Schools abuzz with contests
Posted on Saturday, January 12, 2008
Bee season is taking off at area schools, at least when it comes to competitions called bees.
From December to January, most elementary and middle schools host spelling bees in preparation for the upcoming county bee. Also, some schools are now participating in geography bees sponsored by the National Geographic Society.
At least three schools in Fayetteville — Holt Middle School, Ramay Junior High and Leverett Elementary — held spelling bees this week, their students’ first week back from winter break. Schools that hosted spelling bees in December included Asbell Elementary.
The winners of the school-level spelling competitions advance to the Washington County Spelling Bee, scheduled for Feb. 9 at the Fayetteville Public Library. The competition is generally open to students from third through eighth grades.
The broad grade range means the competition often features elementary students trying to outspell middle school pupils, as schools with those grade levels can hold competitions to send a representative. In 2006, the county spelling bee winner was a seventh-grader from St. Joseph’s Catholic School. The winner last year was a fifth-grader from Washington Elementary.
On Friday, McNair Middle School hosted its annual geography bee, which it has done every year since the school opened in 2000, Terry Still, a teacher and bee coordinator, said. Twenty-four students from the school participated.
“ We have six pods, and we had four student from each pod (participating ), ” Still said.
In the first three rounds, the moderator, University of Arkansas professor Mounir Farah, gave each contestant a choice between two possible answers. One of the firstround questions, for example, asked whether Idaho or Kansas had a panhandle.
The early rounds focused on the United States, but the questions got harder for the students as later rounds began to focus on countries or continents. Farah also stopped giving a choice of answers, so students had to come up with the name of the country or continent.
One question regarded the location of Mecca. The student incorrectly said Israel. Mecca is in Saudi Arabia.
Another student didn’t know that Buenos Aires was in Argentina and instead answered Mexico.
For the final round, each of the four remaining students gave a written answer to the same question. All of the students actually missed the second question about which Canadian city — Vancouver, British Columbia — is hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics.
For the follow-up question, Farah named a series of states in a Portugesespeaking country and asked the students to name the country. Jonathan Main, a seventh-grader, correctly answered Brazil and was awarded a medal for winning the bee.
Still said Main will now have to take a written test to qualify for the state geography bee later this year.
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