(By Lenny Dale)
Emerson 5th grader Casey Lewis had an exciting day at the Michigan State Geography Bee.
There were 101 school champions from across the state of Michigan competing today. Only 4 were from 5th grade, like Casey (the competition is open to 4th through 8th graders).
In the preliminaries, there were 8 rounds of questions. Casey was in a room of 21 kids that included last year’s state champion. 19 of the 21 kids had one mistake or more. Casey and one other 8th grade girl got them all correct. Last year’s champion went down.
Casey answered questions about such as:
• In November 2012, a new species of arachnid with 13 inch legs was discovered in this country that boarders Viet Nam. What’s the country? (Laos)
• In this northern European country the Vikings founded a city called T-(something or other) in 997. Name the country. (Norway)
• Which city is more humid — Carson City or Richmond? (Richmond)
Portugal has a large population of (some type of ethnic minority I’ve never heard of) that immigrated to Portugal from this former Portuguese colony in S. America. Name the colony. (Brazil)
Plus 4 others I could only guess at.
After 2 hours they reviewed results. 12 of the 101 kids spread across 5 rooms had perfect scores. One 5th grader, one 6th grader, and ten 8th graders.
Only 10 kids can make the finals, so they went to a written, single elimination tie breaker. Unfortunately, the Balkan Peninsula is not Casey’s strength — he guessed Bulgaria was the southern most country on the peninsula and was eliminated in 12th place.
Casey was delighted at how well he did and vows to be back next year!
