Geography Bee Champion

The National Geographic Geography Bee is a nationwide contest for schools in the United States. The bee is open to students in grades 4 through 8 whom are not over the age of 15. The bee is an educational outreach program of the National Geographic Society. The national first place prize is a $25,000 college scholarship plus other prizes totaling nearly $100,000. There are three levels of competition: school, state, and national. At the school level bee, there is a minimum requirement of six students from any of the eligible grades. To compete for advancement from the school to the state level, the winning student in each school must take a written, multiple-choice, qualifying test. As many as one hundred of the highest scoring students in a state or territory will advance to the state level. The first place winner from the state bee advances to the national level. The National Geographic Society provides the questions and answers for the bee. Bee questions, which follow guidelines established by the National Geography Standards, are designed to test a student’s knowledge of geography. The format calls for brief answers such as a word or phrase. Questions may require interpretation of maps, graphs, and photographs also. West Elementary’s School Geography Bee was held Monday, December 17. Two students from each class were selected to participate in the School Bee from a “Preliminary Classroom Bee”. Participants included the following students: Aaron Fritz, Carter Topliff, Ethan Johnson, Victoria Cooper, Skylar Ray, Isaiah Garza, Jace Reeves, Page Nelson, Gracie Pasillas, Levi Long, Neal Rodgers, Sam Hermesch, Jacob Klein, Molly Myers, Brandon Brase, Damion Kluesner, Gabbie, Helget, Jayson Elliott, Jack Malin, and Colton Vieux. The winner of the West Geography Bee was Skylar Ray. Runner-up was Carter Topliff. Jaidyn Heiman was a finalist, but was absent the day of the competition. Alternates from each class were as follows: Gracie Blackford, Raven Petty, Zach Tidwell, Logan Carley, Gracie Pasillas, Daphne Swenson, Sarah Hantzis, Jasmine Boatwright, Trystan Harris, Kaine Farr, Jonah Jantz, and Cameron Pullens. Thank you to fourth grade teacher Becky Cowan for organizing the event and to the fourth grade team for helping with the judging. Thank you also to retired fourth grade teacher, Memory Maginley, for announcing the Bee this year! Best wishes to Skylar, as he competes at the state level!