United States Geography Olympiad

The United States Geography Olympiad (USGO) is a nationwide academic geography competition for primary and secondary school students in the United States. It was introduced during the 2012-2013 school year. It currently consist of approximately 105 National Qualifying Exam sites held around the United States and its territories, along with a certain number of international schools, and a National Championships held in Arlington, VA at the end of April. The National Qualifying Exam sites are held in conjunction with the high school-level regional and state tournaments of The National History Bee and The National History Bowl.

The United States Geography Olympiad is also the official qualifying competition for American students looking to qualify for the International Geography Olympiad, an international geography competition, which is held every summer in a different country. The international competition consists of three parts: a written test, a multimedia test and some fieldwork-related activity. James Mullen of Cupertino, CA, won the 2014 International Geography Olympiad while the USA finished 10th out of 36 countries overall.

The United States Geography Olympiad currently includes two categories: a Junior Varsity category and a Varsity category. For each academic school year, students who are younger than 16 years of age, as of July 1 of the summer following the school year, can participate in the Junior Varsity category - there is no younger age limit. Students who are 16 or older (up to 19), as July 1 of the summer following the school year, must participate in the Varsity category. Only students in the Varsity category are eligible to qualify for the US National Team which will participate during that summer in the International Geography Olympiad.

The US Geography Olympiad is not associated with National Geographic or the National Geographic Bee.

History of the competition

The US Geography Olympiad was founded in the summer of 2012 under the name "United States Geography Challenge" by David Madden and Enrico Contolini. David Madden is a former 19-day champion on Jeopardy!, who also serves as Executive Director for both The National History Bee and The National History Bowl. Enrico Contolini is an engineer and self-taught geography enthusiast and researcher who coached his daughter Isabella to be the top female student nationally in the National Geographic Bee in both 2010 and 2011. The name of the competition was changed to the United States Geography Olympiad in October 2013.

Along with acting as the qualifying competition for American students looking to attend the International Geography Olympiad, the US Geography Olympiad was founded to test the geography skills of American students and to help promote geography education. The competition aims to reward students who have devoted themselves to studying the world, and its countries and peoples, as a thorough knowledge of geography is essential to being an educated citizen today. The US Geography Olympiad aims at being more than a competition, and for this reason it also runs a USGeoChallenge Facebook page where geography-related articles and news, quizzes, links to relevant websites and blogs are posted on a regular bases to foster educational discussions and opportunities for those interested in geography as a subject.

Format of the competition

The Regional and/or State Qualifying event is currently organized as a 50 multiple-choice question written test to be completed in 20 minutes. Students may take the Qualifying Exam up to three times, as three different versions of the Exam are offered at different regional tournaments. To qualify for Nationals, students must finish in either the top half of the students in their division (Varsity or JV) at their site, or in the top 50% of students taking that particular version of the Qualifying Exam nationally. The national competition currently consists of two parts: • A Multi-Media multiple choice Exam, similar but shorter to the one used at the International Geography Olympiad • A buzzer-based Geography Quiz Tournament. These questions will be written by High School Academic Pyramid Questions, an outside company specializing in providing comprehensive, paragraph-length quiz questions.

US Geography Olympiad National Champions

Varsity Division Champions

Year Varsity Winner School State
2013 Anton Karpovich Illinois Math and Science Academy  Illinois
2014 Anton Karpovich Illinois Math and Science Academy  Illinois
2015 Kevin Li Westview High School  California
2016 Eugene Wang BASIS Tucson North  Arizona

Junior Varsity Division Champions

Year JV Winner School State
2013 Abhinav Kurada Advanced Math and Science Academy  Massachusetts
2014 Abhinav Kurada Advanced Math and Science Academy  Massachusetts
2015 Karan Menon John Adams Middle School  New Jersey
2016 Kyle Yu Westlake High School  Ohio

Middle School Division Champions

Year Middle School Winner School State
2015 John Phipps Middlesex Middle School  Connecticut

Elementary Division Champions

Year Elementary Winner School State
2015 Rohil Bhinge Nysmith School  Virginia

World Champions at the International Geography Olympiad from the USA

Year Champion School State
2014 James Mullen Monta Vista High School  California

References

    External links

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