From Falls Village to Norwich, from Westport to Storrs, from Danbury to Manchester, and from Bloomfield to Hamden (and other towns in between), fifteen Connecticut high school teams competed at the 18th annual Connecticut High School, Geographic Challenge held Tuesday, May 19 at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. This year’s theme was “Mapping the Americas.”
Geography students from Staples High School in Westport swapped winning places this year with a team from Edwin O. Smith High School in Storrs, last year’s Challenge winner. Third place was hotly contested all day and only determined after a tiebreaker in the afternoon’s Geography Bowl event. After ten additional questions, the team from Housatonic Valley Regional High School in Falls Village (Region 1) finished third, followed closely by the Danbury High School team.
The fifteen teams enjoyed competing in orienteering, map reading, and problem solving in the morning before the afternoon Geography Bowl event. Morning competition was held at the Homer Babbidge Library at UConn and the afternoon event was held at the Konover Auditorium of the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center on the Storrs campus. According to one of the competition, “Just learning a lot within the competition” was a favorite highlight of the day’s events.
Two teams from Hamden High School competed for the first time this year along with teams from East Catholic High School on Manchester, the Metropolitan Learning Center of Bloomfield (a CREC magnet school), Manchester High School, Naugatuck High School, and Norwich Free Academy.
For additional information about the Challenge, contact Kathleen Ryan at Ryanzenko@aol.com. For registration information, contact Rita Courtois at RitaCourtois@yahoo.com.
