Fifth-Grader Wins H-K Middle School Geography Bee

Africa's highest peak is part of a national park in Tanzania. Name this mountain?

Haddam-Killingworth Middle schooler Christopher Sacchi knew the answer and earned the opportunity to compete at the state level of the annual National Geographic Bee in April and perhaps a chance at the national competition in May.

Sacchi's winning answer of Kilimanjaro forced fellow classmate Ethan Gromala out of the preliminary rounds of the middle school competition. The two fifth-graders were among nine students from fifth through eighth grade competing in the local event.

"I was pretty nervous," says Sacchi, 10, of Killingworth. "I was very excited to win. I can't believe it was three fifth graders at the end."

Although his family has not travelled extensively, Sacchi says he enjoys learning about geography and looking at atlases and collecting maps. He says he has learned a great deal in the classroom. In Spanish class, they studied different Spanish-speaking countries and his social studies class focused a little on geography.

"It was a really fun experience," says mom Joanne Sacchi, who was in the audience with her husband Ron and daughter to watch the competition. To celebrate his victory, the family went out for ice cream sundaes and bought several new books to help prepare Christopher for the next part of the competition, she said.

According to event moderator Kevin White, a seventh-grade history teacher at HKMS, the competition begins in the classroom with each student receiving seven multiple choice questions to answer. The first three rounds focus on U.S. states and cities, followed by continents, geographic terms, fresh water and cultural geography. Those with the highest scores move on to the next round, White said.

Sacchi will advance to the next level of competition, where a written examination to determine Connecticut's state competitors will be given sometime this week. This test determines the top scoring 100 students in each state who are invited to compete at the state-level competition.

Winners of the state competition will compete in the national competition in Washington, D.C., in May. First prize is a $25,000 college scholarship. After that comes the world championships.

The contest is designed to encourage teachers to include geography in their classrooms, spark student interest in the subject, and increase public awareness about geography, according to the National Geographic Bee.

"We compete in the Geo Bee as we do the [Scripps] National Spelling Bee because geography is laced throughout all our middle school history curriculum," said White. "It also lets the kids compete in a national event that hundreds of other schools across the country compete in as well."

White uses the web access in his classroom to link to National Geographic's Bee website, where there are daily quizzes and other study materials. Students are also encouraged to take quizzes online at home.

"Sometimes I begin my class with a geography question," White says.

The National Geographic website features numerous quizzes about countries from Abu Dhabi to the United States. There are also daily quizzes that cover a variety of topics and countries.

The first National Geographic Bee was held in 1989. Since then, millions of students have competed each year in hopes of winning the scholarship and the coveted honor of being national champion. Last year's winner was a 13-year-old from Florida.

In 2009, an eigth-grader from Madison was the Connecticut state champion. In 2000, the national champion was from Connecticut.

The winning question that year: Name two of the three largest sections of Denmark, which include its mainland peninsula and two largest islands?

The answer: Jutland, Sjaelland and Fyn.