Student shows off world knowledge
By: Nick D’Amore
Skanda Amarnath knows a lot about the world.
He proved it April 5 when he placed sixth in the state National Geography Bee, competing against 102 other students from around the state, mostly in seventh and eighth grade.
Skanda is a fifth-grader at the Upper Elementary School.
"As soon as I got about four questions right, I stopped being nervous," he said.
The bee was held at Rutgers University in New Brunswick and was open to students at the middle school level. Skanda was the only the fifth-grader in the state to finish in the top 10, along with one seventh-grader and eight eighth-graders.
Skanda’s interest in geography dates back to when he was 3 or 4 years old.
"My sister was learning the 50 state capitals and I learned them with her," he said, adding that his parents encouraged him to pursue his interest.
"I got more interested. I look at the atlas and my world facts book," he said.
At the bee, each student was allowed to miss two questions, which ranged from United States historical and economic geography to current events, land forms and bodies of water.
The two questions he got wrong were: "Which sea is the Greek island of Rhodes located?" (Aegean) and "Which Caribbean country was the first to gain independence?" (Jamaica)
However, Skanda said he nailed the much harder question, "Which desert in South Africa is the largest?" He correctly answered the Kalahari.
In order to compete in the bee, Skanda first had to compete in qualifying rounds at UES.
Gerilyn Anuario, a sixth-grade teacher at UES in charge of the school’s geography competition, said each unit competed and the winners from each took a written test. Those who scored among the highest compared with other students throughout the nation, which included Skanda, then went on to try out for the state competition.
He said to go to the state competition, students were required to answer eight of eight questions correctly.
"Only 10 students total could go to the final round and 15 had qualified, so they had a tie-breaker. Eight students were already in, so there were seven people going for two spots," he said.
Skanda won his spot by answering correctly that Nigeria was the African country with the largest population.
He said he is not sure how he is able to retain all the facts he learns.
"I just remember them."
He said he also reads the newspaper frequently, "but mostly the sports section."