Pennsylvania Geography Bee: Homeschoolers Place Well
from Susan Richman
Ever wonder which US state capital, founded as a gold-rush
town, is not linked to the rest of its state by roads? Or can you name which
African country borders both the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea? How are you
at naming the large island country off the east coast of Africa that is one of
the world’s leading producers of natural vanilla?
If you’re curious about such things, you’re made for the
National Geographic Society’s Geography Bee— and it’s terrific to see how many
homeschoolers all across PA took part in this super opportunity for students in
4th to 8th grades. My daughter Hannah (6th grade) and I ventured to Harrisburg
to watch the state finals this year, on April 9, 1999— Hannah’s a real
geography fan (and hopes to eventually make it to the state level for
competition!), and we had heard that several homeschoolers we knew had made it
to the state bee, and we just hoped to cheer them all on.
What a happy surprise it was to find out there were actually eight
homeschoolers participating in the State Geo Bee— more than have ever made it
there before! All day long we practically felt we were at Homeschoolers
Excellence Day, as we kept running into more and more homeschoolers— it was so
encouraging to see so many friends of the kids participating. Usually the school kids only have their
parents and possibly a teacher with them— the homeschoolers practically had
cheering sections! Our kudos to the following homeschool students who made it
into this select group of 102 kids from public, private, and homeschools from
all across PA:
Aaron Bradford, 6th grade, with East End Educators in
the Pittsburgh area.
Justin Pyles, 7th grade, with the Cook Homeschool Co-op in South Hills
Pittsburgh.
Grace Behe, 8th
grade, with the Holy Family Homeschool, Bethlehem area
Shannon McFate, 8th grade, with the Pittsburgh East Suburban Homeschool
Association
Kelly Clawson, 8th grade, with Homeschoolers’ Geography
Club, Greensburg area
Benjamin Sacks, 5th grade, with Mon Valley Home Educators, Washington County
Alisha Nypaver, 8th grade, with Catholic Homeschoolers
East, from Bellevue area
Zackery Smith, 8th grade, with the Homeschool Achievement Center, Union
City
You can do the arithmetic yourself— almost 8% of the students
at the State Bee were homeschoolers.... but homeschoolers are less than 1% of
all students in PA! A further fascinating fact— of the 102 students competing,
only 11 were girls. This is something that the National Geographic Society has
been really concerned about, wondering why girls are not participating in and
winning local bees, and making it to the next level of competition. They’ve
even had a Penn State researcher looking into this and making recommendations.
The interesting news here? Of the eight homeschoolers at the state level, four
were girls—showing that for homeschoolers at least, girls do every bit as
well as the boys in geography competition. Maybe we can chalk it up to not
having any negative peer pressure against appearing too ‘smart’, something that
seems to affect some girls in school situations. Or maybe at home girls just
get a better geographic education and really know their material.
But maybe the best part of the day was when we found out that
two homeschoolers, Aaron Bradford and Shannon McFate, had both made
it into the top ten finalists, and would be vying directly for state champion
at the Forum Auditorium right after lunch. This meant that both students had
earned a perfect score in the eight rounds of competition in the morning
sessions, and further made it through a challenging tie-breaker round to
eliminate an 11th student who’d also gotten a perfect morning score. As far as
I know, the last time any homeschooler made it to the finals was when Noah
Snyder, now finishing up a super freshman year at Harvard, was in 6th grade and
took third place at the State Bee.
The finals were very exciting to watch, and the two
homeschoolers finished 4th and 5th place, keeping relaxed and focused while up
on stage before the large audience. We were so proud of them! All the
homeschoolers had done very well as ambassadors for homeschooling that day— and
all of us present had a wonderful time cheering them all on. Hannah and I
highly recommend that more homeschooling kids and parents come out to watch the
state-level Geo Bee next year— you’ll give real support to the kids taking
part, and get a new boost to jump into the Bee yourself.
Next year I hope your support group opts to take part in the Bee— you’ll be part of the 5 million
kids nationwide who take part, and you’ll be encouraging your students to take
geography seriously, while having some real fun! It’s very simple to register,
and only costs about $30 for all Bee materials and guidelines (and medals for
winners!)— a homeschool group leader simply contacts National Geographic
Society through their website at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/
or by calling 202-828-6659 or writing to National Geography Bee, 1145 17th ST NW, Washington DC 20036 before
next October requesting registration materials, and you’ll then be sent a full
packet. There is a fee for each group having a Bee, and homeschool groups must
guarantee that at least six students took part in their local Bee. Bees can be
scheduled anytime from early December to mid-January. Go for it!
Curious to hear how some of this year’s homeschoolers prepared
for the Bee? Shannon McFate completed a full world geography text borrowed from
her school district this year, working with real diligence to complete the
whole book before the State Bee. Aaron Bradford has just always loved
geography, and has done much reading on his own. Zack Smith is not only super
in geography (and he’s following up on his brother, Adam Smith, who made it to
the State Bee three years in a row!), but also has won first place awards at
his regional Mathcounts competition for the last two years. Kelly Clawson has
been taking part in regular geography club activities with other homeschoolers
led by Gloria Harrison, where students enjoy geo games, give presentations to
one another on different countries of the world, and practice up for the Bee.
Justin Pyles has just always loved maps, and this year he took part in a weekly
co-op with other homeschoolers to follow the Mapping the World by Heart
program. His German tutor is also a world traveler, and has continued to spark
his interest in different areas of the world. And I was pleased to hear the
following from the mother of the very youngest homeschooler at the State Bee,
Benjamin Sacks. His mother Nicholla Sacks wrote:
“How wonderful to see so many homeschoolers represented there
at the State Bee. You had asked us to send a note to you about how Benjamin
prepares for the Bee. The one thing that I would stress here is that Benjamin
began his interest in both geography and history at age 6, while in 1st grade.
“At this time, he was already an excellent reader, able to read
books well beyond his age group. He also had a wonderful 1st grade teacher who
gave him his first atlas. As a result, he was able to absorb many interesting
facts quite early on. His continued interest coupled with travel throughout the
US and Europe (My family lives in England) has allowed him to expand his
knowledge over these last few years. His 2nd grade teacher lightheartedly told
him that she would like to see him in the National Geography Bee in a few years
time and so ... here we are...on our way. In addition to his reading, Benjamin
loves to draw maps, make up travel tickets and tell me “mommy, you just missed
the exit!” At least I can take comfort in knowing that he will never get lost.
More recently, now that we are living in our computerized world, he enjoys a
variety of geography CDs and regularly does the Geobee Challenge on the
National Geographic web site at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/
where they have 5 practise questions per day.
“As I’m sure you know, geography is not a subject that parents
and teachers can ‘push’ on their students. They just have to love to do it and
it is that high level of interest more than anything which constantly gives
them the incentive to learn more. The only thing that I really do to try and
help Benjamin is to make numerous trips to the library to get books and to pay
his exorbitant overdue book fees! Best of luck to you and your geobees in the
coming year and to all of us who try to make this particular social studies
subject more popular and exciting.”
And what have I found helps Hannah at home in getting enthused
about geography? Personally I’ve found that watching lots of engaging geography
videos is a real help in fostering interest and love of geography— really gives
kids a window into different areas of the world and makes what could be
somewhat dry reading in a text come alive. I also heartily recommend having a
big stash of National Geographic Magazines on hand, and lots of maps of all
areas. Check out the Internet for geography sites (doing a search for
‘geography quizzes’ will net you lots of good finds!), read books set in
different lands, go to restaurants with foreign cuisine, learn a new language,
have a pen pal in another country. Talk to people who’ve traveled to other
places, and go to special presentations on other lands. We also do lots
of informal practice with old Bee questions regularly, looking up info on
questions we know nothing about. Hannah also loves using her CD-ROM for the
National Geographic Society’s GeoBee game— check out their website for
full info or call 800-231-3088. Amazing how even textbook reading isn’t dry
after all, once you have something to relate it to— but be sure you find extra
library books written in a more lively way than most texts.
Websites for geography:
http://www.iup.edu/ge/paalliance This is the PA Geographic Alliance webpage,
featuring info on upcoming geography events (like Geography Awareness Week and
the Geo Bee!), lesson plans, useful Internet links, and more for teachers of
geography.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/
Again, the site to go to for info on the Bee, the daily GeoBee Challenge, and
full info on the Society’s new high school level GEOCHALLENGE research project
competition, and much more. A must see!
Hopefully soon you’ll be
able to say, along with the National Geographic Society, that your “students
seem to be getting the message that they are part of a larger world.”