(L-R) North Middle School Geography Bee leader Rebecca Wood, Bee winner Antonio Phaneuf, and proud mom Maureen Phaneuf. (Photo by Amy Porter)
WESTFIELD – For the past fifteen years, North Middle School has been among thousands of schools in the United States to participate in the Geography Bee using materials and questions from the National Geographic Society. The contest is designed to inspire students to be curious about the world. Schools with students in grades four-eight are eligible for this competition.
Competing on Thursday were the winners from five sixth-grade teams: Alexis Guay, Piper Ashton, Ivan Seleznev, Sam Stackpole and Antonio Phaneuf; two seventh-grade teams: Aidan Welch and Max Pyshnyak, and two eighth-grade teams: Samantha Kaubris and Peter Chrisanthopoulos.
The packed Middle School auditorium was roaring with excitement, until seventh-grade world geography teacher Rebecca Wood called for attention. Wood, who has led the Geography Bee for five years, asked everyone to be quiet during questions and answers, and reminded the students not to say anything even if they knew the answer. Also assisting as timekeepers, scorekeepers and judges were seventh-grade teacher Jon Chretien and eighth-grade teacher CC Costello.
Wood then introduced the final nine contestants, and reviewed the rules. Students would be given written and oral question, and have 15 seconds to answer. Each student was given two chances to ask that a question be re-read, or a word be spelled. Each student would be eliminated after two incorrect answers. Questions were oral and written, and in some cases maps were handed out and reviewed before the questions were asked.
The first set of questions Wood asked was about the United States, while later questions included world geography. After four rounds of questions, four students were excused and thanked for their participation. Another student was eliminated after each of the fifth- and sixth-round of questions leaving two finalists for the championship round: sixth-grader Antonio Phaneuf from Alexandra Elder’s class, and seventh-grader Max Pyshnyak from Jon Chretien’s class.
Sixth-grader Antonio Phaneuf and seventh-grader Max Physhnyak competed in the championship round of the North Middle School Geography Bee on Thursday. (Photo by Amy Porter)
“I was more nervous than he was,” Chretien said after the competition.
After three more sets of questions, sixth-grader Antonio Phaneuf was declared the champion, and received a medal and certificate from Wood.
“I didn’t think I was going to win it,” Phaneuf said. “I just tried to stay positive, and I did my best.”
“So proud,” his mother Maureen Phaneuf said. “I didn’t realize it was against seventh and eighth graders, so I thought they might have an unfair advantage.”
She said that she would not have known that Antonio was even competing if she hadn’t gotten a robo-call from the school the day before.
Each school Geography Bee champion is eligible to take a written test upon winning the Bee in his or her school. One hundred school winners from each state proceed to the state level finals in April, based on their scores on the written test as determined by the National Geographic Society.
The Geography Bee winner in each state and territory proceeds to the National Geographic Bee in Washington D.C. for a two-day competition in May. On the first day, the 55 state and territory (District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, the Pacific Territories, and the overseas U.S. Department of Defense schools) winners are narrowed to a field of ten finalists. The ten finalists compete on day two and the winner is announced and wins a college scholarship.
