Memorial Middle School Students Compete in National Geography Bee

Thirty Memorial Middle School students in grades six through eight demonstrated their knowledge of world geography in the Sixth Annual Memorial Middle School Geography Bee held at the school earlier this month.

Designed to encourage the teaching and study of geography, the contest, sponsored by the National Geographic Society, is held at participating schools across the country from November through January. The nationwide competition, which is open to students in grades four through eight, consists of three levels; school, state and national.

According to Middle School Teacher and Bee Coordinator Mrs. Lisa Miller, all Memorial Middle School students participated in the school level contest.

"The top 30 participants were selected based on their scores on a qualifying test that was administered in their Social Studies classes," said Mrs. Miller. "Today's competition is the culmination of that qualifying test and will fulfill the school component of the competition."

The 30 competitors exhibited their geographical aptitude during seven grueling rounds of the Preliminary Competition.

Memorial Middle School Principal and Bee Moderator Mr. Gary Floyd questioned the students on a wide range of topics including US Geography, Continents, Cultural Geography, Physical Geography and more. The 10 students with the most correct answers at the end of the seventh round advanced to the Final Round.

Only seventh-grader Brendan Hart answered all questions correctly and automatically advanced to the finals. Dawson Brown, Matthew Diglio, Devin Dragon, Matthew Drew, Georgianna Flagg, Ian Martin, Peter Martino, Ryan Remondelli, Daniel Salins and Michael Waddleton each answered one question incorrectly, but because only 10 students can compete in the Final Round, a tiebreaker was initiated and in the end, Ian Martin was eliminated.

During the Final Round, the 10 remaining students were asked increasingly more difficult questions. Contestants were eliminated after answering two questions incorrectly. By the third question, more than half of the finalists were eliminated. From round five through round seven, it was a three-way tie between sixth-grader Dawson Brown, seventh-grader Daniel Salins, and eighth-grader Ryan Remondelli. It wasn't until the final question that Dawson Brown and Ryan Remondelli were established the champions.

Upon their designation as champions, Ryan and Dawson immediately entered into the Championship Round of the competition during which the school level winner would be determined by answering the best out of three questions. Because Dawson and Ryan were tied by question three with two correct answers each, a tie-breaker question was posed and Ryan Remondelli was established as the winner of the 2010-2011 Memorial Middle School Geography Bee.

"All the participants did a great job in the Geography Bee," said Principal Floyd. "All grades were represented in the Bee which is very impressive considering all students participate at the same level regardless of their age and grade. And the fact that our Mr. Brown and Mr. Remondelli were in sixth and eighth grade respectively proves that there is no age barrier to geography knowledge."

Mr. Floyd said that because Ryan won the school-level competition he will take a written test to determine if he will qualify to advance to the state level of the competition.

"If Ryan's score is among the top 100 in the state, he will advance to the state level competition in April," said Mr. Floyd. "Should he win the state competition he will travel to National Geographic headquarters with the other state winners to compete in the national finals for scholarships in the amount of U.S. $25,000, $15,000 and $10,000!"

"In our increasingly global society strong geographical knowledge is essential for today's students," said Superintendent of Schools Vincent S. Smith. "The Geography Bee provides a forum for our students to test their geographic knowledge while impressing upon them the importance of learning geography."