Students participate in National Geography Bee

PLAINS – The Mackinaw Bridge connects the upper and lower peninsulas of which state, West Virginia or Michigan? This question started off the Sanders County Homeschool Co-op’s geography bee.

The National Geography Bee was held through National Geographic, endowed by Alex Trebek and sponsored by Google. The first preliminary round was held Wednesday, Jan. 15 at the Church on the Move. Nine students participated in the seven elimination-round event.

Students Case Johnston, Lydia French, Martin Wrobleski, Rebekah Trawick, Chloe French, Noah Hathorne, Cooper Milne, Madison Suttorp and Rachel Wrobleski took the stage to put their geographical knowledge to the test.

Round one consisted of questions that focused on the geography of the United States and each participant had to choose between two options. Six of the nine contestants moved on to the second round by answering such questions as: Which state produces more peanuts, Georgia or Utah?

Round two questions focused on cities of the United States. The last question of this round (Newark is the largest city and industrial center in which mid-Atlantic state, New Jersey or Vermont?) was answered correctly by Rachel and four of the six moved on to the third portion of the competition.

In round three, the contestants were asked to answer questions consisting of historic places in the United States. Trawick answered her question about the location of President Harry S. Truman’s home correctly and Chloe won the right to move on after correcting her incorrect initial response before the time ran out.

By the fourth round the participants were narrowed down to four, but there were only three final spots. Rachel and Trawick answered their questions correctly and automatically advanced to the final rounds, leaving both Lydia and Chloe to do a tiebreaker for the finalist position. Chloe was awarded the third spot after answering her question about the Laptev and East Siberian seas correctly.

In the final round, the finalists were each given the same question and were asked to write their individual answers on a sheet of paper. The questions could be about any of the categories previously used and the last girl standing would be the champion. Question-reader Leslye Mackelwich paused briefly, building the suspense, before reading the final question.

“The Donets Basin,” she began, “is an industrial area shared by Russia and which neighboring country to the west?”

Chloe answered “-Ukraine-” and was dubbed Sanders County geography bee champion. She was awarded a medal and the three finalists were given gift certificates. All contestants received participation awards for a job well done. Mackelwich, homeschool co-op member and geography bee organizer, was proud of each participant.

“Everyone deserves a round of applause,” she said. “It is never easy to get in front of a group like that so I appreciate your courage.”

This was the first year the homeschool co-op participated in the National Geography Bee and Mackelwich is excited to continue for years to come.

“I am hopeful that next year it will grow, that the kids who watched will be inspired to try or the ones who weren’t old enough to participate this year will participate next year,” she said.

The participants did not have much notice and consequently could not prepare as much as they would have liked. Mackelwich believes next year will be better because the students will have an idea of what to expect and more time to study.

“We actually are going to try and add some classes next year geared toward preparing the kids for this,” she said.

Mackelwich applauded the participants for their bravery and willingness to try something new.

“That is the great thing about homeschooled kids,” she said. “They aren’t afraid to put themselves out there.”

For the next step, Chloe will take a written test that will be sent into the state. From there the top 100 scorers will compete at state level. From those 100 the finalists will go on to nationals in Washington D.C. sometime in April.