2011 High School Geographic Challenge

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The 20th annual Connecticut High School Geographic Challenge was held at the University of Connecticut in Storrs on Tuesday, May 17, 2011. Eighteen teams from public and private high schools around Connecticut competed this year. The teams from Danbury High School, Staples High School of Westport, and Housatonic Valley Regional High School in Falls Village all left before 7 o’clock that morning to be in Storrs in time for the annual competition, while the teams from Edwin O. Smith High School of Storrs went to their first period classes and then walked to the competition.

E.O. Smith High School is the only school to attend all twenty Geographic Challenge competitions and they won the 2011 event. In a close finish, Housatonic Valley Regional High School edged out Danbury High School for second place in this year’s Challenge.

The other schools that competed this year were Bacon Academy of Colchester, Hamden High School, East Lyme High School, Manchester High School, the Metropolitan Learning Center of Bloomfield (a CREC magnet school), New Britain High School, Norwich Free Academy, Notre Dame Catholic High School of Fairfield, and Staples High School of Westport.

The school teams competed in three morning events centered on the theme of “Fresh Water”: problem-solving, map reading, and orienteering. The students braved the elements while orienteering in the rain! The problem-solving and map reading activities were held in the comfort of the Homer Babbidge Library. This year the students used GIS applications in two of the map reading activities. In the afternoon the teams competed in a geography bowl event at the Thomas J. Dodd Center on campus, which was followed by an awards ceremony in the auditorium there. Many schools capped off their day with a trip to the UConn Dairy Bar.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first Connecticut high school geography competition in 1992, Edward Lang was the master of ceremonies for the afternoon geography bowl and presented the winning teams with their awards this year. Mr. Lang and the late John Stedman of Manchester High School began the first Connecticut Geography Olympiad to engage students in geography activities and to promote geography instruction in the state. Both were Teacher Consultants with the Connecticut Geographic Alliance, a part of the National Geographic Society’s Geographic Alliance Network since 1988 and the sponsoring organization for all 20 Connecticut High School Geographic Challenges.

Congressman Joe Courtney (D-CT) of the Second Congressional District stopped by during the morning rounds and visited with the students competing in orienteering, map reading, and problem-solving. Congressman Courtney is a strong supporter in Congress of geography education, having signed onto HR 885, the Teaching Geography is Fundamental bill.

Registration for the 2012 CT High School Geographic Challenge will be sent to all social studies department heads in Connecticut’s high schools next January.

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