On Tuesday, November 20, interested Wellesley Middle School students will participate in the preliminaries for the National Geographic Geography Bee. The top 10 finishers overall will then be eligible to participate in the local-level school finals in December. Students who want to practice or see what the questions are like are directed to the Geography Bee app on their iPad. Their social studies teachers will provide more details.

In 2015, Sprague student Ishan Kundu advanced from the local level to the next round of the 27th annual National Geographic Bee. Students like Ishan who make it that far take a paper and pencil geography test in an effort to qualify for State finals. That’s an impressive accomplishment in and of itself given that thousands of 4th – 8th grade students from public, private, and independent schools do the same, and only the top 100 make it to the State Bee.

The 2017 National Geographic Bee champion received the top prize of a $50,000 college scholarship and a lifetime membership in the Society, as well as an all-expenses-paid Lindblad expedition to the Galápagos Islands. Second- and third-place finishers received $25,000 and $10,000 college scholarships, respectively.

Think you’ve been around a bit and could probably get a few Geography Bee questions correct? Here are a couple sample questions:

What term is used for the two halves of Earth that are divided by the Equator:
a) hemispheres
b) projections
c) longitudes
Correct answer: hemispheres

Beirut, Tripoli, and Tel Aviv all lie on the coast of which body of water?
a) Mediterranean Sea
b) Caspian Sea
c) Black Sea
Correct answer: Mediterranean Sea