Photo by Kelly Sullivan/ Peninsula Clarion Social Studies teacher Rob Moore steals the mouse from Gabriella Rogers during a morning practice session Friday, March 25, 2016, at Skyview Middle School in Soldotna, Alaska.

Photo by Kelly Sullivan/ Peninsula Clarion Social Studies teacher Rob Moore steals the mouse from Gabriella Rogers during a morning practice session Friday, March 25, 2016, at Skyview Middle School in Soldotna, Alaska.

Skyview student prepares for geography bee

  • By Kelly Sullivan
  • Sunday, March 27, 2016 8:24pm
  • News

A middle school student from Skyview Middle School will put her world knowledge to the test in a global way.

Seventh grader Gabriella Rogers is one of 100 students statewide heading to Anchorage on Friday, April 1, for the 2016 Alaska State Geography Bee, the winner of which will advance to the National Geographic bee Championship in Washington D.C., May 22-25. She has been preparing for months under the tutelage of social studies teacher Rob Moore.

“It is kind of above and beyond the call of duty for the kids,” Moore said.

Since geography is not offered anymore as its own class at the school, swallowed in the past by other curriculum requirements relating to standardized testing, students pick up bits and pieces in their social studies classes. Moore is one of 10,000 educators nationwide who have been making sure kids have the chance to take a more in depth approach to the subject by facilitating study sessions and testing interested groups who want to take a shot at the annual bee.

The contest is in its 28th year. The winner of the national contest will receive $25,000.

Moore said National Geographic started hosting the event to make sure the younger generations were gaining necessary knowledge of the world around them. He takes a similar approach in the classroom.

“I tell students the first day of class that social studies exists to answer the question ‘what is the best way to live?’” Moore said.

Rogers said she cultivated a broader interest in the subject because she wants to travel regularly when she is older and wants to understand what all her options will be.

She went up against about 15 of her peers this year, and hundreds more around Alaska to qualify as one of the top 100 hopefuls that will advance.

It will not be easy.

“Some (questions) don’t even seem like they are related to geography,” Rogers said.

While they all will be, the range is exhaustive.

Students could be asked anything about any event or information relating to anything that happened in all of the world’s 4 billion years of history, Moore said.

“You asked me (a word) you couldn’t even pronounce,” Rogers said to Moore with a smile.

Some questions are conceptual and some are straightforward, Moore said. Some are abstract and require formulating a thoughtful answer, while others will require a simple recall of facts, he said.

“If they ask a question about Europe and you don’t know the answer just say ‘France,’” Moore said to Rogers.

For many students it will be a matter relaxing and using common sense, Moore said. More and more kids already have much of that knowledge at their finger tips with all the various kinds of technology available to them, and it is becoming more vital they know how to put it into context, he said.

“This generation faces global problems to a scale and degree of consequences greater than any generation in the past,” Moore said.

 

Reach Kelly Sullivan at kelly.sullivan@peninsulaclarion.com.

Skyview student prepares for geography bee

More in News

Sockeye salmon caught in a set gillnet are dragged up onto the beach at a test site for selective harvest setnet gear in Kenai, Alaska, on Tuesday, July 25, 2023. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Board of Fish proposals center on king salmon, east side setnet fishery

Many proposals describe changes to the Kenai River Late-Run King Salmon Management Plan

Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion
Senior Prom King and Queen Dennis Borbon and Lorraine Ashcraft are crowned at the 2023 High Roller Senior Prom at Aspen Creek Senior Living in Kenai, Alaska, on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023.
Senior prom crowns king and queen

In brainstorming options, the concept of putting on a prom turned some heads

A photo distributed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows a man who allegedly robbed the Global Credit Union branch located in Anchorage, Sept. 19, 2023. Tyler Ching, 34, was arrested last week on charges related to robberies at the credit union and an Anchorage bank. (Photo courtesy Federal Bureau of Investigation)
Alleged bank robber arrested in Cooper Landing

An Anchorage resident was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in… Continue reading

A seal rescued earlier this summer by the Alaska SeaLife Center awaits release on the North Kenai Beach in Kenai, Alaska, on Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
2nd harbor seal release draws large crowds

The seals were Pierogi, Pringle and Belle de Fontenay

Attendees search the waters of the Kenai River for sightings of Cook Inlet belugas during Belugas Count! at the Kenai Bluff Overlook in Kenai, Alaska on Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Belugas Count! celebrated in Kenai

At a viewing station on Kenai’s bluff overlook, dozens gathered and peered out over the Kenai River during a morning session

Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Finance Director Elizabeth Hayes, left, gives a presentation on the school district’s FY23 budget at Soldotna High School on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2021, in Soldotna, Alaska. Hayes during the KPBSD Board of Education’s Sept. 11, 2023, meetings, debuted first of an informational “Budget 101 Series.” (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
School district warns of looming $13 million deficit in first ‘Budget 101’ presentation

The first installment explored Alaska’s foundation formula

Clockwise from bottom left: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Alaska Division Commander Col. Jeff Palazzini, Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Kenai Mayor Brian Gabriel, Kenai City Manager Terry Eubank and Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Michael Connor participate in a signing ceremony for a project partnership agreement for the Kenai Bluff Stabilization Project at the Kenai Senior Center on Monday, Sept. 25, 2023, in Kenai, Alaska. (Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)
Bluff stabilization agreement signed

The agreement allows the project to go out to bid and construction to begin

Lyndsey Bertoldo, Penny Vadla and Jason Tauriainen participate in a Kenai Peninsula Borough School District Board of Education candidate forum at the Soldotna Public Library in Soldotna, Alaska, on Monday, Sept. 25, 2023. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
School board candidates tackle budget deficits, home-schooling, school maintenance

The discussion was the first of two forums featuring KPBSD school board candidates

Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion
Brad Snowden and Julie Crites participate in a Seward City Council candidate forum at the Seward Community Library in Seward on Thursday.
Seward council candidates discuss issues at election forum

Participating in Thursday’s forum were Julie Crites and Brad Snowden

Most Read