Sixth
grader Matthew Fox won the annual National Geographic Geography Bee at Windham
Middle School recently and has now qualified for the state geography bee to be
held April 1 at the University of Maine at Farmington.
“I’ve
always had an interest in geography. I have maps and globes in my room. I chose
to do it because thought it would be fun,” Fox said.
Fox
is not the first sixth grader to win the Windham bee, but he is one of the few
to beat out seventh and eighth graders, according to bee coordinator, teacher
Julie Anderson.
The
questions were the luck or unluck of the draw, but for Fox, he was prepared
having studied with his father, a social studies teacher in Falmouth. Each
night, Fox and his father would sit down and do geography flash cards.
Fox
got all seven of the questions in the first round correct. “We thought, he
knows his stuff across the board,” Anderson said.
The
hard questions were the ones with no options and he had to name a country or
capital, Fox said. “Some I knew off the top of my head.” When he called his mom
to tell her the good news, she thought he was out because the bee took less
time than they expected. They celebrated the win with ice cream.
He
is still preparing for the state bee. “I don’t expect to be close to winning,”
he said. “But, I made it that far, so that’s pretty good.” To qualify for the
state bee, Fox had to take an electronic test and be one of the top 100 scores
in the state. The winner of the state bee will go to Washington DC for the
National geography bee.
Fox
is on the Windham Middle School learning team of Stokes/Hopkins/Cook.
Fox
would like to be a United States Marine or a basketball player when he grows
up. “I want to do something that helps America,” he said.
The
WMS runner up was eighth grader Owen Flibbert. “It was very competitive,” said
Anderson.
The
final question was “British Columbia’s largest city hosted the 2015 FIFA
Women’s World Cup championship game. Name this city.”
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