Manchester Middle School Student Participates in National Geographic Bee State Semifinals

Thousands of schools from around the United States take part in the National Geographic Bee challenge each year.  

This year, Wesley Cheng, an eighth grade student at Manchester Middle School, advanced to the National Geographic Bee New Jersey State Semifinals.

According to the National Geographic Bee website, the bee is “designed to encourage teachers to include geography in their classrooms, spark student interest in the subject, and increase public awareness about geography.” 

Cheng competed against all Manchester Middle School students in grades 6-8.  After a 7-round preliminary competition in every social studies class, the top ten students from the school vied for the school championship.  Cheng was named the school champion, securing him a place to take the National Geographic Bee written qualifying test.

“Having achieved one of the top 100 scores [on the written test] in New Jersey, Wesley was then invited to compete for the state championship at Rowan University,” said Patricia Pontus-Martin, Geographic Bee Coordinator for the Middle School. 

Pontus-Martin said that she is happy to have Manchester Middle School represented at the National Geographic Bee State Semifinals.

“During the time in which I've been the school Geographic Bee coordinator, we have had about five students qualify for the state Bee, but Wesley is our first state qualifier in about nine or 10 years, so this is extremely exciting,” she said.

At the state-level bee, the 100 state semifinalist students were divided into five groups and they participated in eight rounds of questioning.  The semifinalists with the 10 highest scores in the groups then competed in the final round to determine the top three winners.

”Wesley enjoyed the state-level Bee but unfortunately did not make it to the final ten. But we are extremely proud of him in any case,” Pontus-Martin added.

“I am thrilled with Wesley's success both in Manchester and in competing outside of the school.  I am sure he will do very well next year when he graduates to high school,” said Kelley Callahan, eighth grade teacher at Manchester Middle School.

“I'm very proud and happy to have a student represent Manchester Middle School at the state level of the Bee.  It gives our school certain bragging rights, not unlike an athletic team making it into a state final. Unfortunately, there seem to be far fewer academic competitions available, so it's nice to be represented in one of the very few out there,” Pontus-Martin said.

This year, to prepare for the bee, Cheng studied a variety of topics in social studies class. Callahan explained that the class “does a lot of work with atlases to better their geography” skills.

Cheng was recently student of the month and has been called “very intelligent” by Callahan. 

“He has done a wonderful job each marking period," she said. "He always comes to class eager to participate and learn something new. Wesley is also an example for other students in the class. He is always willing to help others and works nicely independently but also is respectful to his peers when completing group work.”