By JEFF EPSTEIN
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WEATHERSFIELD, Vt. — A dozen elementary school students sit in rows of red, metal folding chairs on the second floor of the Weathersfield School, but they are not in class. They’re not all from Weathersfield, either. Some are from the Albert Bridge School in West Windsor, some are from the Hartland Elementary School, and they are all here on a Tuesday afternoon to compete in a geography quiz.
Q: What does EU mean?
Weathersfield is the host for this local regional round of the state’s “Geo-Bee,” an annual contest of geography knowledge for students in fifth through eighth grades, sponsored by the Vermont Principals Association and AAA New England Travel.
The three schools are competing for the right to represent the Windsor Southeast Supervisory Union at a regional meet in April and a possible trip to Montpelier for the finals in May. The farthest that teams from this area have gotten recently was when Hartland Elementary School was a runner-up in the 2010 championship. Among the kids getting ready to answer questions are the Weathersfield team, listed by the school as Zed McNaughton, Dory Hindinger, Tori McNamara, Olivia Magliola and Brooke Hindinger. Like the other teams, they are in various grades.
Q: What does
NAFTA stand for?
Now the quiz is on. It consists of multiple forms of memorization and recall testing. Weathersfield’s Geo-Bee advisor Tim Herbert stands behind a lectern at the front of the room to fire the questions. He calls on each student in order, one at a time, for each series of questions.
The responding student can ask Herbert to re-read the question if they did not hear it clearly (and both adults and students seem to speak very quietly in this activity.) Then they either come up with the right answer or not, and Herbert moves on the to next question and student.
Many of the questions relate to simple, printed maps of land masses the students have handy. They are subdivided by number. For some questions, Herbert will call a number and the student must return the name of the country or other jurisdiction. Or, they are supplied a name and must provide the matching number.
Off to the side are a mixed group of student peers and adults, there to provide moral support or just watch and observe. As they watch the students compete, some of them may be aware that in the United States, geography proficiency at these grade levels does not have a great reputation.
For example, in the last eighth-grade geography assessment by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (“the Nation’s report card”), taken in 2014, 27 percent were found to be at or above proficient level.
Q: Given the countries, name the mountains. India and China?
But as the kids come to end of the first round, they do not seem to be breaking a sweat. They don’t seem nervous; in fact, they seem to be enjoying an activity that is change-up from their usual routine. It’s time for a break, and they jump up and head for the snacks, laughing and chatting with each other for a few minutes until the next round starts. Albert Bridge has 14 points so far, and both Hartland and Weathersfield have 19 points.
Back in the action, Vermont makes its claim on the young minds: one map has an outline of the state with numbered counties. In one question, Herbert gives the student a number for a county and the students answers with the name of the county seat. The students seem to know where most of the courthouses are located.
But not all questions require the maps. In one series, students were provided the name of a head of state and had to return the name of the corresponding nation. In another, Herbert reads out a sentence about the features of a city, and the answer is the name of the country.
The second round ends with Hartland in the lead, with 35 points. Albert Bridge has 22, Weathersfield, 26.
Q: Given the countries, name the mountains. Spain and France?
In 2016, the Council on Foreign Relations and the National Geographic Society (which runs its own geography bee) did a survey — of young adults, not elementary school pupils — which “revealed significant gaps between what young people understand about today’s world and what they need to know to successfully navigate and compete in it,” according to the forward in the survey report.
The questions in this contest appear to be of mixed difficulty. Some seem easy for a young student, and others could stump some adults. Most of the time, maybe two out of three times, the student has the correct answer.
Sometimes the answers are multiple choice, sometimes not.
“Okay, this one is called Natural Boundaries,” Herbert says at one point. He will name a river, and the correct answer is the pair of countries on either side.
The kids head for the home stretch.
Patricia Harris, the Albert Bridge advisor, and Nick Wolfe of Hartland sit behind Herbert, keeping the tally of correct and incorrect responses. They post the numbers at the end of each round on a whiteboard on the wall.
With the third and final round completed, they post these numbers:
Hartland: 51, Weathersfield: 38 and Albert Bridge: 31. Congratulations follow the victorious Hartland kids as they head for their buses, along with the Albert Bridge team. Weathersfield kids have also done a good job today, and teachers and other adults join with their friends in congratulating them as well.
All the students will navigate their way back to their respective classrooms, their specialty work done for the day.
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[SPOILERS] The answers appear below:
1. European Union
2. North American Free Trade Agreement
3. The Himalayas
4. The Pyrenees
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