2006 - HIGHLIGHTS & ACHIEVEMENTS

Homeschoolers Do Well at State Geography Bee

March 31, 2006

The State Bee began with a preliminary round in which the 103 participants were divided into 5 rooms.  Each participant was asked a total of 8 questions.  The top 10 scores from the preliminary round advanced to the final round.

Nathan Tappendorf, a homeschooled student from Phoenix, answered all 8 questions in the preliminary round correctly.  There were only 4 students in the entire bee who correctly answered all 8 questions correctly.  3 of the 4 students accomplishing this were homeschoolers!  These 4 students automatically qualified for the final round.  There were 9 students who answered 7 questions correctly, and they went into a tiebreaker to determine the 6 additional finalists.

In the final round, all students performed very well.  It took 10 questions to reduce the total from 10 to 3.  The three battled for another 4 rounds, when Nathan missed his second question and was eliminated, placing him third place in state!

The two students who went on to the championship round were both 8th graders: Tommy Adelson, who has been the state runner up the past 3 years, and Kelsey Schilperoort, a homeschooler from Heritage Christian Home Educators in Prescott Valley.  The championship round went 7 questions, and Kelsey won the State Geography Bee.  (Kelsey's brother was the state champion 2 years ago).

Levi Harmon, a fifth grader representing the Flagstaff Home Educators group, answered all eight questions correctly in the preliminary rounds. He finished in 9th place in the state.

Homeschoolers were well represented, finishing 1st, 3rd, and 9th in the state.