A team coached by social studies teachers Karen Paruolo and Russ Niederwerfer from Edwin O. Smith High School in Storrs won the 17th annual Connecticut High School Geographic Challenge held at the Homer Babbidge Library and the Dodd Center’s Konover Auditorium at the University of Connecticut in Storrs on Tuesday, May 13, 2008. The theme of this year’s competition was “Celebrate Asia”.
The E.O. Smith students bested thirteen other teams from around Connecticut to win the only statewide high school geography competition again. E.O. Smith High School also has the distinction of being the only high school to attend all seventeen competitions. In its first appearance at the High School Geographic Challenge, Staples High School of Westport had the second best overall score, while the third place team was from Norwich Free Academy.
Fourteen Connecticut high school teams competed in map reading, orienteering, problem solving, and a quiz bowl at the daylong event. A strong wind provided a challenging condition for the morning orienteering event. The E.O. Smith team won this event, while a second team from E.O. Smith also won the map reading competition. A team from Norwich Free Academy won the problem-solving event, and the afternoon quiz bowl was won by Staples High School.
Other Connecticut high schools in attendance were two teams from Bacon Academy of Colchester, Danbury High School, Harvard H. Ellis Regional Vocational-Technical High School of Danielson, Housatonic Valley Regional High School of Falls Village, two teams from the Metropolitan Learning Center of Bloomfield, two teams from Naugatuck High School, and two teams from Norwich Free Academy.
Congratulations to all of the teams that participated in this fun-filled, educational event. We look forward to another successful Challenge in May 2009!
