Students test their trivia in Geography Bee

Sixth graders battle to bitter end for move up

By Amie Johansen

amie@charlescitypress.com

Ten middle school students filed into the auditorium Thursday afternoon. These students earned the highest scores in geography and were getting ready to test their knowledge on stage for the Geography Bee.

Middle School Art Teach Phillip Frenchick made small talk with the students before the Bee to help calm nerves.

“You guys are the best and the brightest, huh?” Frenchick asked. The students responded with a combination of answers from the confident “yep” and a modest “not really.”

When asked if they were nervous, eighth grade student Aaron Montemayor said “If I lose, I still got 100% on the first quiz.”

In order to compete in the Bee, students had to complete a preliminary geography quiz. This quiz then awarded the top three students from sixth, seventh and eighth grades to an opportunity to test skills against one another.

Slowly but surely, students began to drop out of the Bee until finally the battle was between sixth grade students Chase Crooks and Jared Johnson. Crooks and Johnson matched each other question for question. According to Frenchick, he was starting to run out of questions for the championship round.

“We have never gone this far before,” he said. “The final question in the final round.”

As it came down to the last question, Crooks was able to come up with the correct answer, clinching the Geography Bee championship title.