Local students participate in World Stack Up

SPEED STACKING— PE teacher Karen Mannix helps Vega Papasadora, left, and McKenzy Keller, right, to stack cups on the Battlestack station during the World Stack Up event held worldwide on November 12, 2009. Photo by Diana Haecker

Last week, Talkeetna and Trapper Creek Elementary students were part of an international effort to break the world record in – cup stacking. Every November 12, the World Speed Stacking Association holds a world wide event called the World Stack Up and PE teacher Karen Mannix’s students in both schools got to participate.From Kindergartners to sixth graders, each class hit the gym for 30 minutes to navigate different stations where they stacked and unstacked cups in a particular sequence and jumped over hurdles to finish the obstacle course.

Mannix said, this marks the second year that her PE classes participated in the event. Last year’s participants helped to set a world record of 200,000 people stacking cups around the world on the same day.

Although cup stacking doesn’t sound like a vigorous physical activity, it is valued by many PE teachers. Mannix integrates cupstacking in her physical education class on a regular basis. She said that stacking and unstacking cups helps develop hand-eye coordination, speed and ambidexterity.

The final numbers of the 2009 World Stack Up are not out yet, but Mannix said that she managed to get 122 students and parents from Talkeetna and Trapper Creek to stack up.