Bees were held in schools with fourth through eighth grade students throughout the state to determine each school’s geographic bee winner. School-level winners then took a qualifying test, which they submitted to the National Geographic Society. In each of the 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, the Department of Defense Dependents Schools, and the U.S. territories, the National Geographic Society invited the students with the top 100 scores to compete at the state level.
The 2011 Michigan Geographic Bee will be held on Friday, April 1 at the Bernhard Center at Western Michigan University.
The state winner will receive $100, the complete National Geographic on DVD, and a trip to Washington DC, where he or she will represent Michigan in the national finals May 24-25. The first-place national winner will receive a $25,000 college scholarship and lifetime membership in the Society. The national winner will also travel, all expenses paid (with a parent or guardian) to the Galapagos Islands, where he or she will experience geography first-hand through close encounters with the wildlife and landscape of Galapagos.