Golden Apple: Laporte School Hosts Geography Bee

Quick! What’s the capital of Louisiana? If you guessed Baton Rouge, then you’re right. But that question is kindergarten level compared to some of the questions from the Geography Bee.

“We’ve done a lot of different activities in the past month to prepare, whether it was states related or world related,” says Laporte School 4th grade teacher Silvia Johannes.

The geography bee covers topics all over the map from the United States to Australia. Even the oceans, mountains and tiniest of islands are included. 10 students from 4th to 8th grade at Laporte School made it through the preliminary rounds. The competition went south for most after the 1st competition round, leaving only three remaining.

“What we do is point them towards the National Geography Bee study page online, and there’s lots of resources for them there online,” says 4th grade teacher Steve Booth.

The final two competitors, 7th grader Harley Lahr and 6th grader Wyatt Lahr, displayed worldly knowledge and fierce rivalry, partly because they’re siblings. In the end, Wyatt took the crown. He says figuring out what to study was tough.

“[I used] this geography game and practiced the oceans, but I was just surprised just because this is my first time being here,” said Wyatt.

Harley walked away with a 2nd place trophy last year, so she wasn’t too heartbroken. In fact, it turns out knowing a thing or two about the continents runs in the family.

Wyatt says, “My older sister won the geography bee a few years back, and we went out for celebration, so I want to go out for celebration too.”

Next, Wyatt will have to take a test in order to qualify for the state bee in St. Paul. If he wins that competition, then it’s off to Washington D.C for nationals.

Booth says, “I think that the only thing I would hope to change is to try to get them to study more on their own. Maybe try to have a geography day [or] geography question of the day or something in our classrooms to try to get them motivated, but we want to motivate them to study on their own.”

The kids agree that studying is the key to success.

Harley says, “Practice more, so I can beat my brother.”

Wyatt adds, “No, she’ll always be in my shadow.”

This was the 5th year Laporte School hosted the geography bee. The state competition will be held in St. Paul on April 6th while nationals in Washington D.C. is May 20th to the 23rd.