16 BVSD students headed to the State Geography Bee

DENVER - Sixteen students representing elementary, middle and K-8 schools across the Boulder Valley School District are among the 100 students from across the state chosen to test their geography knowledge against students from across the state. They were recently named semi-finalists and will participate in the Colorado State Geography Bee on Friday, April 6, 2018.

BVSD Pride Point: In two of the past three years, the Colorado State GeoBee winners were from Louisville Middle School.

BVSD 2018 Colorado State Geography Bee Semifinalists
 

Name	Grade	School Name	City
Bridget Angliss	8th	Aspen Creek K-8 School	Broomfield
Molly Arthur	6th	Summit Middle Charter School	Boulder
Jack Bedard	5th	Fireside Elementary School	Louisville
Nicholas Bortz	8th	Eldorado K-8 School	Superior
Lincoln Boyd	8th	Louisville Middle School	Louisville
Margo Church	8th	Centennial Middle School	Boulder
Cole DiGiacomo	8th	Peak To Peak Charter School	Lafayette
Daniel  Frisch	7th	Southern Hills Middle School	Boulder
Julia Krause	5th	Foothill Elementary School	Boulder
Zoe Kugler	5th	Lafayette Elementary School	Lafayette
Will Matsumura	4th	Bear Creek Elementary School	Boulder
Harrison Messenbaugh	5th	High Peaks Elementary School	Boulder
Mukul Naidu	4th	Douglass Elementary School	Boulder
Caleb Ottem	7th	Broomfield Heights Middle Sch	Broomfield
Luke Staniforth	7th	Angevine Middle School	Lafayette
Devontae Steele	5th	Alicia Sanchez Intl Elem School	Lafayette

This is the second level of the National Geographic Bee competition, which is now in its 30th year. School Bees were held in schools with fourth- through eighth-grade students throughout the state to determine each school champion. School champions then took a qualifying test, which they submitted to the National Geographic Society. The National Geographic Society has invited up to 100 of the top-scoring students in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Department of Defense Dependents Schools and U.S. territories to compete in the State Bees.
 

National Geographic Day - April 6
April 6 has been declared National Geographic Day. In addition to the Colorado State Geography Bee, children will have the opportunity to participate in a new GeoChallenge competition, which will be similar to a Destination Imagination competition. There will also be a National Geographic Explorer Talk and professional development for Colorado teachers interested in becoming a certified Nat Geo Educator. All of the events will be held on the University of Denver campus.

National Geographic Bee
Winners of the State Bees have the opportunity to compete on the national stage at the National Geographic Bee Championship starting May 24, 2018. The event will be streamed at www.natgeobee.org.

To celebrate the 30th annual National Geographic Bee, the cash prize for the top three students in each state has doubled. Each state champion will receive $200, the National Geographic Visual Atlas of the World, 2nd Edition and a trip to Washington, D.C., to represent their state in the National Geographic Bee Championship to be held at National Geographic Society headquarters, May 20-23, 2018. Students that come in second place will receive $150 and those that come in third will receive $100. The first-place national champion will receive a $50,000 college scholarship, a lifetime membership in the Society, including a subscription to National Geographic magazine, and an all-expenses-paid Lindblad expedition to the Galápagos Islands aboard the new National Geographic Endeavour ll. Travel for the trip is provided by Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic. Second- and third-place finishers will receive $25,000 and $10,000 college scholarships, respectively. Visit www.natgeobee.org for more information on the National Geographic Bee.

How would you fare as a National Geographic Bee contestant? 

At the school Bees this year, students had to answer questions like these:
 

1. The Appalachian Mountains run through which state—Georgia or Mississippi?
A. Georgia

2. The North Platte and South Platte Rivers meet in which state—New Mexico or Nebraska?
A. Nebraska

3. Which state straddles the Tropic of Cancer—Hawaii or Alaska?
A. Hawaii

4. Which form of mass production was used by Henry Ford to produce automobiles in large quantities in Detroit, Michigan—threshing machine or assembly line?
A. assembly line

5. What is the term for the physical location where a plant or animal lives—habitat or pattern?
A. habitat

6. Which country does not contain large areas of desert—Chad, Venezuela, or Iraq? 
A. Venezuela

7. Public steam baths called hammams are part of the culture in cities such as Casablanca and Marrakech in which African country?
A. Morocco

8. The Delmarva Peninsula includes parts of Delaware, Virginia, and which other state?
A. Maryland

9. The easternmost part on the Horn of Africa is located in which country?
A. Somalia

10. Angkor Wat, built as a tribute to Hinduism, is located in which Southeast Asian country where Buddhism now predominates?
A. Cambodia

For more information about the National Geographic Bee go to natgeobee.org