{"id":39528,"date":"2018-05-14T14:14:57","date_gmt":"2018-05-14T18:14:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=39528"},"modified":"2018-05-15T09:40:21","modified_gmt":"2018-05-15T13:40:21","slug":"patton-student-qualifies-for-national-geography-bee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=39528","title":{"rendered":"Patton student qualifies for National Geography Bee"},"content":{"rendered":"

By JP Phillips<\/strong>, Staff Writer, The Times<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Arnab Sircar, an eighth grader at Patton Middle School will compete in the National Geography Bee competition in Washington, D.C..<\/p><\/div>\n

Arnab Sircar is like many other fourteen-year-olds.\u00a0 You can find him playing video games, soccer, and tennis.<\/p>\n

But there is something very special about him.\u00a0 He\u2019s good at geography.\u00a0 Very<\/em><\/strong> good.<\/p>\n

So good that he competed at a local competition where he qualified for the state contest in Harrisburg.\u00a0 He went on to topple the 100 best middle-schoolers in the state to represent Pennsylvania in the National Geography Bee, run by the National Geographic Society<\/a> from May 20th<\/sup> to the 23rd<\/sup> in Washington DC.<\/p>\n

Having this type of knowledge is unusual for Americans.\u00a0 According to an assessment given by the National for Educational Statistics (NAEP) in 2014<\/a>, 8th<\/sup>-grade students like Arnab typically fall halfway between a basic and proficient understanding of geography.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a grade that shows the need for additional instruction if it were a PSSA.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, that score has remained steady since 1994.\u00a0\u00a0 Only around 1 in 4 students ranked proficient or above.<\/p>\n

When I think of geography, I think of physical things like oceans, countries, mountains, and rivers.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not all there is.\u00a0 Arnab informed me that it also includes topics such as economics, climate, culture and traditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat makes it more interesting,” he said. “Understanding the world, cultures, what they face, helps you understand the problems that we have.\u00a0 It helps break down barriers.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he thinks that a good understanding of this expanded definition of geography is important for everyone.<\/p>\n

Arnab became interested in geography at an early age.\u00a0 The spark was ignited when his grandfather gave him an atlas in first or second grade.\u00a0 His mom cultivated his interest, sharing her love of history, geography, and current events.<\/p>\n

The atlas he received contained maps with important cities bolded.\u00a0 Arnab appears to be a visual thinker, so when he is asked about a location, he visualizes that map in his head, including those bolded details.<\/p>\n

Arnab has taken many family trips, especially to the east and west coast of the United States, as well as to India to visit extended family.\u00a0 They focus on destinations that have some historical, geographical or other types of attractions to visit.<\/p>\n

Where would Arnab like to travel that he\u2019s never been?<\/p>\n

\u201cSwitzerland, to see the Alps,\u201d he said.\u00a0 Curious, I asked what he knew about the country\u2019s traditions.\u00a0 Using deductive reasoning, he guessed that since the east is near Germany and he thinks they speak German, they probably celebrate Octoberfest.\u00a0 And since the west is by France and they speak mostly French, they probably follow some of France\u2019s tradition.<\/p>\n

I checked it later on Wikipedia.\u00a0 Arnab\u2019s correct.<\/p>\n

The Geography Bee does focus on using this type of deductive reasoning skill to get questions right.\u00a0 I asked Arnab, \u201cWhat was the winning question in the state bee?\u201d<\/p>\n

He knew the question and repeated it verbatim.\u00a0 \u201cThe Qattara Depression created by shale and wind erosion lies 200 miles west of what major city?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHuh?\u201d I thought.<\/p>\n

Arnab explained that he pictured a map in his mind and saw the Qattara Depression in Egypt.\u00a0 Then he visualized a bolded city due east: Cairo.\u00a0 With that, he took home a $200 prize plus entry to the nationals.<\/p>\n

Thanks, Grandpa!<\/p>\n

I asked him for some \u201cfun facts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a city called Batman in Turkey,\u201d he informed me.\u00a0 “Also, the full name of Bangkok (the capital of Thailand) spoken in Thai is over 20 syllables.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arnab will compete against the country\u2019s top 54 middle-school geography brains.\u00a0 Excerpted from \u00a0Bee website<\/a>, \u201cThe national Bee champion will receive a $50,000 college scholarship, a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society (including\u00a0a lifetime subscription to\u00a0National Geographic<\/em>\u00a0magazine),\u00a0and an all-expenses-paid Lindblad expedition to the Gal\u00e1pagos Islands aboard the\u00a0National Geographic Endeavour ll<\/em>. Second- and third-place finishers in the national competition will receive $25,000 and $10,000 college scholarships, respectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arnab says he is very excited to compete in the National Geography Bee.<\/p>\n

Congratulations, Arnab!\u00a0 We are all rooting for you!<\/p>\n

Take a ten question Geography Bee quiz<\/a> and see how you score.<\/p>\n

Youtube video link<\/a> of a boy saying \u201cBankok\u201d in Thai.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By JP Phillips, Staff Writer, The Times Arnab Sircar is like many other fourteen-year-olds.\u00a0 You can find him playing video games, soccer, and tennis. But there is something very special about him.\u00a0 He\u2019s good at geography.\u00a0 Very good. So good that he competed at a local competition where he qualified for the state contest in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[11198,7426,11197,7428],"class_list":["post-39528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-arnab-sircar","tag-featured","tag-geography-bee","tag-patton-middle-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39528"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39539,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39528\/revisions\/39539"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}