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Reed And NMS Students Take Part In National Geographic Geography Bee

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Reed And NMS Students Take Part

In National Geographic Geography Bee

By Eliza Hallabeck

At both Newtown Middle School and Reed Intermediate School last week, the schools’ geography stars took to their respective stages to go head-to-head in this year’s National Geographic Geography Bee.

At Newtown Middle School on Friday, January 14, Akash Ahuja was named the school’s National Geographic Geography Bee champion, and on Tuesday, January 11, Reed Intermediate School student Gavin Stubbs earned first place in his school’s geography bee.

Different forms of questions were asked for each round. For some, students were questioned individually and had 15 seconds to respond.

Other questions had all nine participating students write their answers on a sheet of paper before time ran out.

Reed sixth grade teacher Maura Drabik said the National Geographic Geography Bee takes place in all 50 states, and each school’s winning student goes on to 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.

At both schools students were first tested in their clusters. Only sixth grade students at Reed Intermediate School could participate in this year’s geography bee, but both seventh and eighth grade students participated at NMS. One students from each cluster at the schools went on to participate in the final round competitions.

Newtown Middle School National Geographic Geography Bee contenders on Friday were Lydia Field, Akash Ahuja, Alana Murray, Genti Limani, Amanda Tramposch, Hannah Bartlett, Ryan Fitzgerald, Shannon Lynch, and Andrew Cragin. NMS student Sam Czel also made it to the final round competition, but was not at the school on Friday to compete in the event.

Reed Intermediate National Geography Bee final round contestants were Frankie Mattia, Gavin Stubbs, Michael Meyer, Amanda Solomon, John Pierce, Julia Bogdanoff, Eric Mockovak, Aaron Gershon, and Andrew Lee.

“These are the top geography students from their clusters,” said Ms Drabik at Reed’s geography bee, “so give them a round of applause.”

Questions posed to students at Reed and NMS included “Hot Springs National Park is located north of the Arkadelphia and Lake Hamilton in what state?” and “Africa’s highest peak is part of a national park in Tanzania. Name this mountain.”

Julia Bogdanoff came in third at Reed, and Andrew Lee advanced to the championship round with Gavin.

After the competition was over, Reed Principal Sharon Epple, who had acted as moderator for the event, told all fifth graders at Reed to prepare for next year’s National Geographic Geography Bee.

As advice for other students studying geography, Gavin said to complete assigned school work.

“Study as much as you can, and hope for the best,” said Gavin.

Newtown Middle School Principal Diane Sherlock acted as the moderator for the geography at her school on Friday.

“Congratulations to our two finalists who will now compete in our championship round,” said NMS social studies teacher Andrew SanAngelo before announcing the rules for the championship round. During the championship round students Shannon Lynch and Akash Ahuja were asked to write down answers on a sheet of paper with 15 seconds. The first to have the most correct answers would be named as the winner.

After Akash was named as the event winner, NMS social studies teacher Susan Lang said, “Anybody who was on this stage today is a winner.”

To study for the competition, Akash said he went to www.nationalgeographic.com/geobee, where new questions are posted daily for people to test their geographic knowledge.

“I went to the National Geographic website for a little bit of time, and I did some of the quizzes and games,” said Akash.

Akash’s social studies teacher Ron Chivinski said Akash did a great job when his cluster was working through the preliminary rounds of the competition.

Through the process, Mr Chivinski said, Akash had a good attitude, “and clearly brought his A-game. He has a love of geography and learning,”

Both Akash and Gavin will complete a test by the end of this week to be sent to the state’s level of the competition.

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