Walker H. '28 Wins Fifth Grade Geography Bee

National Geographic canceled this year’s national Geo Bee competition this year due to COVID-19. That didn’t stop the fifth graders from a fierce grade level geography competition. Each of Ms. Janack’s social studies classes competed in 7 rounds of the preliminary competition. The top ten students in the grade then gathered for a grade level final on May 3. The five rounds of geography questions focused on the students’ knowledge of the continents, countries around the world, and the United States. After the five rounds, a tiebreaker round was required to determine first, second and third place. 

With perfect scores in the preliminary rounds, Walker H. '28 and Danny K. '28 competed in a tiebreaker to determine first and second place. Walker was victorious, earning the first place medal and a donut party for his advisory. After his win, Walker said, “I was really nervous at first and then I got a couple [answers] right and calmed down. That’s when I felt it was getting more fun. I was there to compete and do my best. When I realized I won, I felt really proud of myself and felt really happy and all my practice paid off!”

Alessandro B. '28, Neel S. '28, Ava H. '28, Dash J. '28, and Lucille P. '28 competed in a tie breaker round for third place, with Neel S. '28 coming away with the medal.

Lucille commented, “I thought it was stressful hearing everyone getting such hard questions. It was fun at the same time, because it’s fun to test your knowledge and I like competitions.” 

Congratulations to all the competitors in the fifth grade and Emma B. '28, Sonny D. '28, and Sara F. '28 who also competed in the final. 

We are hopeful that National Geographic will again be able to run the national competition in the 2021-2022 school year. This week’s competition no doubt prepared the rising sixth graders for what is to come.