Geography Bee Located at MMS
By Taryn B., Navy Team

“Where do all the lines of longitude meet?”

“Which country is not part of the Persian Gulf ?”

Do you know the answers to these questions? Well, eleven students did because they needed to answer them correctly in order to move onto the school wide Geography Bee on this past December.

Mr. Keen, the Middlesex Middle School Social Studies Curricular Monitor, told us more about the National Geographic Geography Bee that is held at our school every year. When asked why we participate, Mr. Keen explained, “Geography is important and it is something our country does poorly in.”

He also explained that this Bee also generates interest for student because if geography is something you really love, the Bee gives you something in which to excel. MMS is one of the few schools that spends two whole years teaching geography of the world so Mr. Keen thinks this Bee goes perfectly with our curriculum.

Over the last two years, one student has been the grand champion of the MMS Geography Bee: Liam Fitzpatrick. This year the organizers of the Bee are looking for someone to carry on the “tradition of success."

In order to win this competition, the first round takes place in the class room and requires a bit of luck, unless of course you really know your stuff and can answer all of your questions. Once a student gets to the school wide competition, he or she must be pretty good because the questions become increasingly harder and only one out of ten students will move on to the State round.

After telling me all the general aspects of this great event Mr. Keen could not stress enough how important Ms. Ivy is to the Geography Bee. “The Queen Bee,” as Mr. Keen referred to her, has worked extensively with past school champions. National Geographic actually sends the questions and sign-up sheet to her. Mr. Keen explained that the Bee is really her passion and she spent many days after school helping students like Liam Fitzpatrick study for this competition. In fact, Mr. Keen wanted to extend a big thanks to Ms. Ivy for making such a wonderful event run so smoothly.