by JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

CLANTON— Jake Moore celebrated victory for the second year in a row after the recent Clanton Middle School Geography Bee.

“Honestly, I’m just kind of surprised,” Moore, a seventh-grade student at the school, said.

Geography has been of interest to Moore for a long time.
“I’ve just always been interested in geography, ever since I was like four and asked for a little atlas,” Moore said.
Although he enjoys geography in general, Jake said his favorite location to study is Europe. He also enjoys studying the history of Europe.

Carson Watley, an eighth-grade student, was this year’s runner-up.

“I’m really good at geography,” Watley said.

Participants can use the National Geographic website to study possible questions and get a feel for what to expect.

Watley and Moore studied questions from previous geography bees on the National Geographic website in preparation for the bee. Moore said the site helped “to give you an idea what they (the questions) would be about.” Since it was his second year competing, Moore also thought about the questions that had been asked last year while he was studying.

School counselor Malia Robinson, who organizes the bee, said the school geography bee is registered with the National Geographic, so the winner will qualify to compete for a chance to participate at the state level.

“I let the students sign up if they want to participate, and we do a schoolwide bee first, and I give them a written test,” Robinson said.

Those with a qualifying score compete in a final oral round.

Since there is not a geography bee at the county level, Moore will take a NG test online in hopes of reaching a score high enough to qualify for the state level competition. Last year, Moore did qualify for the state competition.