Wedgwood’s 3rd Annual Geography Bee was a lot of fun last Thursday evening. Every student who scored in the top 5 on the written test for their class participated in the bee, and all came prepared. It was obvious the students had worked very hard, with some adults commenting that the students knew more about geography than they did.
Congratulations to the winning teams! The winner for the 1st-3rd-grade bee was room 7, made up of Astra Downer, Flora Peterson, Skylar Presch, Annika Prichard, and Kyle Stevens. The winner of the 4th/5th grade bee was room 8, made up of Karina Cooper, Sophia Dudas, Nolan McCafferty, Nate Osborn, and Eli Sitchin.
Moderator, Chip Dodd, did a fabulous job with just the right balance between humor and intensity. Thanks to volunteers Kathy Sitchin and Katherine Pak for serving as judges, and to Reiko Henry and Logan Presch for popping and serving popcorn during the bee. And many thanks to all the people who helped out before and after with set up and clean up.
On an unfortunate note, the team from room 5, made up of Gabe Briggs, McKenzie Boyle, Nick Jansen, Caroline Malone, and Calvin Oakenfold, was eliminated prematurely. When asked to identify a country in Oceania, they pointed to Australia. Mr. Dodd explained that whether or not Australia is a part of Oceania is controversial in geographic circles, and then he ruled them incorrect. Upon further investigation, we found that several sources do include Australia as part of Oceania. The geography bee committee apologizes to the team and will present them with sweatshirts. For future years, we are looking into ways that will allow a team to challenge their elimination before leaving the stage.
Thank you to all the students, parents, and teachers who got so excited about the bee. We’re looking forward to an even better event next year!
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