After winning the preliminary competitions in their classrooms, eight fifth-grade students competed in Hewitt Elementary School’s finals for the National Geographic Geography Bee.
During the competition, students answered challenging questions about U.S. geography, geographic comparisons, physical geography, continents, world geography and cultural geography.
Shane McCabe won the school level competition, while Ryan Riccio was the runner up. Both McCabe and Riccio are fifth graders in Ms. Gregg Linker's class.
McCabe has gone on and taken a qualifying exam. The top 100 scorers from the exam in New York State will be selected to compete in the New York State contest on April 5. The winner of the New York State Bee will then compete in the National Geography Bee on May 20-22 in Washington D.C. for a chance to win the grand prize of a $25,000 college scholarship.
The National Geographic Geography Bee began 25 years ago as a way for students in the fourth through eighth grades to participate in a national contest based upon their knowledge of geography. Questions may require interpretation of maps, graphs and photographs, as well as knowledge of cultural and physical features. There are three levels of competition: school, state, and national.
