Central Middle School Students Compete in GeoBee Competition

One of the world's largest producers of nutmeg includes a clove of the spice on its national flag. Name this Caribbean island country.

• Grenada
• Jamaica
• Cuba

This is one of the kinds of questions Parsippany students had to answer on Wednesday.

Central MS held a school-wide National Geography Bee and here are your winners:

• Sejal Murthy – 7th Grade in 1st Place
• Kyle Colntaldi — 7th Grade Student in 2nd Place
• Vince Colantoni — 6th Grade Student in 3rd Place

The entire school participated in class and then 10 students, one from each social studies teacher's class, competed against each other. Not only did Murthy win, she won a chance at a $50,000 college scholarship, said Casey Maass, Lead Teacher of Social Studies at Central Middle School. Louis Maccarella, 8th grade social studies teacher, was the moderator of the GeoBee.

“The school-level Bee, at which students answered oral questions on geography, was the first round in the 26th annual National Geographic Bee,” said Maass. “The school winners, including Murthy, will now take a written test; up to 100 of the top scorers on that test in each state will then be eligible to compete in their state Bee April 4, 2014.” 

Thousands of schools around the United States and in the five U.S. territories participate in the National Geography Bee 

The National Geographic Society will provide an all –expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C., for state champions and teacher-escorts to participate in the Bee national championship rounds May 19-21, 2014. Scholarships of $50,000, $15,000 and $10,000 will be given in the national championship rounds. 

The first-place national winner will receive a $50,000 college scholarship, a lifetime membership in the Society, and a trip to the Galapagos Islands, courtesy of Lindbald Expeditions and National Geographic. This year’s Bee is sponsored by Google.

By the way, the correct answer above is Grenada.