Maple School 7th-Grader Wins His Second Geo Bee Title

What’s the capital of Kyrgyzstan? Where is Lake Victoria located? Seventh grader Brian Filipiak probably knows.

The student recently out-answered his classmates to win the school level competition of the National Geographic Society’s 2010 Geographic Bee. That’s the second win in a row for Filipiak, who won his school’s competition last year as well.

Next in the National Geographic Society’s competition is a written test. If Filipiak scores among the top 100 in Illinois, he’ll be invited to the state level competition in April.  

Filipiak was one of ten finalists from Maple who competed in the contest. Other finalists included Matthew Kramer, Jack McMenamin, JP Purcell, Paul Graham, Andrew Tuchler, Annie Snow, Henry Richmond, David Pawlan, and Seung Hyun Jung.

So how would you do? Test yourself with some sample practice questions from National Geographic (check Northbrook Patch's facebook page for the answers):

Rio de Janeiro and what other large city in Brazil are growing toward each other due to the high rate of urbanization?
          1. Campo Grande
          2. Porto Alegre
          3. Sao Paolo

Which New England state has more forested land?
          1. Maine
          2. Rhode Island
          3. Vermont

What condition is necessary for the formation of coral reefs?
          1. annual rainfall of 30 inches
          2. deep water
          3. warm ocean temperature

These questions came from this week’s sample “GeoBee Challenge” on the National Geographic Bee website. Find more quizzes at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geobee/.