Students completed their first encounter with the Great White Shark, Giant Squid, and Painted Wild Dog in the March Mammal Madness championship on April 4, when the Great White Shark was seen chomping up the Giant Squid on MMM’s YouTube channel “Rodent Roundtable.” 

Arohi Vamshi, 13, of the Legacy team, said, “I liked how they made funny videos for everyone to see.”

MMM is a yearly event where several animals go through brackets to see who will be the last one standing and the champion.

Ms. Cindy Tillman, the science teacher who had the idea to partake in this MMM at school, shared her experience. Ms. Tillman got eighth on the teachers bracket and 52nd on the students bracket, with a total of 95 points.

“I picked the Painted Wild Dog to win,” Ms. Tillman said, “because of its adaptations and pack.”

Ms. Tillman did her research off student-made research slides, but before she conducted her research she had a feeling Lucy, a human-like chimpanzee, would win. The Painted Wild Dog made it all the way to the semi-finals, until it was pushed into the ocean by sea animals and came in third place.

“I think it was fair,” Ms. Tillman said, “it made sense within the rules.”

Her favorite part of MMM was getting to watch students discuss possibilities and fill in their brackets. However she would want to make some changes.

Ms. Tillman said, “Since a lot of people realized that they wouldn’t be able to win after the first few rounds, I would have them redo their brackets midway through.”

Overall, Ms. Tillman was pleased with her placement and the experience.

“I hope to do it again,” said Ms. Tillman. “It will be bigger and better!”

Seventh-grader, Anish Tiwari, of the Legacy team, came in first place with 95 points. Anish downplayed his victory, saying MMM wasn’t very popular around the school.

“I would like it if more students were involved,” said Anish. “Like the whole school.”

PJ Hientz, 13, of the Trailblazers team, was not a fan of March Mammal Madness.

“This was just a way to fill in 20 minutes of class time,” PJ said. 

Another student, Josiah Cannady, said that this was a fun activity to do rather than typical science stuff. Josiah had chosen a monkey because he likes monkeys, while PJ chose a sperm-whale because it was a popular pick. 

PJ thought that they should make the simulations happen in real life. Josiah thinks that they should make the school more involved in this and there should be a leader board every morning on RCTV.

The final top five were:

• #1, Anish Tiwari, 95 points
• #2, Emma Voogt, 95 points
• #3, Ranya Medikonduri, 92 points
• #4, Kimberly Ramirez Maldonado, 92 Points
• #5, Nora Li, 90 points

Ayaan Dhala, an eighth-grader on the Dolphins team, said, “MMM sounds really cool. I wish I could’ve participated in it.”