Tampa Area Homeschooler, Anthony Hengst named Florida Geographic Bee Semi-Finalist

Anthony won in the LIFE co-sponsored Tampa Bay area Homeschool Geographic Bee and is going on to the state Geographic Bee next week in Jacksonville.

Congratulations, Anthony!

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2009 Florida Geographic Bee

Sponsored by National Geographic Society, Google and Plum Creek

Semifinalist Press Release

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Local Student Named Florida Geographic Bee Semifinalist

By National Geographic Society

Student’s Name: Anthony Hengst

Parents’ Names: Bethany Hengst

School Name and Address: Homeschool, Palm Harbor

Grade Level: 5th

The above-named student has been notified by the National Geographic Society that he is one of the semifinalists eligible to compete in the 2009 Florida Geographic Bee, sponsored by Google and Plum Creek. Bees were held in schools with fourth- through eighth-grade students throughout the state to determine each school’s Geographic Bee winner. School-level winners then took a qualifying test, which they submitted to the National Geographic Society. In each of the 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, the Department of Defense Dependents Schools, and the U.S. territories, the National Geographic Society invited the students with the top 100 scores to compete at the state level.

The 2009 Florida Geographic Bee will be held at Jacksonville University on Friday, April 3, 2009.

The state winner will receive $100, the “National Geographic Collegiate Atlas of the World,” and a trip to Washington, D.C., where he/she will represent Florida in the national finals at the National Geographic Society headquarters, May 19-20, 2009. The first-place national winner will receive a $25,000 college scholarship and a lifetime membership in the Society. The national winner will also travel (along with one parent or guardian), all expenses paid, to the Galápagos Islands with “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek and the “Jeopardy!” Clue Crew. The winner will experience geography firsthand through up-close encounters with the wildlife and landscape of Galápagos. Travel for the “Galápagos Adventure with Alex Trebek” is provided by Lindblad Expeditions and the National Geographic Society.



How would you fare as a Bee contestant? At the school-level Bee this year, students had to answer such questions as:

Which state does not rely on corn and soybeans for much of its agricultural output – Pennsylvania, Illinois, or Iowa? Pennsylvania

The Laramie Mountains, a livestock and timbering region, extend north from Colorado into which state? Wyoming

You can visit an aqueduct built by the Romans in Segovia, a city located approximately 40 miles northwest of Madrid, in which country? Spain

Approximately 40 percent of the population still lives below the poverty line despite an oil and gas boom in which country where Baku is the capital? Azerbaijan

Mexico City is located on the site of Tenochtitlan, the island capital of what empire that was conquered by Spanish explorers in the 16th century? Aztec Empire


Contact Ann Barrett (202-857-7662)/ abarrett@ngs.org or John McFeely (202-857-7659)/jmcfeely@ngs.org at National Geographic’s Communications Office for more information, or check out the National Geographic Bee web site at www.nationalgeographic.com/geographicbee/.

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