Photo: Tatiana Heintz with CBMS teachers Alex Houston and Lori Morse.
Crossett Brook Middle School eighth-grader Tatiana Heintz from Waterbury Center and Kayla Darrow, a fifth-grader at Fayston Elementary School, have been notified by the National Geography Society that that they are semifinalists eligible to compete in the 2018 Vermont National Geographic State Bee to be held at Castleton University on April 6.
Darrow earned the right to represent Fayston in the semifinals by answering these questions:
The Seikan [SAY-kahn] Tunnel connects the island of Hokkaido [ho-KAI-doh] with what other Japanese island?
Honshu
Amelia Earhart went missing in 1937 while attempting to fly around the world with her navigator, Fred Noonan. National Geographic is sponsoring an expedition to search for the crash site at Nikumaroro [NEE-kuh-mah-ROH-roh] Island. Nikumaroro Island is a part of Kiribati [KEE-ree-bahs], located in what ocean?
Pacific Ocean
This is the second level of the National Geographic Bee competition, which is now in its 30th year. School bees were held in schools with fourth- through eighth-grade students throughout the state to determine each school champion. School champions then took a qualifying test, which they submitted to the National Geographic Society. The National Geographic Society has invited up to 100 of the top-scoring students in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Department of Defense Dependents Schools and U.S. territories to compete in the State Bees.
To celebrate the 30th annual National Geographic Bee, the cash prize for the top three students in each state has doubled. Each state champion will receive $200, the National Geographic Visual Atlas of the World, 2nd edition and a trip to Washington, DC, to represent their state in the National Geographic Bee Championship to be held at National Geographic Society headquarters, May 20-23, 2018. Students that come in second place will receive $150 and those that come in third will receive $100. The first-place national champion will receive a $50,000 college scholarship, a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society, including a subscription to National Geographic magazine, and an all-expenses-paid Lindblad expedition to the Galápagos Islands aboard the new National Geographic Endeavour ll. Travel for the trip is provided by Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic. Second- and third-place finishers will receive $25,000 and $10,000 college scholarships, respectively. Visit www.natgeobee.org for more information on the National Geographic Bee.
National Geographic will stream the final round of the National Geographic Bee Championship starting May 24, 2018, at www.natgeobee.org.
