Tanner Prashaw, the son of Travis and Wendy Prashaw and a sixth-grader at Woodland Consolidated School, has been notified by the National Geographic Society that he is one of the semifinalists eligible to compete in the 2016 Maine National Geographic State Bee.
The contest will be held at University of Maine at Farmington on Friday, April 1.
This is the second level of the National Geographic Bee competition, which is now in its 28th year. School bees were held for fourth- through eighth-grade students throughout the state to determine each school champion; the champions then took an online qualifying test.
The National Geographic Society has invited up to 100 of the top-scoring students in each of the 50 states, District of Columbia, Department of Defense Dependents Schools and U.S. territories to compete in the state-level competitions. Each state champion will receive $100, the National Geographic book “The National Parks: An Illustrated History” and a medal, and will journey to Washington, D.C., to represent their state in the national championship at National Geographic Society headquarters, May 22-25.
The national champion will receive a $50,000 college scholarship and lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society. That winner will also travel, along with one parent or guardian, all expenses paid, on a Lindblad expedition to Southeast Alaska aboard National Geographic Sea Lion, including Glacier Bay National Park, in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service.
The national bee’s final round, moderated for the first time by journalist and humorist Mo Rocca, will air on the National Geographic Channel and Nat Geo WILD on Friday, May 27, at 8 p.m. ET, and later on public television stations. Check local television listings for air date and time.
At school bees this year, students had to answer such questions as:
To fish in Lake Winnipesaukee you would travel to which state — New Hampshire or South Dakota? (New Hampshire.)
Visitors to Biscayne National Park in Florida can go fishing and lobstering along the shore of which kind of habitat — mangrove or desert? (Mangrove).
Sea kayakers can explore hundreds of islands off the Dalmatian coast of which European country south of Slovenia? (Croatia.)
For centuries, the Chinese emperors lived in seclusion in the Forbidden City, which is located within what present-day city? (Beijing.)
