GeoBee Challenge

Cape Trafalgar is to Spain as Cape Comorin is to WHAT? (India)

I think most people are probably familiar with the concept of a Spelling Bee. Of course it’s possible to extend the same format to geography. Appropriately enough, the National Geographic Society has done just that and not surprisingly they’ve called it the National Geographic Bee. Schools held individual competitions from November through January. Statewide competitions happened in April. And now the national championship will happen later this month in Washington, DC, May 20 and 21.

world map 3D. Image by kcp4911; Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

As part of the events leading up to crowning of an American winner, National Geographic is offering a daily GeoBee Challenge composed of actual questions used in the contests. Take one of these daily quizzes if you want to be truly humbled. [UPDATE: the challenge is over and no longer available online].

I invite you to see how you might have done had you competed against the school-aged children who participated in these events. I happily walk away with 8 out of 10 correct on the May 5th quiz, and believe me, some of my answers were as much luck as skill. Fortunately several of them were provided in a multiple choice format so I could make an educated guess. Otherwise my score would have been much lower.

Also, I had the option of pondering these questions for as long as I liked and without any pressure. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for the kids standing on stage with some of these stumpers shot at them, and then having to deliver the correct response. Any one of the kids would have beaten me, without a doubt.

Comments

2 responses to “GeoBee Challenge”

  1. Randolph Clark Avatar
    Randolph Clark

    I was just getting ready to solve this and then I see India. Why did you give us the answer?

  2. Howder Avatar

    To whet your appetite! There’s nine other questions for the day, PLUS ten questions for every other day. Follow the link to the GeoBee Challenge and check it out!

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