April 10, 2013 at 5:01 p.m.
Local eighth grader finishes 6th in state geography bee
Local eighth grader finishes 6th in state geography bee
Max, a 13-year-old eighth grader at Nativity Catholic School in Rhinelander, developed an interest in geography when he was very young.
"Max has always had a huge interest in maps, especially ski maps," said Julie Holperin, Max's mother. "I think that's where it started because he loves to ski. He has maps plastered all over his room."
The state level National Geographic Bee, sponsored by American Family Insurance and Google, was held at the national headquarters of American Family Insurance in Madison. The geography bee consists of fourth through eighth grade qualifiers who won their local geo bees. Max competed against 99 other qualifiers from around the state.
The 100 contestants were divided into five groups of 20 students for the preliminary round. Students were asked eight questions in the preliminary round, and the top 10 of all the contestants then moved on to the final round.
Max said to advance to the final, perfection is typically required in the preliminary round.
"You pretty much have to get none of the questions wrong," he said.
Max did just that, and advanced to a tiebreaker round, since 11 total participants finished the preliminary rounds without missing a question. After two questions in the tiebreaker round, the top 10 was finalized, and included Max.
The finals were held in the American Family Insurance Headquarters Auditorium, in front of an audience. The questions got progressively harder as the contestants advanced in the competition.
The finals were run in a double-elimination format where contestants were eliminated after missing two questions. Max finished tied for 6th after missing a question about the ocean current Ponce de Leon first reported in 1513 (the gulf stream) and a question about gold mining on a South American river.
"The second question was very tough, we tried to Google it and we couldn't so we still don't know the answer," said Max.
Max said questions throughout the rounds covered a variety of categories.
"Geography has a lot of science and history, and quite a few other things involved in it," he said.
To prepare for the competition, Holperin put in a lot of time and effort studying geography.
"There's pretty much two ways you can go at it," said Max. "One is just studying an atlas all the time, the other is actually going onto the Internet and researching things. Last year I tried looking at atlases so this year I tried researching more."
Max and his family also spent time playing geography games together. He also received support and help from his social studies teacher, Susan Jurries.
Because no topics or study directions are given ahead of time, Max and the other contestants studied anything and everything they could. Max said his experience competing last year helped his confidence and left him better prepared for this year's geography bee.
The Northwoods was well represented at the state level. In addition to Max's sixth-place finish, a Tomahawk student finished in the top 10, and Asha Jain, from Minocqua, finished first overall and will represent Wisconsin in the national competition.
Jim Oxley may be reached at [email protected].
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