Concord University Hosts Geography Bee

West Virginia middle schoolers compete for D.C. win. 
Photo Courtesy of Anastasiia Vorobeva

On March 31, Concord University hosted the WV Geography Bee competition where one student from 68 different schools competed for the title of the state champion.

Students from fourth to eighth grade went through several difficult rounds and answered different geographical questions which many adults found confusing. After a tough competition, Hunter Midcap of Wheeling, an eighth  grader from St. Michael Parish School, won the championship. Joss Poteet of Shenandoah Junction, a sixth  grader representing Wildwood Middle School came second and Addison Hough of Martinsburg, an eighth grader from St. Joseph School, came third.

This is not the first time Hunter Midcap has won the state level of the Geography Bee competition – the first time he won the Bee in 2015. Midcap considers studying geography in the future as geography is one of his favorite subjects. Midcap believes in hard work and he dedicated about an hour to geography every week day: “You gotta put a lot of time into it, study a lot. But if you put the time in, you get a good outcome.” Douglas Midcap, Hunter’s father, believes that his son did a great job given the competition. “He persevered. He had one of the first questions missed, but he came through.”

Linda Poff, coordinator of West Virginia Geography Bee and retired adjunct instructor in geography at Concord and a Mercer County teacher, believes that this year’s competition was challenging for participants. She points out that this year they had several ties for perfect score. Ms. Poff thinks “This competition is like a launching pad, to kind of project them and keep that momentum where they want to know more about the world. Not just location, location is definitely important, but to know what happens in one part of the world definitely affects us here, in WV.”

    Dr. Joseph Manzo, professor of Geography at Concord University and a coordinator of WV Geography Alliance, thinks that “the main goal [of the competition] is that we want students to have a good time. But we also want to inspire them with the idea that learning is fun, and geography is fun.” Dr. Manzo is surprised that students were able to answer some very tough questions, but sometimes missed the ones he found quite easy. He believes that students who participated in Geography Bee are “hard workers. Some of them, not this year in particular, but their mothers had come up to me afterwards and to say ‘Oh, my son sleeps with his atlas.’ They just love it. They go through and they know all the islands and they know all the bodies of water... It is inspirational that they feel that way about learning.”

    Olga Novikova, Concord student who was helping with the Geography Bee, says “Geography Bee went well as always. This is my second year helping Dr. Manzo and Linda Poff organize it. I think it’s a great opportunity for students to achieve great things. I’m very happy that this kind of event is organized at Concord. It’s really nice to see that there are so many young geographers throughout the state of West Virginia who come to Athens to participate in the Geography Bee every year!”

    The first place winner received $100, a couple of National Geographic books and the opportunity to represent West Virginia in the National Geographic Bee Championship which will be held at the National Geographic Society headquarters in D.C. this May. The winner of the national championship will receive a $50,000 college scholarship, a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society, and an all-expenses paid Lindblad expedition to the Galápagos Islands aboard the new National Geographic Endeavour II.