Knights of Columbus

McGIVNEY COUNCIL #29
P.O. Box #23
Danbury, Connecticut 06810
http://koc29.org

February 8, 2017

Joe Student
12345 Elm St. 
Mytown, CT 06800

Dear Joe:

On behalf of the Knights of Columbus, I am happy to invite you to participate in our seventh annual Regional Catholic Geography Bee.  We congratulate you on your accomplishments which led ***** School to nominate you to be one of its three representatives at the bee, to compete with top 4th- through 8th-grade students from 11 Catholic schools in southwestern Connecticut.

The bee will be Saturday, March 11, 2017 at 2:00 PM in the gym at St. Joseph School, 370 Main St., Danbury.  Parking is behind the school.  Please check in between 1:15 and 1:30.

Attached is the important information about the bee, to help you know what to expect.  First through third place will receive awards.  More information is at http://tinyurl.com/KofC29GeoB , including details about how the bee runs, and links to news articles about past years’ bees.

Please wear a school uniform; best to choose one with a big logo or school name, to represent your school proudly and visibly in a big room.

Please ask a parent or guardian to let me know by February 22, in addition to telling your teacher or principal, whether you will participate or not.  (Beginning on the 23rd we invite alternates, so each school can be fully represented.)  Please reply using the e-mail or one of the phone numbers below, and provide a phone number for us to reach you in case of rescheduling due to weather.

We will have seating for family etc. to come cheer you on.  We hope to see you on March 11!

Sincerely,

John F. Pitrelli
Geography Bee Chairman, Knights of Columbus McGivney Council #29
http://koc29.org   http://www.facebook.com/kofc29 

Preferred contact information:   e-mail:  KofC29@gmail.com     phone:  203-744-9KOC (9562)
How the bee runs

The bee is organized into “rounds”.  In each round, each participant answers one question about world geography, North American geography, or regional geography.  All questions are open-answer, not multiple-choice. Each round is an "oral round" or a "writing round".

In each oral round, much like a spelling bee each participant in turn gets his own question, to answer correctly in order to remain in the bee.  However each participant is given "another chance", so the first time a participant misses an oral question, he uses up this “chance” and remains in the bee.  So participants generally remain in the bee until missing two oral questions.  The bee continues until all but one participant have been eliminated.

Writing rounds provide an opportunity to win yet another chance, to cancel another later oral miss.  In a writing round, all remaining participants write an answer at the same time to a single question like Name as many countries with Baltic Sea shorelines as you can.  Writing questions specify a time limit and how the best answer will be determined, such as the most correct countries without naming any incorrect ones.  Whoever writes the best answer wins another chance.  Participants may accumulate chances in this way.  

Details:  oral rounds: the order of taking turns receiving questions each round is set once for the whole bee by drawing numbers before the bee.  Each participant steps to a microphone and has 20 seconds to answer, not including time spent repeating the question if requested.  A panel of judges makes a final decision on whether the given answer matches the correct answer.  After each round, each participant who missed his question that round either surrenders "another chance" and remains in the bee, or is eliminated if he has run out of chances, with two exceptions.  One is that if every participant misses his question that round, no misses count for that round.  The other exception is when a round would leave only one participant.  In that case, that participant must answer one more question correctly in order to win the bee; otherwise, no misses count for that round.

Details:  writing rounds:  each question specifies a time limit, typically one to three minutes.  The Knights will provide paper and a marker which must be used for writing answers.  The marker must be put down at the time limit.  In case of a tie for best answer, more than one participant will be awarded another chance.  Writing questions tend to be harder than oral questions, but don't worry, because writing rounds are won by the best answer given, not necessarily a complete correct answer.  A writing round may be used to break a tie, such as among second-/third-/fourth-place finishers who were eliminated at the same time, or when the bee’s time is running out.  In these cases, the best answer wins the tie-breaker.

Conventions

Continents:  We consider the world to have seven continents; that is, we treat Europe and Asia as distinct continents.

Oceans:  We consider the world to have four oceans, Arctic, Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian.  We don’t treat divisions like "North Atlantic" as separate oceans, nor a "Southern Ocean".

Borders:  We consider two territories to border each other if they have a land border, even if only at a single point, like Utah and New Mexico.  When water separates two territories, we consider them to border each other only if that body of water is spanned by a bridge at some point.  So Kentucky and Missouri are considered to border each other because the Mississippi River, which separates them, is bridged in many places (even though no Mississippi River bridge directly connects those two states).  But Michigan and Illinois are not considered to border each other, because Lake Michigan, which separates them, is not bridged.  This definition is intended to match intuition about borders when we look at a map.

Abbreviations are fine when writing, though it is safest to stick to unambiguous or standard abbreviations.  So if a question calls for states, you could use unambiguous abbreviations like "Miss." for Mississippi and "Mass." for Massachusetts, or use a standard like the Postal Service's abbreviations, so “MA” will count as Massachusetts, “MI” as Michigan, “MS” as Mississippi, etc.  "LA" will be considered Louisiana for a question about states, but probably Los Angeles for a question about cities, etc.

Pronunciation and spelling:  English pronunciations are always acceptable.  Generally, misspellings and mispronunciations which are less than a syllable and do not create confusion with an incorrect answer will be accepted, but judges’ decisions will be case-by-case and final.

Typical topics in the Knights of Columbus Catholic Geography Bee

* Continents, oceans, hemispheres, and major latitude and longitude lines.
* Any of the following about countries / states / provinces / territories / regions / cities: 
- capitals and major cities:  name, population/rank, location.
  - borders (e.g. which state borders both Minnesota and Wyoming)
- ocean/sea/gulf/lake shores (e.g. Egypt has shores on the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea)
  - rivers -- what states/countries they run through/alongside (e.g. Delaware River runs alongside Pennsylvania but through New York), tributaries, canals
  - population/area relative to a larger unit (e.g. Massachusetts's most populous city is Boston, U.S.'s largest state by land area is Alaska, world's most populous country is mainland China)
  - known for which food / industries / types of tourism / attractions / events / institutions / holidays / festivals (e.g. Harvard is in Massachusetts, DisneyWorld is in Florida, Maine is famous for lobster, Eiffel Tower is in Paris)
  - time zones
  - year/order of admission/independence/establishment/constitution (e.g. Hawaii is the 50th state)
  - origin of name (e.g. "Connecticut" derives from American Indian language; "Vermont" derives from French for "green mountains")
  - distinguishing aspects of the population, such as approximate or relative population / migration history / religions / languages / famous people
  - known for which plants/animals/parks/mountains/weather (e.g. Colorado mountains are Rockies)
  - continental divides, where water flows
  - which cities are in which state, which states/provinces are in which country, which countries are on which continent, which seas are arms of which oceans or other seas, etc.
  - which direction to get from one place to another (e.g. Kansas is west of Missouri)
  - separations (e.g. Dakota Territory became North and South), merges (e.g. North and South Vietnam), former names (e.g. Thailand was Siam)
  - extreme altitude (e.g. lowest valley in U.S. is in California)
* State quarters, nicknames, mottoes
* Catholic content:  cities named San/St. or otherwise reflecting our faith, notable Catholics coming from the location, famous Catholic universities, cathedrals, holy sites, etc.

Working through sample oral questions (3 world, 3 North American, 1 regional)

1.  Name the only country that borders South Korea.

Even if you don't know the answer, "North" and "South" territories often come in pairs, and often border each other (such as the Dakotas and the Carolinas in the U.S.) so you might reasonably guess the correct answer, North Korea.  Some countries are known by more than one name, and so we would accept any of them, e.g. "Democratic People's Republic of Korea" and "DPRK" are also acceptable for this answer.

2.  Name the country which is shaped like a boot sticking into the Mediterranean Sea; its capital surrounds Vatican City.

Here, two clues for Italy help make the question easier.

3.  Which country borders Chad and Mali?

Though we do not read maps during our geography bee, memory of maps you've seen is helpful for identifying Niger as the country between Chad and Mali.

4.  Which state has shorelines on the most Great Lakes?
This questions knowledge of many shores, but because Michigan has shores on four Great Lakes, and no other state has more than two, you might forget a shore and still get the right answer.

5.  Name the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution; the only state smaller than it by land area is Rhode Island.

Even if you don't know about ratification, hopefully you know that Delaware and R.I. are each far smaller in land area of any of the other 48 states.  An oral question wouldn't ask for a large number, like a square mileage or a population, nor ask you to split hairs, like which of Vermont & New Hampshire has larger area.

6.  Name the state known for the first seminary admitting African-Americans; it shares its name with North America's largest river system, which drains water from 31 states.

Sometimes one clue helps more than another.  Don't panic about the seminary -- you only have to recognize that draining 31 states can only be the huge Mississippi River system.  But the question was "Name the state ...", so the answer is just "Mississippi".  Then the seminary fact is something we learn from the question.

7.  Name Connecticut's sixth-most-populous city; it is known for its Maritime Aquarium, its oyster farming, its harbor on Long Island Sound, and the original Stew Leonard's store.

Knowing some facts about various parts of our local region gives the best chance that one or two of them will be enough to answer questions like this one about Norwalk.

Sample writing questions

1.  One minute.  How many U.S. states are larger than New York, by land area?  Another chance will be awarded to whoever comes closest to the correct number.

The exact answer to a writing question can be very hard, but remember, they don't bring you closer to elimination, and being closest is good enough to win another chance!  The participant who knows that eastern states tend to be smaller than western, and that New York is one of the bigger eastern states, will figure out that it is a bit smaller than the average of the 50 states, and so get close to the correct answer, 29.

2.  One and a half minutes.  Name as many as you can of the continents which are mostly or completely in the Southern Hemisphere.  Another chance will be awarded to whoever names the most correct continents while not including an incorrect answer.

You probably know Antarctica and Australia are in the Southern Hemisphere, but to be fully correct, you have to know that most of South America is south of the equator while most of Africa is north of it.  “When in doubt, leave it out” on questions scored like this, because mistakenly skipping South America, you can still get two out of three continents and possibly win another chance, but if you include Africa, you cannot.

3.  Three minutes.  If you begin from the Connecticut shoreline, and travel directly west, you will go into New York and then New Jersey.  As you continue west at the same latitude, name as many as you can of the states you reach, in order.  The winner will be whoever names the most correct states before including a state which is incorrect or out of order.

This difficult question was used the only time a tie-breaker was needed to determine the bee’s winner, who scored six -- Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska -- by excellent map memory before he listed an incorrect state, missing only Wyoming or Colorado (either of which was acceptable because their border latitude line is straddled by Connecticut’s coastal latitudes), then Utah, Nevada, and California.