Students qualify for Idaho Geographic Bee
What country is bordered by the Gulf of Gdansk to the north and the Carpathian Mountains to the south?
The Parthenon is an ancient temple on the Acropolis, a hill overlooking what European capital city?
Carson Sink, Black Rock Desert and Yucca Flats are physical features found in which arid state?
Local geography buffs from fourth to eighth grade answered these and other questions correctly, qualifying for the 2006 Idaho Geographic Bee.
In Kootenai County, they are:
“ Benjamin Ferguson, fifth-grader at Borah Elementary;
“ Caleb Ranum, fifth-grader at Dalton Elementary;
“ Cassidy Miller, sixth-grader at Athol Elementary;
“ Jared Raynor, sixth-grader at Canfield Middle School;
“ Jesse Wedewer, sixth-grader at Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy;
“ Joe Givens, seventh-grader at Lakes Middle School;
“ Jennifer Kiesewetter, seventh-grader at Holy Family Catholic School;
“ Jacob Minter, eighth-grader at Lakeland Junior High School;
“ Scott Watford, eighth-grader at Woodland Middle School.
These kids are headed to Boise for the competition Friday. The state winner receives a $100 award and will go onto the national competition in Washington, D.C., in late May. The winner of that contest receives a $25,000 college scholarship.
To test your own geography knowledge, visit www.nationalgeographic.com/geobee.
(The answers to the above questions are: Poland; Athens and Nevada.)
Atlas gets grant
Atlas Elementary is one of 20 schools or community centers across the nation to receive a $5,000 grant from Nickelodeon for February.
The monthly giveaway is part of a program the television network started three years ago to help improve playground facilities and encourage physical activity among kids.
Atlas physical education teacher Todd Davis is excited.
He has a right to be. The grant money is 20 times what the school normally allots for physical education in a year.
Davis hopes to use the money for a climbing wall, indoor bowling equipment, tennis rackets and balls, Ping-Pong tables, scooters, lacrosse equipment, Frisbee golf equipment and orienteering equipment.
Children can enter their school or community center into the giveaway by visiting: www.nick.com/myworld/letsjustplay/giveaway.jhtml. Winners will be randomly selected every month until June.
Christian schools moving
Two local Christian schools are moving to new locations next year.
Classical Christian Academy will be leasing space from North Country Chapel on Seltice Way. The nondenominational school will also be adding a grade, making it a K-11 institution.
Post Falls Christian Academy, also a nondenominational school, plans to buy land at Cecil Road and Poleline Avenue. For next year, it will rent that area from the Seventh-day Adventist Church and put in a modular building to house its middle school. In the meantime, its elementary students will be housed at Challenger Christian Day School at Seltice Way and Chase Road. The school won’t be teaching high schoolers next year.