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St. Christine School hosts National Geographic Bee
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.St. Christine School fourth-grade student Sophia Alleman prepared to answer her first question during the preliminary round of the National Geographic Bee.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Father John Ettinger read the rules of the National Geographic Bee before it began at St. Christine School. Father Ettinger also read the questions to the contestants.
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Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.The 35 students in grades four through eight sat and waited for the start of the National Geographic Bee at St. Christine School.
By TIM CLEVELAND
For more than 10 years. St. Christine School has hosted a National Geographic Bee, giving the students a chance to display their knowledge of geography and a chance to qualify for the national bee.
The event is for grades 4-8, with 35 students participating in the most recent bee on Jan. 23. The questions could be anything having to do with geography. The winner received a medal and the opportunity to qualify for the national bee, which will be in Washington, D.C., in May. The runner-up was awarded a gift card.
“The teacher who was initially the seventh-grade social studies teacher [Angela Rozzo] started it here a few years back to make students more aware of geography and to give them a better understanding of where things are in the world,” said St. Christine seventh- and eighth-grade social studies teacher Jennifer DiLisio, who organized this year’s bee.
There were seven preliminary rounds, during which each contestant was asked one question. After that, the top 10 students advanced to the final, during which any wrong answer resulted in elimination.
Each student had 15 seconds to answer the questions. Each student had two opportunities during the competition to ask for a question to be asked again or to have a word spelled for them.
DiLisio said the event has been a tradition at St. Christine School since its beginning.
“Usually the event goes pretty well,” she said. “It is a long event. Sometimes we don’t finish in one day because there are over 100 questions that they have to answer.
“The kids look forward to it every year. They enjoy it and they all want to be a part of it.”
DiLisio was asked how the children benefit from entering the competition.
“Just the fun of being in it and expressing their knowledge of geography,” she said.