13 Livingston Students Lock Horns At ‘Geography Bee’ Finals

LIVINGSTON, NJ — You’ve heard about spelling bees. But recently, students at Mt. Pleasant Middle School in Livingston got the chance to test their brain power on another subject: geography.

The school’s seven-round competition ended with 13 finalists, who competed on the auditorium stage at a school-wide assembly last month. The victor? Evan Marshall, who now has the opportunity to represent the school at the state Geographic Bee, which will be held in April. State champions will compete at the National Geographic Bee in Washington, D.C. from May 20 to 23.

The other finalists at MPMS were: Brendan Blaesser, Brandon Fernbach, Marlie Goldstein, Hannah Habib, Aidan Hirsch, Madelyn Lee, Clare Luo, Leah Margolis, Chelsea Peng, Akshaya Shankar, Anlin Wei, and Jason Yu.

According to Livingston school district administrators, the annual competition is organized by the National Geographic Society and is designed to inspire and reward students' curiosity about the world.

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CAN YOU ANSWER THESE GEOGRARPHY QUESTIONS?

Here are a few of the questions that students at MPMS had to face (and the answers):

• Trade winds often create clouds just below the summit of Haleakala Crater in which state? (Hawaii)
• El Yunque National Forest is the only tropical rain forest in the U.S. National Forest System. This rain forest is on which U.S.-controlled island in the Greater Antilles? (Puerto Rico)
• What is the name of the landlocked sea between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan that has nearly disappeared because of upstream irrigation? (Aral Sea)

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Photo: Livingston Public Schools

Caption: In the front row are Madelyn Lee, Brendan Blaesser, Evan Marshall (the winner), Clare Luo, and Hannah Habib. In the back row are Aidan Hirsch, Jason Yu, Anlin Wei, Chelsea Peng, Brandon Fernbach, Akshaya Shankar, Marlie Goldstein, and Leah Margolis