Westchase Youth a National Geographic Bee Semifinalist

Where in the world is Independent Day School-Corbett Campus eighth grader Matheus Caldeira?

On March 30, the Westchase teen, will be in Jacksonville for the state-level round of the National Geographic Bee.

Matheus is one of only 100 students from across Florida to qualify as a semifinalist for the national competition.

Following a preliminary bee that involved all IDS-CC middle schoolers, Matheus and 10 other students competed in a school-level bee. The final question in the championship round of that competition was "Timbuktu, a center of caravan trade for almost a thousand years, is located north of the Niger River in which landlocked country?" By correctly answering "Mali," Matheus won the opportunity to take a 70-question test, which served as the qualifying round for the state bee.

One winner from each state/territory will advance to national competition at the National Geographic's headquarters in Washington, D.C. May 22 to 24. The top prize is a $25,000 and an all-expense-paid trip to the Galapagos Islands.

According to IDS-CC middle school social studies teacher Stephen Shoe, the purpose of the National Geographic Bee is to encourage the study and teaching of geography. Questions at all levels of the bee address the subject in its broadest sense. "They can cover anything from physical to human geography, from continents and resources to geopolitical events," said Mr. Shoe. "So to prepare, students need to study essentially anything and everything."

One of the things Matheus is doing to get ready for the state competition is creating top 10 lists: the top ten rivers in terms of length and outflow, the top 10 highest mountain peaks on each continent and the longest mountain ranges, the top 10 global economies, and more. He's also staying abreast of current events around the globe and working through geography bee study guides.

"I have always loved geography," said Matheus, whose parents originally are from Brazil, so he grew up speaking Portuguese at home. "The first book in English that I could easily read was an atlas. I was really intrigued by the all the maps and the different physical features of countries, the capitals and the coastlines."

Geography is about power of place, said Mr. Shoe.

"It's how people live, and why people live a certain way is impacted by where they live," he said. "So when we teach geography, we're teaching students to be open minded and to understand and appreciate how diverse life around the globe can be."

Matheus agrees.

"Geography is important because we need to know why people and countries act the way they do," he said. "Then we can work together to solve the world's challenges."

For Matheus, however, the first step of that challenge is the state geography bee at the end of the month.