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Advanced GeoMentor and GeoTests are complete!
Advanced GeoMentor and GeoTests is a challenging package of more advanced questions and software that reflect the multi-layering techniques that students will face in the final rounds of the National Geographic Bee. It is in fill-in-the-blank and like all of our other software, it will track the progress of up to 20 students. These questions are filled with clues that students may want to further research to expand upon their subject knowledge.
Visualize World Geography: Geography can be fun! "Pack it Stan," says Stan the duck's mother. So Stan dutifully puts on his Afghan and heads off. Afghanistan is indeed north of, or "on," Pakistan, and Pakistan does look somewhat like a duck. These types of visuals and mnemonic devices help students picture the world. Questions and activities reinforce lessons. This book is perfect for both elementary and middle schoolers who have an interest in geography and a desire to know where places are in the world.
Visualize World Geography - $35
GeoMentor: Our Foundations-level of interactive software contains 1,000 questions grouped by topic into 12 sets. Categories range from Terms, Physical Geography, Mental Maps, and Capitals of States and Countries, to more difficult topics like U.S. Geography and World Facts. The software will track the progress of 20 students at a time and flag missed questions for each student. Many of these questions were used by Bonny Jain, who was the National Geography Bee Champion in 2006, and by Akshay Rajagopal, who was the 2008 Champion.
Our Advanced-level product contains 500 challenging questions, most of which are the multi-layered variety found at the upper levels of Geography competitions. All continents are covered, including the Oceans and Poles. These questions were co-written by a former National Geographic Bee researcher and our resident expert at Hexco.
GeoTests: The same 1,000 questions in our Foundations GeoMentor and 500 questions from our Advanced GeoMentor are available in printed form. Not all students learn in the same manner, and pencil and paper is just another method used by students to help them master material in their own way. The lightweight written format also makes it convenient to carry on road trips. The material can be used by homeschool students to augment a geography curriculum and also as a source of trivia in family games. Geography can be fun!
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What is a multi-layered question and how do you answer it?
The National Geographic Bee is for the elite competitor. These participants have long passed the "What is the longest river in South America?" stage. Knowing the answer to this type of question is needed for a solid geographic base, but it will take more than that to succeed at the higher rungs of competition since the questions at this level are multi-layered. Our GeoMentor/Foundations will help build the foundation, and our GeoMentor/Advanced will greatly expand on that foundation. Most of the questions in the Advanced collection will be multi-layered and require some analysis on the part of the student seeking the correct answer. These books and software volumes are excellent tools for National Geographic Bee study.
So what is a multi-layered question? It is a question that contains two or more elements that provide clues to the answer. In many of these questions, the information builds in such a way that while each piece might have multiple answers, when combined, they lead to one conclusion. For others, all of the pieces can individually lead to the right conclusion but they are more obscure facts that require in-depth knowledge of a particular subject.
Let’s take a look at a question based on one asked in the 2008 Geographic Bee.
What country lies east of Iran and is home to the city of Balkh, where it is believed that the 13th century Persian poet, Rumi, was born?
~ Clue 1: "lies east of Iran" - Students should be able to mentally picture the region of Iran and the countries around it. While many countries lie "east of Iran" the most likely candidates are Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. Nepal and China are possibilities at this time also, albeit more remote.
~ Clue 2: "13th century Persia"- Ancient Persia covered a large area that encompassed Iran plus parts of what is now Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, roughly 2/3rds of Afghanistan, and about 1/3rd of Pakistan. Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are north, and the question states "east," so they are not possibilities. This also rules out India, Nepal and China since they were not a part of 13th century Persia.
Students are now left with two countries to choose from, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Percentage-wise, since Afghanistan covers a larger portion of former Persia than Pakistan, that might be a better choice, if you do not recognize the other two clues and have to "guess." Still, a student with this basic knowledge of maps and history has significantly improved their odds from 20% to 50%.
~ Clues 3 & 4: "city of Balkh" and "Persian poet Rumi" - Two specific but obscure facts; the knowledge of either will direct a student to the correct answer. Do you know where the city of Balkh is? Do you know from what country the poet Rumi hales? If you don’t know the answer to one, you may know the answer to the other – Afghanistan.
Multi-layered questions can involve detailed knowledge of a narrow subject (Persian poets or Afghan cities then and now) or broad knowledge from multiple subjects (general history, maps, languages -- for place names). Students must quickly identify the pieces/layers of the question and be able to analyze and organize each piece to solve the puzzle in 15 seconds. This is not an easy feat, but it can be done with a solid knowledge foundation, and practice.
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We are excited about this new area of expansion.
If you have any suggestions, or a wish list, please let us know.
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