Seventh grader soars in Geography Bee

Photo+credit%3A+Malia+Okoh.

Photo credit: Malia Okoh.

Malia Okoh, Reporter

Seventh grader, Lucy Gentry, is this year’s school winner of the Geography Bee for a second year.

Social Studies teacher Whitney Miyahira said, “Just like a spelling bee, the Geography Bee is basically a competition about anything and everything that has to do with geography. That could be economics, it can be politics, it can be things like exports and imports. These questions can be very elaborate.

“A lot of the questions have two parts to them: they ask a specific geographic question, but they also include something about the area,” Miyahira said.

Gentry outperformed eight other students in grades 7 and 8, first competing against classmates, then students schoolwide.

Gentry took a qualifying test Jan. 23 to determine if she is eligible to compete in the State Geography Bee on Mar. 27, the results of which will not be available for several weeks.

Gentry said that to prepare she “went to the National Geographic web site and took quizzes there. It’s kind of interesting, learning about new places, but it was really hard.”

Since “Lucy’s academics are very impressive and she has had a very strong geographic interest,” her chances of success are high, said Miyahira.