For The Second Time—

NMS Student To Represent Newtown

In State Geographic Bee

By Martha Coville

On Friday, January 4, seventh grader Aidan Pelisson won the Newtown Middle School Geographic Bee, qualifying him to represent Newtown in the state championship for the second year in a row. Last year, as a sixth grader, Aidan won the competition at Reed Intermediate School, and went on to place fourth in the Connecticut State Geographic Bee.

The National Geography Society, publisher of National Geographic magazine, sponsors the competition for students in the fourth through eighth grades. The society also provides the questions for the bee, which is open to any school wishing to participate. In Newtown, both the Reed School and Newtown Middle School hold bees. Last year, NMS eighth grader Matt Jensen also placed at the state level; he came in fifth, just behind Aidan.

Agit Singh, an eighth grader, and one of ten students who participated in January 4 final round of the Geographic Bee at NMS, said that contest began at the classroom level. “Everyone did it in the seventh and eighth grades,” he said, “and winners from every cluster came here.”

Aidan explained that the school has four “clusters,” each comprised of four classrooms. He said that Mr San Angelo, who teaches social studies at NMS, and runs the Geographic Bee, asked all the classroom winners in his cluster the same question. The question, he said was, “The English channel separates Great Britain from which country?” All the students who answered correctly won a place at the school’s final round. (The answer is “France.”)

A Tense Atmosphere

Mason West, an eighth grader, was flipping through his social studies book minutes before the contest was set to begin. “I’m just trying to find something useful,” he said of his last minute cramming. He said he had been interested in geography for a while. “My father was a ship’s captain,” he said, “and he’s basically been to every country in the world.”

Agit said he also shares his interest in geography with his family. “My geography’s always been decent.” he said. “My parents are from India and they wanted me to know more about the rest of the world.”

Agit and Mason went up to join Aidan, and seventh graders Courtney Yapp, Charlie Helgren, and Brittney Irving. Eight grader Erin Bell rounded out group, since two finalists, Alexis Archer, and Merglim Gould, were absent. The eight students sat at school desks arranged in a semicircle on the black stage. The students’ names were printed in neat black handwriting and hung in front of their desks. Their parents and friends sat in the audience, cheering and clapping.

Still, the dark green curtains framing the black stage, and the black cinderblock wall behind the students, both impersonally lit with fluorescent bulbs, contributed to the tense atmosphere. Aidan leaned forward anxiously to hear his first question. Charlie fidgeted, and sat with his legs on the front rungs of the desk. Several students answered in whisper soft voices. Everyone listened carefully, even anxiously.

 

Tough Questions

They were participating in the “final” round, which would whittle the group of eight down to two students, who would compete in a “championship” round. In the final round, a student would be eliminated after his or her second wrong answer.

The bee began with a series of questions testing the students’ familiarity with the 50 US states, together with their map reading skills. Principal Diane Sherlock, seated at a tall black chair in front of a podium, phrased each question calmly and slowly. In this first round, questions began with phrases like “Which of the states neighboring Vermont,” or “Which Atlantic state.”

The sole question in the second round ended up eliminating five students. Students wrote their answer to this one question: “The Mississippi Delta dominates the southeastern portion of which state?” on a piece of paper, and read them out to Ms Sherlock. (The answer is Louisiana). Charlie, Brittney, Erin, and Agit all answered incorrectly for the second time.

During the third, and last “finalist” round, the questions became much more difficult. They required students to combine their knowledge of American political geography with regional cultural knowledge. Only Aidan, Mason, and Courtney remained. Courtney had already given one wrong answer, and she ended up being eliminated. And Aidan gave his only incorrect answer in the entire contest, so that only Mason emerged from the third round with a perfect score.

A football fan, he took a guess at the question, “Name the bay between Michigan and Wisconsin,” quickly thought of the Packers, and tossed out “The Green Bay.” Aidan incorrectly located a Hawaiian crater in Arizona, and Courtney was out of the game when she said that Glacier National Park is in Alaska. It is actually in Montana.

Aidan and Mason squared off for the championship round. Once again, they wrote down the answers to Ms Sherlock’s questions, and held them up. This time, one wrong answer would loose contest.

Both students correctly named the independent country located entirely within the city of Rome as Vatican City. And when asked to name the two landlocked countries bordering India, Mason picked Nepal, and Aidan, Bhutan. Both answers were correct.

But Mason answered the last question incorrectly, and Aidan was declared the winner. The question was, “Name the US territory island where the official language is Chamorro, and whose motto is ‘America’s day begins here.’’’ Both students quickly thought of US territories in the Pacific, but Mason guessed “American Samoa,” the official language of which is Samoan. Aidan knew that Guam lies much further east.

Aidan said that he was “kinda confident,” going into the tournament, but said, “I was a little nervous I wouldn’t win, ’cause I really, really wanted to.” He said that although he used his atlas to study for the bee, he relied primarily on websites like the National Geographic Society site, which provides study guides for the geographic bee.

Aidan will have to take a written test soon. If he passes, he will return to Central Connecticut State University in New Britain for the state championship.