By Marnie Leif

Geography Bee Coordinator, Social Studies Teacher

Darién National Park is the largest national park in which Central American country?

This was the deciding question in the championship round of this year’s Geography Bee at Pacelli Catholic School. The Geography Bee is a nationwide contest for schools in the United States. It is designed to encourage the study of geography in the classroom, spark student interest in the subject, and increase public awareness about geography.

The format calls for brief answers, usually a word or a phrase. There are three levels of competition: school, state, and national. The ultimate goal is to advance to the national competition in Washington, D. C. The grand prize is a $25,000 scholarship. Pacelli held the school level competition on Jan. 25, in the Pacelli auditorium.

After completing the preliminary rounds in the classroom, the finalists from fourth-eighth grade participated in this contest. This year’s first place winner was Othello Stone. Atem Achuoth was awarded second place. Yong Achuoth and Anthoni Garcia tied for third place.

Othello will compete for advancement to the state-level by taking a written Qualifying Test. For all of you geography wizards out there, the correct answer to the opening question was Panama.

The finalists included:

Fourth grade, Atem Achuoth and James Schulte; fifth Grade, grayson Bickler and Joey Schulte; sixth grade, Yong Achuoth and Larry Ketchum; seventh grade, Sean Casey and Dane Schara; eighth grade, Anthoni Garcia and Othello Stone