As travelers, we often become intimately connected to the places we visit. But what about the locations we only read about in stories or hear about on the news? How much do we know about these places? And maybe more importantly at times, do we even know where they ARE?
World Hum recently pointed to an essay by the always insightful Thomas Swick about this wonderful world of ours that we know so little about. With the world at our fingertips these days, it’s easy to get by without actually knowing where places are physically located. The web keeps us all connected, educating us about different cultures and countries through a variety of interactive methods. But the context of physical location can often be overlooked as we build relationships across borders that we might not be able to identify on a map.
Personally, I’m utterly jealous of the “savants” Swick refers to — those that can “name capitals, rivers, and seas the way some people rattle off movie titles.” I get so frustrated when watching Jeopardy and I can’t come up with even one of the questions for the “African Capitals” or “European Rivers” categories!
This week I may get a chance to meet some of these geography wizards…AND maybe even tell Alex Trebek how distressed I am about my own geographic illiteracy. Tomorrow and Wednesday I’ll be attending the National Geographic Bee in VA and DC, the final round of which is moderated by Mr. Daily Double himself.
The 19th annual Bee kicks off tomorrow with preliminary competition. Fifty-five super smart fifth- to eighth-graders (ages 10 to 14) will compete over two days for a sweet top prize — a $25,000 college scholarship and lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society. Second and third prizes are college scholarships of $15,000 and $10,000.
These 55 finalists have made it past high school and state-level competitions across the country in which nearly 5 million students participated. They represent the 50 states, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Pacific Territories and Department of Defense Dependents Schools.
Updates from the competition — as well as super-tough geography quiz questions — will follow throughout the week, so start studying now! The GeoBee Challenge is a good place to begin. Another fun one is GeoSpy. I got the continents assigned correctly in no time, but locating 53 African countries in 180 seconds!!!?!?! Yeah right.
Last year’s Bee winner, Bonny Jain, an 8th grader from Illinois, answered this question correctly to win the competition:
Name the mountains that extend across much of Wales, from the Irish Sea to the Bristol Channel.
I’ll add the answer in the comments a little bit later on. But see if you can guess first — without Googling!!!