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Local student competes in Ohio Geographic Bee
The Vindicator (Youngstown)
Photo
Four-time Boardman Glenwood Geography Bee champion Michael Palagano advanced all the way to the final round of the state bee last Friday before he was defeated on a sudden-death overtime question. Palagano credits his success to his father, Michael, and social studies teacher Vince Carnevale, pictured, who helped him study throughout his middle school years.
Are you smarter than
this eighth grader?
Sample questions from multiple rounds of the Ohio Geographic Bee:
- Which U.S. territory is the largest and southernmost of the Mariana Islands?
- Which continent is home to more than 40 percent of the world’s population?
- Which state was formed from land purchased from Russia? Alaska or Hawaii?
Answers: 1. Guam, 2. Asia, 3. Alaska
By Karl Henkel
BOARDMAN
For his fourth birthday, Michael Palagano received an atlas from Joan Sipus, his grandmother.
“It was one of those big atlases that had only continents,” he said.
But the simple map was enough to spark the interest of Palagano, an eighth-grader at Glenwood Middle School, and with help from his father, Michael, and social studies instructor Vince Carnevale, he has become the school’s chief student geography expert.
Palagano is one of the few who still enjoys the subject, which Carnevale said is becoming a lost art form. Most schools don’t even offer the subject, as it isn’t a mandated requirement by state law.
It shows in Americans’ basic geographic knowledge. National Geographic, which sponsors the Ohio Geographic Bee, has published survey results that show half of Americans ages 18 to 34 can’t identify India on a map.
Palagano, 14, cannot only find India, but also every other country, thanks to countless hours over the past four years — he estimates about 16 per week — preparing for the bee. The statewide competition takes place at Ohio State University, where he and 99 other middle school students recently competed for geographic supremacy.
Palagano, who won the school competition first as a fifth-grader and every year thereafter, made it about as far this year as one can without winning: the final round, where he was defeated on a sudden-death overtime question.
It’s anything but easy to make it to the state round, as participants must survive three rounds of a combined 250 questions (some fill-in, others multiple choice), and then beat out 90 finalists to make it to the last round.
So what question stumped Palagano? Narayan Sundararajan, a fellow eighth-grader from Shaker Heights, correctly identified Pakistan as a predominantly Muslim country that uses the rupee as its currency.
Palagano said Indonesia (home to the largest Muslim population in the world); Sundararajan himself is Indian.
Geography isn’t just about identifying locations, and Carnevale said the final question summed up what the geography bee is all about: a mixture of history, current events, religion, economics, weather and science, the ultimate test of all-around knowledge.
“It’s not just ‘Where on the map is this place?’” he said. “You need to have a broader scope and then be able to narrow it down.”
Palagano was “far and away” more advanced than he imagined, Carnevale said, and Palagano isn’t afraid to show off his expertise.
“Sometimes I’ll throw a question out during class,” Carnevale said. “And we’ll go back and forth. The other students are amazed.”