Questions like this and many more will be the focus of heated competition on Friday, April 4, when student geography whizzes across the United States and U.S. territories go head-to-head in state-level Geographic Bees, competing for spots in May's national competition.
HSU Geography Professor Stephen Cunha will lead the California state finals at Cosumnes River College in Sacramento, when Jacoby Creek Elementary eighth-grader Sam Torgerson will represent Humboldt County and compete as one of the 100 state finalists.
Local students are given an intellectual edge thanks to after school geography clsses led by students from HSU's Department of Geography. Additionally professors from the department, including Professors Cunha, Joe Leeper, Dennis Fitzsimons and Joy Adams, moderate annual bees on the local level.
Students who make it to the state level will vie for a chance at an all-expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C. and a shot at the grand prize, a $25,000 scholarship and lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society.
The championship round of the National Geographic Bee -- moderated by "Jeopardy!" quiz show host Alex Trebek for the 20th year -- will be held at National Geographic's Washington , D.C. headquarters on Wednesday, May 21 and will air nationally on the National Geographic Channel.
So how would you fare as a Bee contestant? At the school-level Bee this year, students had to answer such questions as:
A Mediterranean climate occurs in only one state in the United States. Name this coastal state.
(Answer: California)
Name the major river that flows through Turkey and Syria before joining the Tigris River in Iraq.
(Answer: Euphrates River)
The region of Alsace-Lorraine has changed hands four times since 1870 between France and what other country, which occupied the area during most of World War II?
(Answer: Germany)
Oh and the answer to that first question, about the alpaca producing nation, that's Peru.