CLARKSVILLE — Students at Clinton-Massie Middle School recently competed in a National Geographic Bee preliminary competition in their social studies classes to determine who would compete as a Top 10 finalist in the school-wide competition.
Finalists included sixth-grader Brett Bailey; seventh-graders Samuel Binau, Clay Carroll, Jenna Norman, and Luke Wonderly; and eighth-graders John Gehringer, Carly Moritz, Maura Pridemore, Wesley Vert, and Allison Wallace.
During the school-wide competition, Samuel Binau finished first, earning him chance at a $50,000 college scholarship, followed by eighth-grader Carly Moritz, and seventh-grader Clay Carroll.
The competition was exciting and suspenseful for both the participants and members of the audience as Binau and Moritz successfully answered 20 rounds of questions in the preliminary, finalist, and championship rounds of competition. The local school bee, where students answered questions about geography, was the first-round of competition in the 28th Annual National Geographic Bee.
Binau, who advanced to the next round of competition, says he would one day like to visit Western Europe, and that he enjoys both history and geography because it’s interesting to learn where things happened.
Curt Bradshaw, Coordinator of Gifted Services for the Southern Ohio Educational Service Center, moderated the event. Social Studies teachers Betsy Wellman, Mike Adams, and Jim Wagner and Gifted Intervention Specialist Nicole Friend served as judges for the competition, and Gifted Intervention Specialist Jill Binau assisted in organizing the event.
Thousands of schools around the United States and in the five U.S. territories are participating in the 2016 Bee. School champions, including Sam Binau, have since taken a qualifying test where up to 100 of the top scorers in each state will then be eligible to compete in their state Bee competition on April 1, 2016.
The National Geographic Society will provide an all-expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C., for state winners to participate in the Bee’s national championship rounds May 22-25. 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 a National Geographic Expeditions trip to a National Park in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the U.S. National Park Service.
The national finals of the competition will be televised on the National Geographic Channel and PBS stations.
Information for this article was provided by Diana Miller, who coordinates communications for several area schools.
