All fourth graders participate in this annual competition. It starts in thousands of classrooms (grades 4 to 8) all across the nation in December and ends with one winner from each state competing for the national championship in Washington, DC in June. Students are practicing with questions from last year's bee. Since the bee questions are often spatially oriented (which state is closer to the Gulf of Mexico: Indiana or Georgia) students have memorized the states in regional order from Maine to Hawaii. Ask a fourth grader to explain.
On a personal note, back in the '90's Gulliver Harbour Hughes, my son, was a two time winner of the New Mexico Geography Bee. He competed in Washington, DC twice and was in the nationally televised final among the top ten finishers among the millions who started the contest. Here he is congratulated by New Mexican Harrison Schmidt the last man to walk on the moon.
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