The Willow River GATE program sponsored its first annual National Geographic Bee competition this year.  This competition is an annual event and is very similar to the Spelling Bee competition which is already held at our school. The GeoBee is open to all students in Grades 4 – 8 and there are 3 levels of the contest; school, state, and national.  

At the school level all students participated in a preliminary competition in the classroom from which 10 students became finalists.   These finalists then competed on the auditorium stage in both the final and championship rounds answering both orally and in written format until one winner was chosen.  

Our 1st place winner this year was Tony Creel, a 7th grader, with the 2nd place going to Drew Wilder also in 7th grade. For the last part of the school level competition, Tony completed a 70 question written test which was submitted to the State level. If he places in the top 100 students in the State, he will then attend the State Competition which is held in April.

The state winner will travel with expenses paid to Washington D.C. for the National Competition held in May. Prizes at the National level include scholarships, a trip to the Galapagos Islands, and various monetary prizes.  

The other 8 finalists include: Ashley Kliniski, gr. 5; Daniel Eaton, gr. 5; Kelsey Lang, gr. 6th, Rex Janke, gr. 6; Robert Kliniski, gr. 7; Summer Berhman, gr. 8; Taylor Lang, gr. 8; and Abbi Johnson, gr.8.             

Anyone can test their geography knowledge with the new and exciting GeoBee Challenge, an online geography quiz at www.nationalgeographic.com/geobee. This quiz  game poses 10 new questions each day. There are other geography- orientated activities on this site as well  such as games, current events, information on animals & the world in which we live, etc. Look this site up and have fun with geography too!

Pictured, kneeling: Ashley Kliniski, Daniel Eaton. Back row, l-r: Summer Berhman, Taylor Lang, Robert Kliniski, Abbi Johnson, Tony Creel, 1st place winner, Drew Wilder, 2nd place winner, Rex Janke, Kelsey Lang, and Mrs. Nancie Skare, GATE Advisor.