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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Ellen Siskind
April 23, 2002 (202) 857-7001
National Geographic Bee
Esiskind@ngs.org
OR
Colleen Wright
Marketing Communications Account Executive
Telephone: (410) 581-4293
colleenwright@mpt.org
MPT. This is bigger than television.
College Park student wins state semifinal
for National Geographic Bee
OWINGS MILLS, MD: Timothy Mackie of College Park, Maryland, has
won the 2002 Maryland state-level competition of the National Geographic
Bee. The competition was held at the Germantown campus of Montgomery
College. As first place winner the eighth-grader, who is homeschooled,
received $100 and a National Geographic atlas.
Mackie will compete in the national finals in Washington, D.C., on May
22 to vie for the National Geographic Bee crown and top prize of
a $25,000 college scholarship and lifetime membership in the National
Geographic Society. The second- and third-place winners in the national
competition receive $15,000 and $10,000 scholarships, respectively. The
preliminary rounds, in which all 55 contestants participate, are on Tuesday,
May 21. The final rounds, which consist of the top ten winners from the
day before, are on May 22. Each contest takes about one hour.
The championship round of the National Geographic Bee will be held
at National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, DC on May 22.
It will air that day nationally on the National Geographic Channel. Produced
by Maryland Public Television, the finals will be broadcast on MPT on
Friday, May 24 at 11 a.m., with repeats on at 3 p.m. that day and at 6
p.m. on Saturday, May 25.
Involving nearly five million students this year, the National Geographic
Bee has coincided with a reawakening of the nation's interest in geography,
which was the Society's primary objective when it created the competition
in 1989.
The state bees are the second level of the National Geographic Bee,
which began last December with contests in nearly 18,000 schools across
the country. As many as 100 students in each state, who won their school
bees and then earned a top score on a written exam prepared by the Society,
competed on April 5. Each state winner will receive $100 and other prizes,
along with an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington with a teacher escort
for the May 22 finals.
Jeopardy! quiz show host Alex Trebek will moderate the national
competition for the 14th year. The 2001 national winner was eighth-grader
Kyle Haddad-Fonda of The Evergreen School in Seattle. He correctly answered
the question: "Below the equilibrium line of glaciers there is a
region of melting, evaporation, and sublimation. Name this zone."
Answer: zone of ablation.
Visitors to the Bee section of National Geographic Society Web site, www.nationalgeographic.com,
can test their geography knowledge with daily questions from previous
National Geographic Bees.
The National Geographic Society developed the National Geographic Bee
in response to concern about the lack of geographic knowledge among young
people in the United States. In a 10-country Gallup survey conducted for
the Society in 1988 and 1989, Americans aged 18 to 24, the youngest group
surveyed, scored lower than their counterparts in the other countries
tested.
The 114-year-old National Geographic Society is one of the world's largest
nonprofit scientific and educational organizations. It reaches nearly
200 million people each month through its four magazines, the National
Geographic Channel, books, videos, maps and interactive media. The Society
has funded more than 7,000 scientific research projects and supports an
education program combating geographic illiteracy.
Maryland Public Television is a not-for-profit, state-licensed public
television station which serves the citizens and communities of Maryland
and beyond through a variety of broadcast and nonbroadcast activities.
MPT is a national leader in the production of broadcast programming for
public television. MPT's local/regional television credits include public
affairs, original performance, documentary, and entertainment programs
for the citizens of Maryland.
For more information on MPT and its on- and off-air programming, visit
mpt.org.
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