After Newtown Middle School students faced off in the school’s final round of the National Geographic Geography Bee on Thursday, January 9, student Michael Arena was named as the school’s winner.

“This is our 2014 Newtown Middle School Geography Bee,” announced NMS social students teacher Andrew San Angelo at the start of the event.

Social studies teacher Barry Palmer organized the event, and social studies teacher Shari Oliver read the National Geographic Geography Bee rules for the assembled guests and participants.

NMS Principal Thomas Einhorn acted as the moderator for the event.

He told the students assembled on the stage of the school’s auditorium that making it to the final round of the school “is a great testament to how hard you worked and studied.”

Each student represented his or her cluster after participating in other rounds of tests to make it to the final round.

As Mr San Angelo explained, “They are the top nine geography students in our building right now.”

The National Geographic Geography Bee takes place in schools across the country, and each school’s winning student goes on to complete a test to determine whether they will compete at the state level. Students who progress past the state level will continue on to the national level, where they could potentially win a $25,000 scholarship and an all-expense paid trip to the Galapagos Islands.

Participating students on Thursday were Ethan Brisson, Jack Murray, Harry Eppers, Jacob Markowsky, Michael Arena, Lauren Davis, Caroline Viselli, Tim McCarthy, and Declan Sughrue. James Chillington also placed into the final round of the National Geographic Geography Bee, but he was not present for the Bee on Thursday.

Mr Einhorn read each question for the students to answer throughout multiple rounds of the competition. For some questions, students wrote responses, and for another round, students used a map to craft responses.

After multiple rounds, Michael and Jacob were the final contestants. The two contestants continued to answer questions until Michael was named as the champion.