Studying paid off for these Park students
Fourth-grader Jayden Brecht has a bunch of National Geographic books at home. Fifth-grader David Jenum keeps an atlas in his backpack.
So it’s no surprise they were the winner and runner-up, respectively, in Tuesday’s Park Elementary Geography Bee. They competed with 15 other students who scored high enough on a test to earn a spot on the auditorium stage in front of family and friends early in the school day.
When Brecht successfully answered the question “Which South American country has approximately 4,600 miles of coastline along the Atlantic Ocean, contributing to the large tourism trade in that country?” to win the geography bee, he earned high praise.
“Everybody kept giving me high fives,” he said.
His prize? A learning game called “Brainbox All Around the World.”
“I can study more because I got the game,” Brecht said.
Leading up to the competition, his sister and mother helped him study.
“I made flash cards,” Brecht said. “They would say things like ‘The Nile River is in Egypt.’ Whoever was testing me would say, ‘Where is the Nile River?’ And I would say, ‘Egypt.’”
Jenum studied with the atlas he carries around.
“I studied it every day leading up to (the bee),” he said. “I love geography. I like to study the capitols and where the countries are.”
The competition between the two elementary students hasn’t turned them into rivals.
“If anything, it’s brought us closer,” Jenum said.
Oh, and the answer to the final question? Brazil.