Belleville Middle and Elementary School students recently participated in the National Geographic Society's 31st annual Geography Bee.

The National Geographic Bee (GeoBee) is a geography competition designed to inspire and reward students' curiosity about the world. The Belleville Middle School's GeoBee was held on Wednesday, December 5th, with 20 classroom finalists in grades 7 and 8 competing.

Photo courtesy of Abby Otteson

Belleville Middle School students that participated in the 2018 National Geographic Geography Bee.

The Belleville Elementary School's GeoBee was held on Wednesday, December 12th, with 18 classroom finalists in grades 5 and 6 competing. This year's middle school contest included geography questions on U.S. states, state stats, source to sea, amazing animals, the global economy, and the ever-popular "Weird but True," questions about geography that also explain an unusual aspect of a country or continent. Questions in the Elementary school contest covered the United States, including map questions. The final round consisted of world geography that included rivers, islands, valleys, seas, oceans, cities, and countries.

The winner of the Middle School competition was 8th grader Annika Esselstrom, with 7th grader Brady Mousseau taking runner-up honors.

The winner of the Elementary School competition was 5th grader Lucas Peterson, with 6th grader Ava Benash taking runner-up honors. Annika and Lucas will take a qualifying test; up to 100 of the top scorers on that test in each state will then be eligible to compete in their state Bee on March 29, 2019.

Everyone can test their geography knowledge with the exciting Geo Bee Quiz, an online geography quiz at http://www.nationalgeographic.org/bee/study/quiz, which poses 10 new questions a day and with the National Geographic GeoBee Challenge App that is available in the Apple Store or Google Play.