Top geography students test skills in state beeMarch 27, 2009 KALAMAZOO--Middle-school geography whizzes from across the state will be on the Western Michigan University campus Friday, April 3, to compete for the Michigan Geographic Bee title and a chance to travel to Washington, D.C., for the U.S. championship at National Geographic Society headquarters. This will be the second time WMU plays host to Michigan's Geographic Bee. Similar competitions will take place on the same day in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories and Department of Defense schools around the globe. Some 100 fourth- to eighth-graders will compete in each location, with the state competitions organized by NGS and sponsored this year by Google and Plum Creek, one of the nation's largest private landholders. The event at WMU will be held in the Bernhard Center. Preliminary rounds for the 105 students who have qualified for the Michigan competition will begin at 12:30 p.m. and take place in various areas of the center, according to Dr. Lisa DeChano-Cook, WMU associate professor of geography who is coordinating the Michigan bee. The top geography student in Michigan will be selected from a field of 10 students who make it to the final round, which will begin at 2:30 p.m. in the North Ballroom of the Bernhard Center. The Michigan winner will receive $100, the "National Geographic Collegiate Atlas of the World," and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., for the national finals on May 19-20 and the chance to be crowned National Geographic Bee champion. First prize in the national competition is a $25,000 college scholarship and lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society. Second- and third-place finishers receive $15,000 and $10,000 college scholarships. Additionally, the national winner will travel, along with one parent or guardian, all expenses paid, to the Galápagos Islands with "Jeopardy!" quiz show host and National Geographic Bee moderator Alex Trebek and the "Jeopardy!" Clue Crew. The winner will experience geography firsthand through up-close encounters with the wildlife and landscape of the Galápagos. The state bees are the second level of the annual National Geographic Bee. The first level began last November with contests in more than 13,000 U.S. schools, in which millions of students participated. "National Geographic's mission is to inspire people to care about the planet," says John Fahey, president and CEO of the National Geographic Society. "Through the National Geographic Bee and everything else we do at the society, we hope to foster a lifelong passion for learning and to encourage the experience and knowledge of other cultures and lands." The championship round of the National Geographic Bee--moderated by "Jeopardy!"'s Alex Trebek for the 21st year--will be held at National Geographic's Washington, D.C., headquarters on Wednesday, May 20, and will air that day nationally on the National Geographic Channel. Produced by National Geographic Television, the finals also will be broadcast later on public television stations, presented by Maryland Public Television. Check local listings for viewing dates and times. Visitors to the Bee section of the National Geographic Society Web site, nationalgeographic.com/geographicbee, can hone their geography skills by checking out the new GeoBee Challenge online game. The National Geographic Society is one of the world's largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations. Founded in 1888 to "increase and diffuse geographic knowledge," the society works to inspire people to care about the planet. It reaches more than 325 million people worldwide each month through its official journal, National Geographic, and various other tools. The society developed the National Geographic Bee in 1989 in response to concern about the lack of geographic knowledge among young people in the United States. The problem is not yet resolved. A National Geographic-Roper Public Affairs 2006 Geographic Literacy Study showed that Americans aged 18 to 24 still had limited understanding of the world within and beyond our country's borders. Even after Hurricane Katrina, one-third could not locate Louisiana, and almost half could not locate Mississippi on a U.S. map. Only four out of 10 were able to find Iraq on a map of the Middle East. For more information about the Michigan bee, contact WMU's Dr. Lisa DeChano-Cook at lisa.dechano@wmich.edu, (269) 387-3536 or (269) 598-9532. Media contact: Cheryl Roland, (269) 387-8400, cheryl.roland@wmich.edu WMU News |