Last Friday, the students at Park View Middle School gathered in the school auditorium to watch and listen as the finals of the school-based competition for the National Geographic Bee took place.

The winner of the contest would move on to the state competition, which will be held on March 27, at Rhode Island College.

Prior to the event, each of the school teams held classroom competitions in all four of their classes, with each class having a winner. Those students competed next, producing a team champion to compete in Friday’s bee.

The team representatives were Noah Rennick representing the M&Ms team, Izabela Uhrig representing The Crazy 8s team, Guillermo Nova representing the Voyagers team, Nadya Lehnert representing the Phoenix team, Owen Jones representing the Seven Wonders team and Samuel Hunt representing the Super 7s team.

Teacher Ron Voccio was the moderator of the event, with teachers Ann Marie Torres and Effie Hantzopoulos acting as judges.

The students gathered on stage as the competition began. Students were eliminated when they had given two incorrect answers during a round. The questions were new to the contestants, and ranged from paper and pencil tasks to oral answers. Several required the use of additional resources, such as a map placed on the large overhead screen for viewing.

Many of the questions asked the students to connect their geographic knowledge to other areas, such as literacy and history. One question involved the setting of the movie “Dolphin Tale,” for example, while another asked which state was the first to give women the right to vote.

By the championship round, the competition was down to just two students – Guillermo Nova of the Voyagers team and Samuel Hunt of the Super 7s team. The round consisted of three questions, and each student was given just 15 seconds to answer the questions.

After the three questions, both boys were tied, and Voccio moved into the tiebreaker round. The first person to answer a question incorrectly in the tiebreaker round would be the runner-up, and the person answering that question correctly would be the winner.

It took two questions before a wrong answer was given. Guillermo Nova had the first winning answer in the tiebreaker round and therefore, will go on to the state competition at RIC in March.