After advancing from the written qualifying test, the top 10 students competed in the school’s first Geography Bee phase two competition on March 6, Where senior Jackson Hancock took first place, senior Dominick Agron took second place, and freshman Devyn Jones took third.
Students originally participated in the school’s new geography bee on Feb. 25, marking the school’s first time taking part in the competition.
The first phase was an online assessment administered during social studies classes and open to any student in grades 9-12. Students who couldn’t take it during class were given additional supervised opportunities later in the day.
The test lasted about 30 minutes and covered a range of topics such as landmarks, cultural achievements in Pennsylvania, geography and global history. Some questions encouraged students to think about subjects they hadn’t studied before, including international cinema, world cuisine and famous monuments.
Assistant principal, Ms. Jessica Hubal, helped coordinate the event and said the Geography Bee was meant to be educational and enjoyable for students.
“Why not make something in social studies? There’s not really much in social studies that we do and make it 9-12. And I thought it was a perfect opportunity for students to have some fun with something,” Ms. Hubal said.
Results from phase one determined the top 10 students who advanced to phase two, an in-person competition held on March sixth.
During phase two, students competed in 11 rounds of questions in a format similar to a spelling bee. All rounds included both individual and group questions that tested the contestants’ knowledge of world culture, geography and global history.
In individual rounds, students were asked questions and had 10 seconds to respond. In group rounds, they wrote their answers on a whiteboard or paper in 15 seconds before revealing at the same time.
“Since this is our first time doing it, we’re going to keep it small scale, but that might be something really fun to make it more school-wide moving forward,” Ms. Hubal said.
