St. Jude's holds school Geo Bee championships

St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic School held its annual National Geographic Bee Wednesday afternoon in the gymnasium to determine who would represent St. Jude's at the state level.

Eighth-grader Chase Thompson was the last person standing after a series of geography questions was presented to her and nine other competitors.

After she was awarded her medal and paused for pictures, she said she felt excited to have won the Geo Bee.

All 10 students were first asked about state capitols. Then they were asked another round of questions but had to write their answers on a small, individual whiteboard. Since the students were sitting close together, Carly Brunk asked for every other student to stand up and stand behind their chair, facing the opposite direction of the students who remained seated.

After the first series of questions were asked, the judges tallied up the correct and incorrect answers. Those who missed both questions were eliminated, leaving five students to advance to the second round of questions.

The second round of questions dealt with countries and their capitols. Only two students advanced to the next round, but the rules for the Geo Bee required at least three competitors to advance to the third round. The three who were eliminated in the second round then competed against one another to claim the third and final spot.

Cassandra Gibson eventually earned the third spot of the next round. She would join Thompson and Ezekiel Antonich in the final round.

The final round dealt with landmarks both in the U.S. and abroad. At the end of the round, Thompson finished in first place while Gibson came in second.

The Geo Bee is for students from fourth- to eighth-grade and Brunk said each class had their own Geo Bees to determine the qualifiers for Wednesday's contest. Three students from each class were chosen with the third-place finisher acting as an alternate.

Brunk added that Gibson was an alternate and ended up competing because the other student was absent.

Preparation varied by class. Brunk said that she purposefully gave her students the Geo Bee before Christmas break so they would have all break to prepare.

"Then on our iPads in the school we have the Geo Bee website and it actually has quizzes that they can take in preparation for this," she added.

Brunk said that St. Jude's was represented at the state level last year by Evan Baldwin.

According National Geographic's website, the Geo Bee has three levels: school, state and national. Each school conducts its own Geo Bee and names a school champion. The school champion then takes an online test to qualify for state.

The top-ranked 100 students in each state qualify to represent their school at the state-level competition. The state champions then get to travel to National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C., to compete in the national championship.

The winner receives a scholarship and a trip from National Geographic.