Geo Bee Competition Puts Simsbury Schools on the Map

January 29th marked the 12th year of an annual tradition at Central Elementary School—a competition between geography enthusiasts in grades 4-6 for the title of school champion during the National Geographic Society’s Geographic Bee (“geo bee”).

Begun in 1989 in response to concern about young people’s lack of knowledge about geography, the geo bee “is designed inspire and reward students' curiosity about the world.” Students from 10,000 schools across the country compete for the chance to win a college scholarship and “the glory of being the National Geographic Bee Champion.”

The event took place in the gym, with all students in grades 4 through 6 invited to watch the 10 winners of the homeroom preliminary rounds compete. Sixth grade teacher Heather Donlon coordinated the event and outlined the rules. She noted that geography is featured prominently in the sixth grade curriculum at Central School and is a means of “getting the sixth graders really excited about the bee.”

Explained Donlon, “One of the things I added a few years ago as a 5 to 10 minute per night homework challenge was ‘rolling’ map quizzes. Sixth graders start out by working to memorize the states and capitals, then move on to labeling the U.S. map. From there, it’s up to them how far they take it in terms of learning countries and their capitals around the world, one continent at a time. It’s meant to help them develop some study/homework skills through short daily practice. However, it really ends up giving them a strong sense of where places are in relation to one another, as well as a better understanding of both our country and the world as current events unfold.”

Said Donlon proudly, “Since I started having kids do this, the number of students who score very high in the preliminary classroom rounds has noticeably improved.”

The geo bee has really expanded at Central School in recent years. Two years ago, only one student represented each 5th/6th grade homeroom. Then the competition was expanded to include one student from each of the grades 4-6. This year a decision was made to use all of the 10 slots that are allowed, giving five slots to sixth graders and the remaining slots to fourth and fifth grade.

This year, competition was especially fierce. Tough questions ranging from tropical islands and volcanoes across the globe to U.S. rivers and road travel made for a championship round that lasted 10 rounds in the final battle between sixth grader Stefan Boca and fourth grader Kieran Peterson, with Boca emerging as the victor. Other finalists were sixth graders Henry Dransfield and Eddy Croke (tied for third place), Connor Martinez, and Shannel Lilburn; fifth graders Conner Sullivan, Colin Hamilton, and Will Sullivan; and fourth grader Jacob Polsgrove.

As the Central School winner, Boca will now take a written test that will be sent to National Geographic in order to determine his eligibility for the Connecticut State Bee, held at Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) on April 6, 2018. The winner of the state competition will head to the national championship May 20-23 in Washington, D.C., and will be eligible for a $50,000 college scholarship.

Besides Central School, other Simsbury elementary schools held geo bees in January. At Latimer Lane Elementary School, sixth grader Paige Mahoney was the school champion, while at Tootin’ Hills Elementary School, sixth grader Ryan Caselli was the winner, with fellow sixth grader Nora McConville as the runner-up.