Young Wyoming geography wizards will pit their wits against each other at the state-level Geographic Bee Friday, April 3, competing for a spot in the national competition set for May.
Gov. Dave Freudenthal will give the opening remarks at the event at 8 a.m. in salons D and E in the Hilton Garden Inn/UW Conference Center in Laramie.
The University of Wyoming Department of Geography facilitates the Geographic Bee, sponsored by National Geographic Society, Google and Plum Creek.
Bees were held in schools with fourth- through eighth-grade students throughout the state to determine each school's Geographic Bee winner. School-level winners then took a qualifying test, which they submitted to the National Geographic Society.
In each of the 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, the Department of Defense Dependents Schools, and the United States territories, the National Geographic Society invited the students with the top 100 scores to compete at the state level.
The state winner will receive $100, a tuition scholarship to UW, a National Geographic atlas and an all expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., for the national finals and the chance to be crowned National Geographic Bee champion. Wyoming and Colorado are the only two states providing scholarships to the state winner.
First prize in the national competition is a $25,000 college scholarship and lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society. The national winner, along with a parent or guardian, will also receive a free trip the Galapagos Islands with "Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek.
The National Geographic Society developed the National Geographic Bee in 1989 in response to concern about the lack of geographic knowledge among young people in the United States.
Posted on Wednesday, April 01, 2009