Freeman Geography Bee

January 22, 2020 39 comments Aaron Delhay Categories Uncategorized

Can you answer the following question?  Teenager Greta Thunberg started a global movement bringing attention to climate change when she protested outside of her country’s Parliament House, located in the Gamla Stan district of what Swedish city?  You may have had a chance of successfully competing in the 2019/20 Geography Bee if you knew the correct answer was Stockholm. 

Kolby Mahler, an 8th grade student at Freeman won the school-level competition of the National Geographic Bee and a chance at a $50,000 college scholarship as well as other great prizes.  The school-level Bee, at which students answered oral questions on geography, was the first round in the 32nd annual National Geographic Bee.

The 7th and 8th grade classes competed in the school-level Bee.  The Preliminary round was used to limit the field to 10 contestants.  Those 10 contestants were Carson Robinson, Hannah Stanley, Bryce Malchow, Jordyn Pella, Jonah Metzger, Trenton Allen, Solomon Delhay, Ella Archer, Hayden Jennings, and Kolby Mahler.

Kolby and Trenton were the only two left standing at the end of the Final Round.  They advanced to the Championship round and needed additional tie breaker questions before Kolby was finally able to better Trenton.  Mr. Dalrymple was extremely impressed with this year’s contestants. “In my years here we have had great levels of success. Both Kolby and Trenton had really good scores in the preliminary round competition.  In fact, all 10 of the final round contestants did an amazing job.”

Thousands of schools around the United States participate in the Bee.  The next step for the school winners, including Kolby, is to take an online test.  The top 100 scores in each state are eligible to compete in the state Bee. The Nebraska State Bee is held on the campus of the University of Nebraska-Omaha on March 27th.  We will know if Kolby has qualified no later than March 2nd. Be sure to congratulate Kolby when you see him.