LMS student named state champ

An interest in maps and flags at a young age led one Green River student to a passion for geography.

This passion for geography has now led to a trip to Washington D.C., for Lincoln Middle School eighth-grade student Dillon Davis, who recently won the Wyoming Geography Bee.

The geography took place at the Casper College March 29 and followed the same format as all other state competitions across the country. For Dillon, geography is just something he’s always been interested in.

“Geography is something I am passionate about. I started when I was little with an interest in maps and flags,” Davis said. “In the first grade, I decided I was going to draw all the country flags of the world. I didn’t draw them all, but I did draw close to 100. I also have maps on my bedroom wall, both real and fictional.”

When Davis reached seventh grade, he heard about a local geography bee competition over the intercom at school and participated that year.

“I thought it would be interesting to do because I like geography,” Davis said. “I competed in the seventh grade, but didn’t win at the school level, I was in the top 10 though.”

This competition is something offered to schools across the country and sponsored by the National Geographic Society. Davis heard about the geography competition this year and decided to give the school level on a try. The local one took place in January and Davis used his prior experience to help him with this one.

“It helped a little this year with kind of knowing the format and the types of questions that might be asked,” Davis said.

However, he didn’t cram for the geography bee as someone might for a test.

“I didn’t really prepare. I just relied on my previous knowledge,” he said.

“Although, there were a couple of practices at the school before the competition for all the kids.”

The local competition was a blur for Davis and he can’t really remember any of the questions asked of him.

“After I won, I had to take an online test to qualify for state,” he said. “There were 70 questions that had to be answered and I couldn’t take breaks or stop the test or I would be disqualified.”

He did well on the test and made his way to the state competition. To prepare, he downloaded the National GeoBee app to his phone so he could study.

During the preliminary rounds at the state competition, those who qualified for state were separated into three rooms and asked eight questions. They were given 15 seconds to answer each question. Some of these questions were multiple choice, or true or false. The top 10 overall scores advanced to the finals.

“In the final round, there were questions with pictures, maps and some that you had to write you answer. In the final round, it was two strikes and you’re out,” Davis said. “The championship round was for the final two.”

In the final round, the final two were asked three questions and they had to write their answers down. Davis said they would continue to ask questions until one of them got one wrong.

The first question came, and both of them got it wrong. The second question came, and both of them got it right.

The third question was asked, Davis got it right, while his competitor missed it. And just like that, he was the geography bee state champion with and all expense paid a trip to Washington D.C., for himself and one of his parents.

The trip is paid for by the National Geographic Society and the national competition will take place May 19-22.

To prepare for Nationals, Davis will continue to use the GeoBee app, a big atlas he won at state and look through the GeoBee website.

He’s excited about the trip and the competition, but said it still hasn’t sunk in that he’s going and it probably won’t until he gets there.

The winner of Nationals will receive a $25,000 scholarship, lifetime membership to National Geographic Society, and a trip to the Galapagos Islands. Second place receives $10,000 and third place gets $5,000. The top 10 finalists will each receive $1,000.