

Issaquah man develops unique sudoku-inspired board game

ON THE WEBLearn more about Issaquah resident Victor Zou’s sudoku-inspired board game, Sukugo, at www.sukugo.com.

NUMBERS GAME

CONTRIBUTED

Sukugo is a versatile, sudoku-inspired game board that is meant to increase a child’s logic and reasoning skill in a family-friendly, interactive way.

BY LILLIAN O’RORKE

Pine Lake Middle School students Ethan Hines (left) and Arjun Malhotra had to answer several tiebreaker questions in the championship round of the school’s geography bee.

IHOP is offering free stacks Feb. 5 to celebrate National Pancake Day.

The restaurant chain intends to use the annual event to raise $3 million to kick off 2013 fundrais-ing for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

During IHOP’s largest philanthropic event, guests are invited to enjoy a stack of complimentary butter-

milk pancakes. Diners can also contrib-

ute to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and other charities. All dona-tions go to help charities provide care for sick and injured children.

The celebration runs from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. at the Issaquah restaurant, 1433 N.W. Sammamish Road, and other IHOP outlets.

IHOP offers free pancakes in fundraiser for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals

Geography Bee puts young minds to the test

See GEOGRAPHY, Page B3

“A lot of them, I was just guessing. I had no idea. I like geography, and this is the first geography bee I’ve ever been in.”— Ethan HinesPine Lake Middle School sixth grader

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